Adventure fiction: Westerns

Book Synopsis“A terrific writer . . . Thunder Horse makes this reviewer want to race to the bookstore for the rest of the Gabriel Du PrÉ series” (Rocky Mountain News). Usually it takes more than one beer to make the Toussaint Saloon shake. When the earthquake hits, part-time deputy Gabriel Du PrÉ and his friends are lamenting the fishing resort a Japanese firm has planned for their small town. The floor trembles, the lights go out, and glass rains from the walls. When they emerge from the bar, they see a new landscape. Roads are mangled, mountains have shifted, and the spring where the Japanese businessmen had planned to build their resort is no more. In its place is an uprooted Indian burial ground—and a massive headache for Du PrÉ. As local Native American tribes fight over the ancient remains, a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth is found in the hands of a murdered anthropologist. Du PrÉ had just wanted a beer. Instead he found a murder sixty-five million years in the making.Thunder Horse is the 5th book in The Montana Mysteries Featuring Gabriel Du PrÉ series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.Trade Review“Strange, seductive . . . Haunting . . . The wonder of these voices is that they are also blunt and crude, soaked in whiskey and raspy from laughter, but still capable of leaving echoes.” —The New York Times Book Review “Seductive . . . blunt and crude, soaked in whisky and raspy from laughter, but still capable of leaving echoes.” —The New York Times “Idiosyncratic, convincing and marked by thoroughly distinctive rhythms of dialogue, Bowen’s Du Pré series claims unique territory in the genre.” —Publishers Weekly “Hilarious as the satire often is, what makes these stories so rare is the byplay among the natives. . . . Thunder Horse is a wise tale of the land that wears its idealism as casually as a pair of old jeans.” —The Washington Post Book World

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Book SynopsisA Montana deputy takes on a mining company that’s poisoning reservation children in a novel the Washington Post calls “wonderful [and] wise.” Something is rotten in the Fort Belknap Reservation. Life has always been tough on this barren stretch just south of the Canadian border, but now the children are getting sick. While playing his fiddle in a reservation bar, part-time deputy Gabriel Du PrÉ meets an accordionist who suspects the children’s health defects and low test scores are connected to pollution from the nearby Persephone gold mine. Meanwhile, Du PrÉ investigates the disappearance of one of the afflicted children. When the boy turns up dead, the accordionist’s theory gains credence. It wouldn’t be the first time the rich men of Montana found wealth at the expense of the reservation’s kids. But is there something more than greed and indifference at work? Something even more sinister? Du PrÉ will make it his business to find out. “In other hands, melodrama could easily rear its head and trample the scenery, but Bowen has a firm grip on his large cast of interesting players . . . [in this] tale of grace vs. greed” (Publishers Weekly).The Stick Game is the 7th book in The Montana Mysteries Featuring Gabriel Du PrÉ series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.Trade Review“In other hands, melodrama could easily rear its head and trample the scenery, but Bowen has a firm grip on his large cast of interesting players, and what emerges is something quieter and more believable: a poignant, often funny tale about grace vs. greed.” —Publishers Weekly “Bowen’s rock-hewn hero is a solid man with lusty appetites. . . . [Du Pré] rarely departs from the present tense of language—and of life.” —The New York Times “Wonderful . . . wise . . . Hilarious as the satire often is, what makes these stories so rare is the byplay among the natives.” —The Washington Post Book World

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Book SynopsisA deputy discovers Meriwether Lewis’s journal in this modern-day mystery by an author who “writes about the rural West better than anyone” (Rocky Mountain News). When he’s asked to serve as a consultant for a documentary about the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark’s expedition up the Missouri River, Gabriel Du PrÉ’s impulse is to flee. Eastern Montana isn’t accustomed to getting much attention, and its residents prefer it that way. But the director of the film is dating Du PrÉ’s daughter Maria, so this hard-bitten fiddler’s hands are tied. The MÉtis Indian lawman agrees to act as a guide and help the filmmakers navigate the river, which is as deadly now as it was in 1805. The Missouri has claimed nine lives in the past three years—a suspiciously high death toll the FBI wants Du PrÉ to investigate. While trolling the riverbanks, Du PrÉ stumbles upon a national treasure: Meriwether Lewis’s lost journals, which the American government will do anything to get back. Meanwhile, when members of the film crew start dying, Du PrÉ begins to wonder if the locals hate outsiders so much they might be willing to kill to keep them out. “Bowen’s exuberant storytelling mines the rich cultural history of the West . . . [and features] delightfully extravagant characters” (Publishers Weekly).Cruzatte and Maria is the 8th book in The Montana Mysteries Featuring Gabriel Du PrÉ series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.Trade Review“Bowen’s exuberant storytelling mines the rich cultural history of the West . . . [and features] delightfully extravagant characters.” —Publishers Weekly “Over eight outings now [Du Pré] continues a relentless march to his own drummer.” —Kirkus Reviews “Finely crafted Montana scenery.” —Library Journal

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Book SynopsisIn modern-day Montana, brushfires, meth dealers, and murder challenge a deputy in a mystery that’s “a pleasure to read” (Publishers Weekly). In the midst of a drought in Toussaint, Montana, MÉtis Indian tracker and cattle investigator Gabriel Du PrÉ learns that Maddy Collins has been killed—and goes looking for answers. Du PrÉ suspects a pair of boys who, despite their good upbringing, have fallen in with a gang of crystal meth dealers. Not long after the murder, they vanish. As the town is threatened by a forest fire, Du PrÉ puts his own life at risk to hunt for the two young men, not knowing whether they’re alive or dead. But if the inferno reaches Toussaint, no one will be safe.Ash Child is the 9th book in The Montana Mysteries Featuring Gabriel Du PrÉ series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order. Trade Review“[Du PrÉ’s] lusty appetites and salty speech account for the irresistible earthiness in Peter Bowen’s Montana mysteries.” —The New York Times “A pleasure to read.” —Publishers Weekly “Wonderful . . . wise . . . Hilarious.” —The Washington Post Book World “Bowen tells his story in short, perfectly crafted scenes. The dialogue, the relationships, the Montana landscape, and, most of all, the quirky and memorable characters are all matchlessly drawn.” —The Denver Post “[A] dazzling entry in a wonderful series . . . The Du PrÉ stories are about a vanishing way of life and the determined souls who fight a rear-guard action to keep it alive.” —Booklist, starred review

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Book Synopsis“Peter Bowen does for Montana what Tony Hillerman does for New Mexico” (Midwest Book Review). Gabriel Du PrÉ’s aunt Pauline has burned through more than her share of husbands, so it’s no surprise when she shows up in Toussaint complaining that the latest one, Badger, has run off. Du PrÉ, the MÉtis Indian fiddler, retired cattle inspector, and sometime deputy, agrees to go looking for her man. He finds him shot, execution-style, in the wilds of the Montana countryside. A chat with his contacts at the FBI reveals that Badger, a small-time drug smuggler, had been working for them since his last arrest. Pauline’s husband was bait, but the big fish got away. The last lead was to a cabal of wealthy gamblers who pass their time racing horses in the barren Montana brush. To infiltrate their tight-knit syndicate, Du PrÉ goes undercover, lining up his own horse and jockey. He must tread lightly, because horses are not the only things these men shoot. Gabriel Du PrÉ’s foray into the world of illegal horse racing is “as consistently entertaining as its predecessors. [Du PrÉ], ever skeptical of the modern world and its institutions, places his faith in people, the land, a hand-rolled smoke, and the occasional ditch-water highball” (Booklist).Stewball is the 12th book in The Montana Mysteries Featuring Gabriel Du PrÉ series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.Trade Review“As in previous Du Pré books, the fast-paced narrative offers ample doses of local color, evenly spaced bursts of violence and an unforced, laid-back style.” —Publishers Weekly “Consistently entertaining.” —Booklist “Bowen tells his story in short, perfectly crafted scenes. The dialogue, the relationships, the Montana landscape, and, most of all, the quirky and memorable characters are all matchlessly drawn.” —The Denver Post

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Book SynopsisFinalist for the Spur Award: The author of The Overmountain Men and The Border Men concludes his epic adventure of Tennessee’s early history. The United States of America has just been born from the fires of revolution. But in the wilds of Tennessee in the Southwest Territory, a fire still burns—especially in the heart of fifteen-year-old Owen Killefer. For Owen witnessed the massacre of his family by Tom Turndale—a depraved marauder who deserted the British during the war to live with the Chickamauga and plague the frontier settlements. And worse, Turndale took Owen’s sister captive as his prize. Now, amidst the growing unrest and hostilities between the new Americans pushing ever westward and the native Indians who have trusted too many broken treaties, Owen must find a way to save his sister and avenge his family. “Judd writes a mean story.” —Zane Grey’s West

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Book SynopsisHope is hard to come by in the hard-luck town of Willow Creek. Sam Pickett and five young men are about to change that.Sam Pickett never expected to settle in this dried-up shell of a town on the western edge of the world. He's come here to hide from the violence and madness that have shattered his life, but what he finds is what he least expects. There's a spirit that endures in Willow Creek, Montana. It seems that every inhabitant of this forgotten outpost has a story, a reason for taking a detour to this place--or a reason for staying.As the coach of the hapless high school basketball team (zero wins, ninety-three losses), Sam can't help but be moved by the bravery he witnesses in the everyday lives of people--including his own young players--bearing their sorrows and broken dreams. How do they carry on, believing in a future that seems to be based on the flimsiest of promises? Drawing on the strength of the boys on the team, sharing the hope they display despite insurmountable odds, Sam finally begins to see a future worth living.Author Stanley Gordon West has filled the town of Willow Creek with characters so vividly cast that they become real as relatives, and their stories--so full of humor and passion, loss and determination--illuminate a path into the human heart.

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