Notches (Montana Mysteries) [Paperback]

Peter Bowen (Author), George Witte (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998 | Series: Montana Mysteries

The gruesome corpse of a young woman is found beside a long Montana highway called the Hi-Line. Her jaw and teeth are missing, and she is impossible to identify. Full of anger and without a clue, Du Pre begins to hunt the countryside for her murderer. As more dismembered corpses - all young women - are discovered, the small ranching community goes into shock. Madelaine, Du Pre's fierce and wise lover, makes him swear that he will do justice for the victims, whatever it takes. When Madelaine's own daughter goes missing, Du Pre becomes desperate for a clue. He cannot decipher the mysterious messages the Hi-Line Killer places in his murder scenes. Thinking like a hunter, Du Pre must imagine how a serial killer's mind works - and explore the troubling evidence that there might be two of them.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Mass Market Paper; Reprint edition (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312964927
• ISBN-13: 978-0312964924
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #495,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pret' good stuff that Bowen write. Make me want more., December 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Notches (Montana Mysteries) (Paperback)

Think Tony Hillerman liberally peppered with Cajun Hot sauce. After reading all the Montana mysteries now, I feel at home in Toussaint, Montana with Gabriel Du Pre, his rough-around-the-edges but sweetheart Madelaine; sobered up rich-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold Bart; crusty old Booger Tom; Benny and Susan Klein; Benetsee that shaman he remind me of Yoda and the rest of the rural Montana populace. If you're not careful you'll catch yourself thinking and talking with that DuPre Coyote French Metis clip. These are unique personalities with real voices that Bowen has pieced together. I feel as if I know them....like I want to hang with them at the bar and be there when Gabriel gets his fiddle out and makes that Metis music that draws the crowd and brings back the voyageurs; be around when the next bad thing happens and draws Gabriel and the others into figuring out whodunit. This is original work that's refreshing, honest, beautifully crafted and fun to read. I hope that Bowen he's home right now writing more mysteries from Montana.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GABRIEL DU PRE, THE METIS AVENGING ANGEL, March 28, 2001

By 

Kenri A. Mugleston - See all my reviews

This review is from: Notches (Montana Mysteries) (Paperback)

Gabriel DuPre is my hero. He says and does what he wants and doesn't care what anybody thinks, he is his own man. When the mutilated and tortured bodies of several young girls and women start turning up around Toussaint, Montana, the FBI calls on Gabriel to help them solve the cases. Madelaine, Gabriel's spitfire of a girlfriend, adds fuel to the fire by telling Gabriel to find the killer and protect her girls.

Even if you don't agree with everything that Gabriel believes in or does, he will make you think. You will love this book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On the track of two killers, November 30, 2003

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: Notches (Montana Mysteries) (Paperback)

"Notches" is the fourth mystery in Bowen's series that features Gabriel Du Pré, Métis descendant of the French Voyageurs and Plains Indians.

There are reasons 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, who after all is said and done isn't even a policeman, merely a part-time brand inspector. 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. This book is not so much a murder mystery as it is a complex landscape of hell from the pen of a Montanan Hieronymus Bosch.