Notches: A Gabriel Du Pre Mystery [Hardcover]

Peter Bowen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1997

As gruesomely dismembered corpses of young women are discovered one after another in his small Montana ranching town, Gabriel Du Pre angrily begins the hunt for a murderer and finds that he must try to think like the serial killer in order to catch him.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Relying on intuition as much as hard evidence, Gabriel Du Pré turns his trained eye on the trail of the monster, or monsters, responsible for a horrific string of murders in Montana. The initial clues are few, and identification is impossible because the victims--all young women--were discovered with their lower jaws and teeth removed. The case hits close to home when the daughter of Du Pré's lover, Madelaine, turns up missing. Working with G-man Harvey Wallace, Du Pré begins, almost unconsciously at first, to mirror the patterns of a serial killer in a desperate attempt to prevent another death, knowing too well that his descent into madness could have a profound and permanent effect. Notches is the fourth book in a series of Du Pré mysteries in which Peter Bowen infuses elements of Indian folklore into his sparse writing style to create deep characters who reveal much in few words.

From Booklist

In the Montana backcountry, near the village of Toussaint, a serial killer is very busy. Part-time country deputy Gabe Du Pre, a descendant of Native Americans and French mountain men, is deeply offended. His ability to reduce the most complex issues into clearly defined motives makes him an invaluable--if unconventional--detective, but these crimes defy understanding. Aiding Du Prein his investigation is FBI agent Anna Pidgeon, who complements Gabe's instinctual, hunterlike approach with forensic psychology. Flowing around the case are the supporting characters and atmospheric elements that Du Prefans have come to love: Gabe's strong-willed, sexy wife, Madelaine; the well-meaning but marginally competent sheriff Benny; the Indian mystic Benetsee; and the beer-soaked milieu at the Toussaint Saloon, where Gabe indulges his taste for fiddle music and hand-rolled smokes. Boasting one of the most arresting narrative voices in contemporary crime fiction, the Gabe Du Preseries, now in its fourth installment, is on the verge of major commercial success. Wes Lukowsky

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 196 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (February 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312151810
• ISBN-13: 978-0312151812
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,211,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Your babies are safe.", March 3, 2006

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 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" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 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, February 20, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: 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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