Anna Pigeon, a
ranger for the U.S. Park Services, sets off on vacation—an autumn canoe
trip in the to the Iron Range in upstate Minnesota. With Anna is her
friend Heath, a paraplegic; Heath’s fifteen-year-old daughter,
Elizabeth; Leah, a wealthy designer of outdoor equipment; and her
daughter, Katie, who is thirteen. For Heath and Leah, this is a
shakedown cruise to test a new cutting edge line of camping equipment.
The equipment, designed by Leah, will make camping and canoeing more
accessible to disabled outdoorsmen.
On their second night out, Anna
goes off on her own for a solo evening float on the Fox River. When she
comes back, she finds that four thugs, armed with rifles, pistols, and
knives, have taken the two women and their teenaged daughters
captive. With limited resources and no access to the outside world, Anna
has only two days to rescue them before her friends are either killed
or flown out of the country, in Destroyer Angel by Nevada Barr.