Nails (Gabriel Du Pre Mystery) [Hardcover]

Peter Bowen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2006 | Series: Gabriel Du Pre Mystery

When Gabriel Du Pré's precocious granddaughter Pallas returns from her studies in Washington, D.C., the entire clan in Toussaint, Montana, is happy to see her. Except Du Pré, that is, because the crotchety old fiddlin' cowboy knows that where Pallas goes, trouble is likely to follow.

A van full of praying, protesting fundamentalist Christians has arrived in Toussaint at just about the same time. A young soldier follows, just back from Iraq, missing a leg, an eye, and his grip on reality. Du Pré suspects that he's going to have his hands full for the foreseeable future.

Graffiti appears on the door of clumsy Father Van Den Heuvel's church, and a cryptic phone call from a missing girl causes concern in town. When a confluence of these strange events and even stranger people threatens problems that even laid-back Du Pré can't ignore, another quirky, compelling, and purely enjoyable mystery unfolds in Peter Bowen's Montana, a land trouble tends to visit often, with unpredictable but fiercely entertaining results.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 13th entry in Bowen's admirable, highly original Gabriel Du Pré series (after 2005's Stewball) features his most followable plot in years as well as unusually forthright social commentary on such topics as the war in Iraq, the evolution debate and the sort of religious fundamentalism that too often begets violence. Du Pré, a Métis Indian, ignores the speed limit, smokes hand-rolled cigarettes and drinks whisky like it was water. He also plays fiddle like an angel, takes care of his friends and defends the weak with equal passion. When the body of a child is found by the road and a colony of religious zealots moves into the Toussaint, Mont., area, Du Pré isn't the only one who suspects a connection, but he's the one who uncovers the truth, all of it framed in the deep-down sadness of a small town dying around the edges. Meandering through the core story line are sweet little storylets that don't go anywhere, but still make us smile. In addition, most of the oddball characters beloved by Bowen fans are on hand, as charming as ever. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gabe Du Pre is a retired Montana brand inspector (think cows), fiddler, guide, and amateur detective with a track record that would rival the most seasoned big-city homicide pros. In tiny Toussaint, on the edge of the Wolf Mountains, life chugs along, seemingly without incident but not without activity. Father Van Den Huevel, as clumsy as he is compassionate, needs a guide into the mountains to assuage his inner geologist. While escorting the good father, Gabe discovers the body of a young girl. Complicating the investigation is the arrival of a fundamentalist Christian sect intent on imposing its values on live-and-let-live Toussaint. The Du Pre mysteries never move directly from victim to killer, offering, instead, various side trips to ponder the puzzles of modern life such as preemptive war, religious zealotry, and, of course, the ever-baffling affairs of the heart. With Toussaint, Bowen has created a bawdy version of Brigadoon. The citizens in this burg may not disappear for 100 years at a time, as they do in the celebrated musical, but their adherence to the old ways is every bit as appealing and mystical. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (February 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312312075
• ISBN-13: 978-0312312077
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #868,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dying Place, April 24, 2006

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nails (Gabriel Du Pre Mystery) (Hardcover)

Peter Bowen alternates between serious detective fiction and a more lighthearted style the often makes gentle fun of life in upstate Montana. I like both, but lately Bowen has been more humor than mystery (consider Stewball, for instance). Nails is a return to the harder fiction style of Wolf, No Wolf and Notches and once again proves that Bowen is a writer to be reckoned with.

The subject is a touchy one. A group of Evangelical Christian has moved into the Toussaint area, and trouble starts happening. Graffiti starts appearing on the door of Father Van Den Heuvel's church. For those of us who have become fans of the clumsy priest who habitually shuts is head in the car door, Nails is a special treat. The good father gets a real part and some surprising facets of his character come out. But, as Van Den Heuvel himself points out, this is hardly the real problem.

A young girl calls 911 and begs for help, a body found, and gradually a series of strange events centers around the evangelicals and the local people who have welcomed them. Not just a spate of graffiti, pop-up sermons, and minor larceny - child abuse of the worst sort is feared, and Dupre is once again on the hunt - and complaining about the lack of help from Benetsee, the local shaman. Even without spiritual help, Dupre is inexorable. He smells evil and intends to root is out.

As I've already said, Bowen focuses on a sensitive issue, and he doesn't pull any punches. It is interesting that I read this book just as several stories about excessive discipline appeared in the news. Most of us don't realize that what we see - what actually gets report - is the very tip of the iceberg. Bowen takes the issue head on, mixing in enough local color to provide a stark contrast.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark as the world of man, March 23, 2006

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nails (Gabriel Du Pre Mystery) (Hardcover)

I'm not sure where Peter Bowen got the title for his latest Gabriel Du Pre mystery, but it might be from a poem by Dame Edith Sitwell:

"Still falls the Rain---
Dark as the world of man, black as our loss---
Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails
Upon the Cross."

Of course there are more nails now. More like 2006 in this grim Evangelical-bashing novel. Bowen doesn't go after all Christians: just the ones who accuse their own daughters of witchcraft and lock them in small rooms until they repent; and the ones who disrupt the teaching of science in schools with their rants on 'intelligent design'.

I'm surprised Pat Robertson hasn't issued a fatwa against the author of "Nails." Bowen tries to show sympathy for the down-trodden ranks of fundamentalists--the murder that is the grim centerpiece of this novel is committed almost by mistake. But maybe the author tries too hard, because the bad guys exude stupidity rather than pathos.

Aficionados of Peter Bowen's Gabriel Du Pre mysteries already know that life is grim in the Big Sky Country. It doesn't matter whether you're a ranch hand, a fiddler, a rich alcoholic, or just a science teacher who is struggling to educate her class using the standard textbooks.

The small town of Toussaint is slowly losing population--there's very little in town anymore except for a bar and a Catholic church--but an influx of fundamentalist Christians temporarily reverses the trend. Bowen's detective-hero, Gabriel Du Pre, a laconic fiddler who lets his music and his deeds speak for him, thinks the newcomers are up to no good. For one thing, their appearance coincides with the discovery of a young girl's body in a road-side ditch.

He and his long-time mistress, Madelaine, Metis descendants of the French Voyageurs and Plains Indians, also have to wrestle with a few family problems. Madelaine's son returns from the war in Iraq, minus a few body parts, with nothing to look forward to except the false solace of alcohol. Madelaine's brilliant granddaughter, Pallas is back from her posh Eastern school and trying to deal with her own demons.

"Nails" is the best of the Gabriel Du Pre mysteries to hit the shelves in quite awhile. It is grim, and I fervently hope that Bowen didn't take his story from a true-life incident, but some comic relief is provided by ancient cowhand, Booger Tom, his two mules, and the hopelessly klutzy, Father Van Den Heuvel, Toussaint's agnostic priest.

Just don't get Booger Tom started on the topic of the current Administration in Washington D.C.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars delightful thirteenth Big Sky thriller, February 25, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nails (Gabriel Du Pre Mystery) (Hardcover)

Métis Indian Gabriel Du Pre is happy his granddaughter Pallas is home even for a short visit while on hiatus from her studies in DC. Also back in Montana is Chappie, the son of Gabriel's friend. The lad lost a leg, an eye, and a wife while serving in Iraq; Du Pre thinks the veteran lost his mind too.

While the family reunions are going on, Pastor Flowers, a fundamentalist from Texas, and his extended family move into the area. Not long afterward, a young girl calls the cops asking for help as she is a runaway, but insists if they find her they will kill her. At the same time graffiti criticizing the local church ministered by Father Van den Huevel appears on the walls of that facility. As Du Pre, in between shots of whiskey and smoking his rolled cigarettes, and others search for the missing girl that he believes connects to the zealous religious fundamentalists who violently attack others with their my way is the only way theme.

Du Pre's latest Montana tale is a terrific thriller, but it is the tons of sidebars that reflect on many of today's issues such as the health of returning veterans from Iraq, a slowly dying small town, and religious fundamentalism that make the story line fascinating. For instance, the impact of real sacrifice (not BuSh claims of Americans giving up so much to support the war) on a solider in which the government fails to pay for an artificial leg - someone has to fund the tax cuts. Peter Bowen is at his best as he NAILS down much of what disturbs Americans with Du Pre's delightful thirteenth Big Sky thriller.

Harriet Klausner