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Gabriel Du Pre knows he does not want to sell the lost journals of Lewis and Clark. Not for the ten thousand dollars someone leaves in his car. Not for a fifty thousand dollar Torino violin, sent to him via UPS. Not for the priceless books on Metis culture and music some college kid drops off at the local bar. Not for anything. Then someone takes a tire iron to one of his band members, Bassman, and tries to kidnap the niece of his friend Bart Fascelli. Presumably, the same someone is the person who taped the methamphetamine to the frame of Bassman's van (which is already full of Bassman's pot), and notifies the nearest DEA office. Du Pre's old sorcerer friend Benetsee is his usual cryptic, and frequently absent, self in this novel. The scene in the federal courthouse involving Benetsee, an American Eagle, the lawyers for the guv'ment, some coyotes, and the judge are wonderful. Benetsee is absent for most of this book, which means Gabriel has to decide for himself what to do, or not to do. He spends a lot of time drinking whiskey ditches, playing music, and trying to stay out of the way while (as the cast of characters describes her) "his woman Madelaine" tries to help Bart cope with his angry young niece and her horny boyfriend; Bassman deal with his angry "burlap blonde girlfriend . . . Big tits, round ass. Neck up they all got mean eyes.", who shoots Bassman's bass with "a cheap-ass little twenty-five."; and a freelance reporter trying to get a good story on the Lewis and Clark journals. I found this particular Du Pre mystery to be more unsettling than the ones I've read before. As always, it took me a few chapters to get comfortable with the speech patterns and rhythms used by most of the characters. Bowen is a master plotter, so a long time ago I gave up trying to figure out who was behind what happens, and why. When I finished THE TUMBLER, I tried to work my way from the solution back to the beginning -- and I couldn't. I'm still not sure exactly why things happened the way they did, although I think I know the 'who' of most of it. Some of the connections are very tenuous in my mind. Bowen writes excellent mysteries and THE TUMBLER is no exception. If you liked his previous books, you'll probably like this one. If you haven't read any Bowen, but you like James Lee Burke or William Kent Krueger or Steve Hamilton, you'll probably like this series. The only caveat I would give a new reader is to not be put off by the speech patterns, the sentence structure (or lack thereof) by many of the characters in the novels. It takes some getting used to, but the quality of the writing is worth the effort.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, April 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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