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Rating: 
Summary: a few gleams in the ashes
Review: Do not be cozzened by the fulsome praise of #1 into buying this book. Despite her claim, Peter Bowen does not do "for Montana what Tony Hillerman does for New Mexico". Nevertheless Ash Child contains some shiny nuggets of writing that may justify carting it home from the library.Bowen's central characters are Gabriel Du Pre and Madelaine Placquemines, Metis (people of mixed Native American and European ancestory) living in "Toussaint" in central Montana. Gabriel has no visible means of support (we are told he used to be a brand inspector) and Madelaine works in the local bar. Bowen says he chose to use Metis because "the Metis are a great people, a wonderful people, and not many Americans know anything about them." Unfortunately Ash Child does little to alleviate that deficiency apart from rendering the dialogue of Gabriel and Madelaine into dialect. The reader learns nothing about the history or culture of Metis -- unless one assunes they all subsist on a diet of bourbon ditches and "pink fizzy wine" like Gabriel and Madelaine. In Ash Child, Montana is beset by a disastrous summer of forest fires (as in 2000), a raging Methamphetamine epidemic and a rash of murders. Bowen's pair of unlikely Metis sleuths tackle all three problems with some help from a mysterious shaman named Benetsee who communicates with the "old ones" and has the power to make fire do his bidding. Perhaps one shouldn't expect a logical plot in such a setting, but it takes more than supernatural manifestations to explain away all the loose threads in this story. There are some traces of real gold amid the clinkers -- vivid word-pictures and arresting phrases. Example: calling the thick ash on a burnt-over hillside "the shadow of the fire". Bowen slips obscure bits of western Americana, almost like inside jokes, into his story. i.e. the Democrat wagon and using the name of a priest who was important in 19th Century central Montana for Touissant's current priest. At the same time he embraces some of the tinniest myths of Rocky Mountain libertarianism. to wit: Local ranchers and cowboys know more about fighting wild fire than the US Forest Service; vigilante justice is better than court-administered justice; millionaire ranchers are the protectors of the less fortunate citizens in their communities against the highhanded behavior of federal bureaucrats.
Rating: 
Summary: great Big Sky regional mystery
Review: Gabriel Du Pre is in the hospital recovering from a burst appendix when he hears the news that somebody killed Maddy Collins. Somebody smashed her head in with a hatchet and left, leaving the front door open. There is no obvious motive for the seventy eight-year old woman's death since she was a bit of a recluse and never bothered anyone. When Du Pre leaves the hospital, he camps out in the back of Maddy's house, hoping that the perp will return to the scene of the crime.
He doesn't find a killer but he does notice two seventeen year olds who are curious about the crime scenes. He lets them go and the next thing he knows he's back in the hospital because somebody banged him pretty badly on the head. Somebody burns down Maddy's house and the fire spreads to the nearby Wolf Mountains where the bodies of the two teens seen at Maddy's now are discovered with bullets in their bodies. Gabriel is determined to flush out the person who has wrecked such havoc on his little Montana town.
Peter Bowen does for Montana what Tony Hillerman does for New Mexico. His regional mysteries, starring the unique character Gabriel Du Pre, are picturesque, totally absorbing and utterly charming. The author is so descriptive that one can picture the town of Toussaint in the mind's eye. Anyone who has not read a "Gabriel Do Pre mystery is missing out on something special. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: great Big Sky regional mystery
Review: Gabriel Du Pre is in the hospital recovering from a burst appendix when he hears the news that somebody killed Maddy Collins. Somebody smashed her head in with a hatchet and left, leaving the front door open. There is no obvious motive for the seventy eight-year old woman's death since she was a bit of a recluse and never bothered anyone. When Du Pre leaves the hospital, he camps out in the back of Maddy's house, hoping that the perp will return to the scene of the crime.
He doesn't find a killer but he does notice two seventeen year olds who are curious about the crime scenes. He lets them go and the next thing he knows he's back in the hospital because somebody banged him pretty badly on the head. Somebody burns down Maddy's house and the fire spreads to the nearby Wolf Mountains where the bodies of the two teens seen at Maddy's now are discovered with bullets in their bodies. Gabriel is determined to flush out the person who has wrecked such havoc on his little Montana town.
Peter Bowen does for Montana what Tony Hillerman does for New Mexico. His regional mysteries, starring the unique character Gabriel Du Pre, are picturesque, totally absorbing and utterly charming. The author is so descriptive that one can picture the town of Toussaint in the mind's eye. Anyone who has not read a "Gabriel Do Pre mystery is missing out on something special. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Great color but the mystery isn't exactly solved
Review: I was so puzzled by this book's ending, I picked up the Gabriel Du Pre mystery that comes after it ("Badlands") and read it just to see if it clarified "Ash Child."
It didn't.
It is frustrating to read even a good author like Bowen, when he winds down the end of a mystery without explaining exactly who the villain is, and why he committed his villainies.
Dang, Peter, I've felt like I've just been dragged through a seance in the sweat lodge with the inscrutable Benetsee. Maybe the solution will come to me in a dream.
Meanwhile the Forest Service comes out of this book nearly as whupped as the readers. Bowen relishes taking on any bunch that restricts the freedom of Montanans, including environmentalists in "Wolf, No Wolf," Yuppie tourists in "Cruzatte and Maria," and the FBI in nearly all of his Gabriel Du Pre mysteries. This time the Forest Service comes under attack for not managing its land correctly and for preventing the ranchers from bulldozing fire breaks on their own property. Smokey the Bear's green-shirts endure some pretty scatological commentary, especially after one of them tries to make Du Pre put out his cigarette.
It's the author who's a'growlin and a'prowlin in "Ash Child."
Even Bowen's serial detective, Gabriel Du Pre takes a beating. In this book, he busts his appendix, gets his head dented in, is zapped by a taser, and is nearly burned alive. If you've ever fantasized about living the good life in rugged Montana, you should read all of Bowen's Du Pre mysteries before making your move. Newcomers and old hands alike die by avalanche and grizzly, by gunshot and knife, and by freezing to death in Alberta Clippers. They are burned to death in forest fires and poisoned by evil industrial magnates. It's a tough life even for a tough Metis brand inspector like Du Pre.
In spite of all my negative commentary, if you are already a Du Pre fan you should read "Ash Child." The Big Sky Country is choked by the smoke and ash of deliberately-set forest fires as Bowen's laconic detective sets out (between stays in the hospital) to discover who murdered an old woman with a single, vicious hatchet chop. Do not let yourself be deflected by plot elaborations involving arsonists, drug dealers, and meth addicts. Concentrate on Du Pre's patient tracking of the murderer of old Maddy Collins, and you will find "Ash Child" to be a very satisfying read.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't figure this one out
Review: Maybe you have to have read the previous books in the Gabriel Du Pre series to know all the connections and relationships that make up this novel. I couldn't figure out whether Du Pre and Madelaine were married or just lovers and the book never made it clear. Du Pre runs around in a police cruiser complete with a light bar, is allowed by the local police to sleep in a crime scene, but has no police powers or offical status. He drinks ditches, whatever they are, and the only clue given by the novel is that they have whiskey in them. His reaction to almost anything that happens is to nod. "Du Pre nodded" must appear at least two or three times on every page.
I hate to be negative in the face of all this praise but this book just doesn't do it for me. I like a bit more clarity in what I read. I can put up with the unusual dialect but I'd like to know who's married to who and why Du Pre drives a police cruiser but isn't a law enforcement officer and please, for God's sake, somebody tell me what a "ditch" is!
Rating:
Summary: "For he is like a refiner's fire"
Review: When an old and crazy woman is killed in her house Gabriel Du Pre, Montanan, Metis Indian, and Peter Bowen's primary adjuster of fate, is drawn into the investigation. Just out of the hospital, Du Pre is promptly knock out cold while the woman's cabin and a friend's dog are burnt to ashes. What unfolds is a story that gradually shifts from Bowen's usual light-hearted style to something grim and terrifying - all of this playing against a menacing firestorm that threatens to spill all over the Wolf Mountains.
There is always a grim side to Bowen's detailed stories of rural Montana life, where attitude plays stronger than ethnic background. But usually the interplay between Du Pre, his woman Madelaine, and the countless, gemlike characters that people the stories keeps the reader smiling, fascinated by the strange array of the Metis dialect and the ever-present sense of music that it portends. But Ash Child sneaks up on you. At first the crimes seem like they are little more than troublemaking gone awry, and then, suddenly, you sense a dark intelligence using the worst form of murder weapon.
An interesting development in this story is the extensive involvement of Madelaine, whose usually role is as a contrast to Du Pre. This time Benetse, a zany old medicine man, maneuvers her into the position of spiritual investigator and hunter. Du Pre conflicted by his love for her and his undeniably macho mental role barely manages to cope with this. But Madelaine proves every bit as tough as her companion, and it is really she that opens the gates to hell, with Du Pre in tow.
My only criticism of the novel is that the final arc turns like the barb on a fishhook - sudden and deadly sharp. You think you're heading in one direction and suddenly you are elsewhere. Bowen intentionally keeps his novels short and pithy, but this time I wish there had been more of a transition. Even so, this is a brilliant story, full of the things that make the author's idiosyncratic work catch and compel the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and rewarding novel
Review: Wolf Mountain is dry and the fires are starting. It will be a fire of the century, Gabriel Du Pre knows. But when the fires actually start, there is more than simply nature. Du Pre may live in the boonies of Montana, but even the most remote part of America isn't immune to murder, arson, or drugs. When an old woman is murdered, Du Pre is thrust into a strange world where no one is exactly as they appear, but where the danger is incredibly real. Author Peter Bowen uses a powerful and distinctive voice to describe the lives of the Metis Indians and the ranchers who survive in the harsh lands of Montana. Du Pre relies on a combination of bull-headed bravery, investigating, and Native American magic to learn the truth. In Bowen's novels, the magic is real, and the result is often close to magic itself. With its wealth of intriguing characters and its vivid descriptions of the land and people of Montana, ASH CHILD is a fine and compelling novel. I would have liked to see a stronger connection between the drug angle and the rest of the mystery, but it is hard to quibble with Bowen's work.
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