Disclaimer: Peter Bowen, who died last week, was an old friend of my father's, and I spent some time around him back in the 70s. We sang, drank, and laughed. His hunting Labrador Retriever fathered a litter with my show-class Lab and had some really fine pups who were beautiful and brilliant bird dogs. But I never had gotten around to reading any of his books, though I see them on shelves in libraries all the time. I figured this was a good time to try one, and this one - the first in his Du Pre series - had gotten some appealing reviews.

I liked it. It took me a few chapters (but they're short) to tune my ear to the voice, but once I did, I rolled with it. Idiosyncratic, free-wheeling, thoughts and speech tumbled together. Peter was a good songwriter too, and spent a lot of hours sitting in bars, listening to conversations grumbling, muttering, guffawing, ebbing and flowing, and he's assembled that feeling here in a raw musical composition. He hadn't mastered plotting - the plot is almost afterthought, with a not-very-credible solution. I'll see if he got better at that. But the language, the imagery, the characters - down and outers, people saddled with pain and addictions yet sustained by the kindness and generosity of neighbors - and the splendid Montana landscapes that Bowen knew and loved make this a much better-than-average way to spend a few hours. Grateful for Hoopla through my local library to make these accessible while the "real world" is locked down! ( )

A cowboy has found the wreck of the plane. The sheriff of Toussaint asks Gabriel Du Pre a cattle-brand inspector who doubles as a deputy, to go with the cowboy and see what is what before he opens an investigation. Du Pre sees that the plane with two skeletons has been there a long time as trees and other plants have grown through the wreckage.

What is strange is the Du Pre finds a skull with a bullet hole that does not belong to the plane. He remembers a headless corpse that was found when he was a child, 30 years ago, can it belong to that corpse?

He wants to avoid the matter, but a rich man's demons, another murder and Du Pre's own past keep pulling him back.

I never realized that there is a family of native-American/French Indians in Montana, the Metis migrated from Canada more than 100 years ago. The background of this tribe or family was very interesting but the writing/presentation of the mystery and Du Pre’s investigation I found confusing and distracting. Not my cup of tea but it satisfies the challenge I read it for. ( )

Yes, there is salty language. I didn't find it off-putting in the context of Du Pre's character. Nor the parenting style another reviewer found objectionable. Du Pre repeatedly comments that he doesn't know how to be a good father, but I think his instincts help him to do a reasonable, if non-traditional job. He clearly loves his daughters and they return that love & respect. I enjoyed learning about the Metis culture, and listening to the unabridged audiobook was a treat because of the skill of narrator Christopher Lane. ( )

This is the first in the series with Gabriel Du Pré in them. I have now read both the beginning and one near the end. I can't say I noticed a lot of difference in the writing style or the character's growth, but they are fun books to listen to on audio. Very nice cowboy mysteries. I love the sturdiness, stubbornness and sensibleness of cowboys, and Du Pré is in there with the best of them. This has more strong language than I enjoy, but it doesn't seem out of place in the story.
In this novel, Gabriel faces some ghosts in his past as he is dealing with life in the present. He faces them steadfastly, naturally. ( )

From Amazon.com review by Nathan W. Casebolt:

Gabriel Du Pré is a simple Métis, descended from First Nation and French Canadian stock. He earns his keep as a Montana cow brand inspector, but sometimes serves as an on-call law enforcer. So when a small, decades-old plane wreck is discovered in the mountains, the sheriff asks Du Pré to check it out. And everything checks out as you’d expect, except for that extra skull with a bullet rattling inside it.

I was looking forward to this new series which was supposed to be a breath of fresh air to the murder mystery genre. Unfortunately, the air is quite rancid with Du Pre’s anti-establishment attitude, his filthy mouth, and his (non)-parenting style, which takes the form of sleep overs at his girlfriend’s while his fourteen-year-old daughter stays home alone.

The plot is weak, the mystery disappointing – the solution becomes apparent by half-time and the rest of the book is…what? Boring anyway. Offensive to some – me included. ( )