1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Your babies are safe.", Mar 3 2006
By Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Notches: A Gabriel Du Pre Mystery (Hardcover)
In Notches, Peter Bowen does something that he will never repeat. He mixes his normal light touches and Metís culture with a chilling story of a chase to stop not one, but two serial killers from continuing to reap pain and horror on paths that crisscross the U.S., but touch base near Toussaint, Montana far to often. The result of this conflict between people who love to live, and the litanty of those who must die is unnerving.
Gabriel Duprés is a Metís - his blood is a mix of Indian tribes, French and British blood, a reflection of the history of the Northern U.S. and Canada. He is a cattle inspector turned homicide investigator in a little town where the sheriff throws up at the sight of blood. Death happens all the time in Toussaint, but never like this, and Gabriel must step in to make sure the daughters of Toussaint can live without fear. It isn't a role Gabriel is comfortable with, he is no avenging angel, but everyone, from his woman, Madelaine, to the FBI are looking to him for a resolution.
Despite repeated trips to half-hidden burials, Bowen keeps Duprés' head up and his wry wit firing on all cylinders. Toussaint is a close community of the fiercely independent. This is something that Gabriel will find repeatedly is the real source of his power, not his consultations with Benetsee the shaman, who has a knack for disappearing at crucial moments.
But humor or no, Notches is a brooding story about human evil. Duprés does what he has to to stop the killings, but this is an uncomfortable resolution. Bowen puts of the ending for as long as possible and then rushes through it at such a rate that the reader may miss the turning point until it is too late. "You not like this at all," Madelaine tells Duprés. "If you did, I would not love you." Of all Bowen's stories, Notches is perhaps the strongest.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two-legged predators in a landscape from hell, May 25 2005
By E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Notches: A Gabriel Du Pre Mystery (Hardcover)
Du Pré, master fiddler and part-time brand inspector is cast in the role of hunter in "Notches" where he is asked to assist police on the trail of two serial killers.
There are good reasons why the police might not want Du Pré at the scene of a crime. He spits a lot as he circles the corpse, rolls his own cigarettes and mashes them out beneath his boot heel. A forensic specialist would find traces of him all over the scene. In "Notches," he even hides evidence because he wants to track a killer without interference from the FBI.
On the plus side, nothing at the scene escapes him. If he is called in to examine one body, he may find two others near by that no one else has noticed--which is exactly what occurs in "Notches." Someone has been killing girls and dumping them "like old guts in the brush for the coyotes to eat," according to Du Pré's long-time mistress, Madelaine.
There are two serial killers on the loose in "Notches" which makes for a confusing plot. There are also two FBI agents who add to the scenery, but don't do much more than engage in slanging matches with Du Pré. Madelaine finally presses Du Pré into tracking the killers down when her own daughter runs away from home.
Du Pré is laconic to the point of partial sentences, but the interrupted staccato of his speech is a perfect counterpoint to the harsh Montana landscape and to the sometimes abbreviated lives of its inhabitants. Over 150 corpses form an even grimmer than usual backdrop to Du Pré's musings on the long history of his people and the land.
"Notches" is not so much a murder mystery as it is a complex landscape of hell from the pen of a Montanan Hieronymus Bosch.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A lawman must think like a serial killer to catch him, Feb 20 1997
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Notches: A Gabriel Du Pre Mystery (Hardcover)
A young, female corpse without her jaw and teeth is found along the side of the Hi-Line near Toussaint, Montana. The identity of the victim cannot be determined due to the mutilation of the body. Soon more corpses show up in the same mutilated shape. FBI agent Harvey Wallace obtains Du Pre's help to catch a couple of killers, who have murdered girls throughout Canada and the U.S. for too many years.
Making the deaths and subsequent investigation even more personal, Du Pre's lover Madelaine finds her own daughter missing. Du Pre promises to do everything he can to find the Hi-Line killer(s). To do so, he must learn to think like a serial killer, but pray what he learns does not become an intricate part of his persona. His most fervent hope is that he stops the killers before there are additional victims.
NOTCHES is an interesting mystery for fans who enjoy superb characterization. Du Pre is a great protagonist and his support cast are top rate characters, and no one brings Montana more alive then Peter Bowen. However, the simple identification of the two killers add nothing to the who-done-it; thereby leaving fans of that sub-genre looking elsewhere for their reading material.
Harriet Klausner
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