Thunder Horse: A Montana Mystery Featuring Gabriel Du Pre

Rating:
Summary: An atmospheric mystery that is positvly mesmerizing
Review: An earthquake strikes an area near Bozeman, Montana where the Japanese had begun a development project to turn a local spring into a trout farm. However, the plan is placed on hold because the quake reveals that the land is an ancient Native American burial ground.

Soon, a more modern corpse is found in the area. A snowmobiler, carrying a dinosaur tooth, has been murdered. An archeologist claims the tooth is valuable because it is that of a T-Rex, of which there are very few complete skeletons. Part-time deputy Gabriel Du Pre begins to investigate the killing as well as attempting to short circuit the growing hostility between the Japanese and the Native Americans. As he gets closer to the truth about the murder, Gabriel places his own life in jeopardy.

In his fifth Du Pre mystery, Peter Bowen continues to scribe one of the freshest and unique regional who-done-it series on the market today. The characters are all genuine and fun as they charmingly represent the local lifestyle. The story line is fast-paced and even the use of local dialogues fails to slow the action down for a minute. THUNDER HORSE, its predecessors, and Mr. Bowen's other series (Yellowstone Kelly) are all entertaining reads.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Ancient bones
Review: The 'Thunder Horse' of the title is Tyrannosaurus Rex, although it could also refer to the earthquake that starts out this fifth Gabriel Du Pré mystery with a bang.

All of the regulars are at the Touissant Bar listening to Du Pré make sad Voyageur music on his fiddle, when the Big One rumbles in. It doesn't seem fair that Montana should have avalanches, grizzlies, Alberta Clippers, and earthquakes, but I guess it keeps the outlanders from swarming all over the scenery.

Unlike the wholesale carnage in "Wolf, No Wolf," only one outlander on a snowmobile is murdered in "Thunder Horse." This murder, plus an assault on his friend Bart force Du Pré back into his role as a reluctant detective. He gets the usual amount of playful misdirection from the Shaman Benetsee, practical advice from his mistress, Madelaine, and homicidal commentary from the ancient Booger Tom.

The earthquake shifted mountains, dried up springs, uncovered bones---17,000 year-old human skeletons of a Caucasian people that Benetsee calls the Horned Star Folk.

How did the shaman know that a horned star amulet would be found among the bones? How old is Benetsee, anyway? Is he the enigmatic Walker in the Snow?

T Rex bones mix in with the skeletons of the mysterious Horned Star Folk, along with a yellow, radioactive uranium clay that was once used for face paint. Du Pré alternates between hard drinking, hallucinatory sweat baths, and journeys through the eerie and death-dealing badlands of Montana before he can begin to work out how these three things fit together---and how the completed pattern points to a killer.

"Thunder Horse" is one of the best of the Du Pré mysteries. Peter Bowen's Montana badlands are haunted by the people who once lived there---Norwegian homesteaders; Crow; Cheyenne; the Métis descendents of Voyageurs; the Horned Star folk who paddled down long-vanished rivers from the Arctic. Their bones and legends are the heart of this mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Ancient bones
Review: The `Thunder Horse' of the title is Tyrannosaurus Rex, although it could also refer to the earthquake that starts out this fifth Gabriel Du Pré mystery with a bang.

All of the regulars are at the Touissant Bar listening to Du Pré make sad Voyageur music on his fiddle, when the Big One rumbles in. It doesn't seem fair that Montana should have avalanches, grizzlies, Alberta Clippers, and earthquakes, but I guess it keeps the outlanders from swarming all over the scenery.

Unlike the wholesale carnage in "Wolf, No Wolf," only one outlander on a snowmobile is murdered in "Thunder Horse." This murder, plus an assault on his friend Bart force Du Pré back into his role as a reluctant detective. He gets the usual amount of playful misdirection from the Shaman Benetsee, practical advice from his mistress, Madelaine, and homicidal commentary from the ancient Booger Tom.

The earthquake shifted mountains, dried up springs, uncovered bones---17,000 year-old human skeletons of a Caucasian people that Benetsee calls the Horned Star Folk.

How did the shaman know that a horned star amulet would be found among the bones? How old is Benetsee, anyway? Is he the enigmatic Walker in the Snow?

T Rex bones mix in with the skeletons of the mysterious Horned Star Folk, along with a yellow, radioactive uranium clay that was once used for face paint. Du Pré alternates between hard drinking, hallucinatory sweat baths, and journeys through the eerie and death-dealing badlands of Montana before he can begin to work out how these three things fit together---and how the completed pattern points to a killer.

"Thunder Horse" is one of the best of the Du Pré mysteries. Peter Bowen's Montana badlands are haunted by the people who once lived there---Norwegian homesteaders; Crow; Cheyenne; the Métis descendents of Voyageurs; the Horned Star folk who paddled down long-vanished rivers from the Arctic. Their bones and legends are the heart of this mystery.