Coyote Wind: A Gabriel Du Pre Mystery

"Coyote Wind" is a darn near perfect specimen of a mixed-genre mystery cum western. Gabriel Du Pré is laconic, honorable, and wise to the ways of the Big Sky Country---a throwback to the noble cowboy-hero of Zane Grey's novels. He is a vulnerable hero, a Métis descendant of the French Voyageurs and Plains Indians. He has problems with his teenage daughter, who has shaved off part of her hair and dyed the rest of it a weird color. His mistress won't marry him because in the eyes of the Church, she is still married to the sleaze who deserted her many years past. He is plagued throughout the book by an alcoholic Métis prophet.Du Pré's voice is unique, and perfect for this story. His dialogue is short, punchy, flicked with mordant barbs---an arrow in your eye when you are least expecting it. Two chapters into the book, found myself talking, thinking like Du Pré. The mystery of who killed whom in "Coyote Wind" is fairly easy to unravel once you get to know and care about the characters. It almost had to occur, considering the people involved. It becomes more important to see if Du Pré can help a friend stop drinking, rather than to figure out who murdered his friend's brother. As Du Pré keeps telling everyone who will listen: "I ain't a cop...I am a [brand inspector]."Nevertheless, it is Du Pré who is tapped to solve a thirty-year-old murder. He goes about it in a style that is perfectly tuned to his character. Not a single false note from Du Pré or his fiddle."Coyote Wind" is a very satisfying read.

"Coyote Wind" is a darn near perfect specimen of a mixed-genre mystery ... western. Gabriel Du Pré is laconic, honorable, and wise to the ways of the Big Sky Country---a throwback to the noble cowboy-hero of Zane Grey’s novels. He is a vulnerable hero, a Métis descendant of the French Voyageurs and Plains Indians. He has problems with his teenage daughter, who has shaved off part of her hair and dyed the rest of it a weird color. His mistress won’t marry him because in the eyes of the Church, she is still married to the sleaze who deserted her many years past. He is plagued throughout the book by an alcoholic Métis prophet.Du Pré’s voice is unique, and perfect for this story. His dialogue is short, punchy, flicked with mordant barbs---an arrow in your heart when you are least expecting it. Two chapters into the book, found myself talking, thinking like Du Pré. Sounds like this:"Du Pré knelt, looked, crossed himself. Some days he didn’t believe in God, but he did believe in crossing himself."Maybe this let you sleep now," said Du Pré. He picked up the white skull, the color of the giant puffball mushrooms that came up in pastures in the wet years. The mushrooms were bigger, and startling in the green."’Now I got someone’s head in my hands, I thinking on frying mushrooms,’ Du Pré said aloud. ‘Dumb bastard’."The mystery of who killed whom in "Coyote Wind" is fairly easy to unravel once you get to know and care about the characters. It almost had to occur, considering the people involved. It becomes more important to see if Du Pré can help a friend stop drinking, rather than to figure out who murdered his friend’s brother. As Du Pré keeps telling everyone who will listen: "I ain’t a cop…I am a [brand inspector]."Nevertheless, it is Du Pré who is tapped to solve a thirty-year-old murder. He goes about it in a style that is perfectly tuned to his character. Not a single false note from Du Pré or his fiddle."Coyote Wind" is a very satisfying read.

I'm hooked, Peter Bowen has made the characters real for me, he's given them life. He shares his knowledge of what it is like to live in rural Montana, the lifestyle, the love of the land, the selfish way the locals take care of their own and the country.