Wolf, No Wolf: A Gabriel Du Pre Mystery: Amazon.ca: Peter Bowen: Books

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Gabriel Du Pre (introduced in Bowen's two earlier books, Coyote Wind and Specimen Song) is fiddling for a crowd of dancers in the Toussaint Bar when strange news arrives: someone has cut the fences of several Montana ranchers and shot their cattle. Environmental protesters are suspected. But when the protesters are shot and burned in their cars, Du Pre must look for answers -- hindered by the FBI and by a winter storm that buries evidence and nearly buries him as well. Mingling Indian lore, humor, and a feel for the West, Wolf, No Wolf is a potential crime classic. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A careful and sympathetic reading of this third in Bowen's original yet uneven Gabriel Du Pre series (after Coyote Wind and Specimen Song) may bring small rewards. On the other hand, traditional mystery fans will wish that Bowen had imposed a tighter sense of order on the seemingly random body count draped across this loose narrative. Du Pre, a Metis Indian, talks somewhere between Tonto and Justin Wilson on PBS, plays a mean Cajun fiddle and occasionally takes on the mantle of sheriff's deputy in rural Montana. The area is experiencing growing pains as New Agers and yuppies come prospecting for meaning in the landscape. Environmentalists clash with ranchers, people are murdered, news cameras arrive and the FBI sticks its big federal nose into an area notorious for its suspicions of big government. Du Pre is so implausibly heroic, tough and romantic here that he will remind cynical readers of a vigorously sensitive leading character penned by Robert James Waller. All this would be forgivable if the plot held together, but Bowen struggles with his frontier metaphors, adding shamanism and ritual killing to the mix and generally failing to clarify the mechanics of so many deaths, which are hard to keep track of through the scrim of Du Pre's smug manliness.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars The Ranchers side of the story, Aug 8 2001

By

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Wolf, No Wolf (Paperback)

"Wolf, No Wolf" will never make the Sierra Club's list of recommended reading. It is third in a series of mysteries starring Gabriel Du Pré, the Métis descendant of French Voyageurs and Plains Indians, and it is rabidly anti-environmentalist and pro-rancher.

Rabid or not, such is the power of Bowen's writing and the nobility of his characters that even clean, green bunny-huggers (like me) might end up voting for the ranchers and against the re-introduction of wolves into Big Sky Country at story's end.

All of the regulars at Touissant Bar are part of the action in "Wolf, No Wolf." Du Pré, master fiddler and part-time brand inspector is cast in the role of peacemaker. With help from his friends, the Shaman Benetsee, Bart the rich-guy-turned-sheriff, Du Pré's long-time mistress, Madelaine, and Booger Tom, the ancient, homicidal cowhand, he braves avalanches, gunfire, and false medicine men in order to prevent open warfare between the ranchers and the Earth First! crowd.

There are good ranchers, and there are really evil ranchers who sell dead horses for dogmeat.

There are good FBI agents (not very many) who are either Montanans and/or part Amerindian. The vast majority of agents are feeble, clueless, and from out-of-state. Some of them are so dim-witted as to try and arrest the Shaman Benetsee, who plays a wonderful joke on them with his coyotes. (A previous reviewer compared Benetsee to Yoda. Boys and girls, that reviewer was dead-on. Lucasfilm� should take Peter Bowen to court for kidnapping.)

All of the environmentalists, New Age mystics, and Yuppies in "Wolf, No Wolf" are easily identified by their expensive, crassly-colored, mail-order garments of many pockets. They are even dumber than the FBI agents, and are easily led astray, even unto death, by the book's true evil empire (sorry, Lucasfilm�).

And die they do, by avalanche and grizzly, by gunshot and knife, and by freezing to death in Alberta Clippers. The ranchers rescue as many as they can, but winter in Montana is truly hell-frozen-over. Some of Bowen's leanest, most vivid prose is devoted to descriptions of out-landers and cattle that venture out into the jaws of a Blue Northerly.

Better to stay in the Touissant Bar and drink fizzy, pink, screw-top wine, and listen to Du Pré fiddle the sad, old Voyageur songs.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Gabriel Du Pre is fascinating, unique, one of the best ever., Mar 6 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Wolf, No Wolf (Paperback)

If you like Dick Francis, you'll love Peter Bowen. Gabriel Du Pre, a Montana Metis, is more woodswise than Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon, tougher than sun-shrunk rawhide, and thoroughly believable. Peter Bowen has captured the fiery independence of the REAL rural west

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Amazon.com: 4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars The Ranchers side of the story, Aug 8 2001

By E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" - Published on Amazon.com