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BADLANDS: A Montana Mystery Featuring Gabriel Du Pre
by Peter Bowen
St. Martin's, May 2003
250 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312262523


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

BADLANDS, Peter Bowen's 10th Gabriel Du Pre Montana-based mystery, tells a haunting - and strangely timely -- story of what happens when a rich, secretive cult from California takes over a large ranch outside of the town of Toussaint.

It's not that the cult members are causing trouble, far from it. But they've fenced off the ranch and turned it into a virtual fortress on the outskirts of the Montana badlands and Du Pre and the other local residents are more than a little nervous about their new neighbors.

And they're not the only ones with a special interest in the new Montana compound owned by the "Host of Yahweh." The FBI, aware that seven former cult members, scattered across the U.S., were all gunned down on the same day and at exactly the same time, have focused a lot of effort on trying to find out what's going onŠwith no results. When the killing gets close to home, Du Pre is drawn into the web of conspiracy and death which surrounds the cult.

As fans of Peter Bowen know, the Montana author has a unique "voice" in his Gabriel Du Pre novels. Here's one example:

" 'They are going to herd buffalo?' said Du Pre.

'I doubt they thought that far,' said Bart.

Buffalo, they go where they want. I have seen them run up sheer banks, jump high fence, go where they want, them buffalo. Also they are dangerous. Me, I do not want, inspect loads of buffaloŠŠ"

Most writing instructors would say this shifting viewpoint and "choppy" sentences are bad techniques, but in the hands of Bowen, this mixture is not disconcerting. In fact, the Du Pre novels are fast-paced and "page-turners," a cliché which happens to be exactly the best way of describing this series.

Bowen has also created one of the most interesting cast of characters in modern mysteries. Start off with Madelaine, Du Pre's on-going love interest and a tough lady who knows Du Pre as well as he knows himself. Then there's Booger Tom and medicine man Benetsee and Pallas, Du Pre's precocious 10-year-old granddaughter who has set her cap for Ripper, one of the FBI agents trying to find out the cults' secrets, to name just a few of the players.

There is a somewhat eerie parallel in BADLANDS with some of today's headlines. It's a novel which mixes religion-based terrorism with the difficulty of capturing the "White Priest," a shadow of a leader who seems to drift with the wind, protected by zealots who are willing to kill themselves, and others, for the common purpose of their fanatical cult.

This is not a perfect novel. For instance, there are a few unanswered questions, but you could say that about life itself. And perhaps that's a point Bowen is making.

BADLANDS is a worthy addition to the excellent Du Pre series. It's a quick, satisfying read, pulling the reader along from page-to-page. What more can you ask from a mystery, or any novel?

Reviewed by Gary Svoboda, May 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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