If you’re as excited as we are for the return of Tracy Spiridakos to our screens, then you probably want to know everything about her USA Network series Anna Pigeon. And one of the main questions swirling around is Anna Pigeon based on a book? It is!
This series is an adaptation of the award-winning mystery series by Nevada Barr. In the books, Anna Pigeon is a National Park Ranger who travels the country solving mysteries in the wilderness and historic locales. And according to Goodreads, Barr draws inspiration from her own time as a park ranger.
MORE: Interested in learning more about the cast of Anna Pigeon? We’ve got you covered!
The Anna Pigeon book series has 19 books as of 2016. The first book, titled Track of the Cat, was published in 1993. In that book, “Fleeing New York to find refuge as a ranger in the remote backcountry of West Texas, Anna Pigeon stumbles into a web of violence and murder when fellow park ranger Sheila Drury is mysteriously killed and another ranger vanishes.”
What’s really interesting about the books is the different locations Anna visits and ends up being wrapped up in a mystery. In Endangered Species she’s marooned on Cumberland Island National Seashore when a drug prevention plane crashes and she’s on the case. In Hunting Season she’s investigating a murder at Mississippi’s Natchez Trace National Parkway. And then at one point she ends up at Rocky Mountain National Park in Hard Truth, where three young girls have gone missing.
The point being, USA network is trying to get back into serialized TV like it used to do back in the day with Queen of the South, Suits, and Psych. So you don’t bring someone like Spiridakos to play a “former city slicker who became a park ranger after a devastating loss changed the trajectory of her life forever” unless you plan of having multiple seasons with the Chicago P.D. alum.
So does Anna Pigeon the series plan to follow in the books footsteps faithfully and take her to multiple national parks? We sure hope so! It would be a refreshing take and we’d get to see some of the really beautiful parks all over the U.S. Also, it would set this series apart from other shows that have taken a similar approach without putting undo strain on a national park for seasons on end.
Anna Pigeon premiere August 7th at 10 p.m. on USA Network.
