- Hardcover: 196 pages
- Publisher: St Martins Pr (Feb 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312151810
- ISBN-13: 978-0312151812
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14.5 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,360,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you haven't read a Gabriel DuPre novel before, start with Coyote Wind. Pete Bowen's style
/voice needs to age on the reader. While the venues of Montana are as dramatic as New Mexico Bowen's discriptions are basic compared to Hillerman's. Further, Dupre's dialogue couples both the spoken word and the true thought in one statement. The comparisons are delightful once you get use to the pattern. Lastly the plot is not a metaphysical as Hillerman but spirtuality is
a definitive resource to Dupre. Profanity is too gratuitous for a sly character such as Dupre but that's the author's style. And if you have daughters, there is symphysis
/voice needs to age on the reader. While the venues of Montana are as dramatic as New Mexico Bowen's discriptions are basic compared to Hillerman's. Further, Dupre's dialogue couples both the spoken word and the true thought in one statement. The comparisons are delightful once you get use to the pattern. Lastly the plot is not a metaphysical as Hillerman but spirtuality is
a definitive resource to Dupre. Profanity is too gratuitous for a sly character such as Dupre but that's the author's style. And if you have daughters, there is symphysis
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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NOTCHES
Peter Bowen
St. Martin's, Feb 1997, $20.95, 196 pp.
NOTCHES
Peter Bowen
St. Martin's, Feb 1997, $20.95, 196 pp.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
"Your babies are safe."
4 Mar 2006
Format:Hardcover
In Notches, Peter Bowen does something that he will never repeat. He mixes his normal light touches and Metís culture with a chilling story of a chase to stop not one, but two serial killers from continuing to reap pain and horror on paths that crisscross the U.S., but touch base near Toussaint, Montana far to often. The result of this conflict between people who love to live, and the litanty of those who must die is unnerving.
Gabriel Duprés is a Metís - his blood is a mix of Indian tribes, French and British blood, a reflection of the history of the Northern U.S. and Canada. He is a cattle inspector turned homicide investigator in a little town where the sheriff throws up at the sight of blood. Death happens all the time in Toussaint, but never like this, and Gabriel must step in to make sure the daughters of Toussaint can live without fear. It isn't a role Gabriel is comfortable with, he is no avenging angel, but everyone, from his woman, Madelaine, to the FBI are looking to him for a resolution.
Despite repeated trips to half-hidden burials, Bowen keeps Duprés' head up and his wry wit firing on all cylinders. Toussaint is a close community of the fiercely independent. This is something that Gabriel will find repeatedly is the real source of his power, not his consultations with Benetsee the shaman, who has a knack for disappearing at crucial moments.
But humor or no, Notches is a brooding story about human evil. Duprés does what he has to to stop the killings, but this is an uncomfortable resolution. Bowen puts of the ending for as long as possible and then rushes through it at such a rate that the reader may miss the turning point until it is too late. "You not like this at all," Madelaine tells Duprés. "If you did, I would not love you." Of all Bowen's stories, Notches is perhaps the strongest.
Gabriel Duprés is a Metís - his blood is a mix of Indian tribes, French and British blood, a reflection of the history of the Northern U.S. and Canada. He is a cattle inspector turned homicide investigator in a little town where the sheriff throws up at the sight of blood. Death happens all the time in Toussaint, but never like this, and Gabriel must step in to make sure the daughters of Toussaint can live without fear. It isn't a role Gabriel is comfortable with, he is no avenging angel, but everyone, from his woman, Madelaine, to the FBI are looking to him for a resolution.
Despite repeated trips to half-hidden burials, Bowen keeps Duprés' head up and his wry wit firing on all cylinders. Toussaint is a close community of the fiercely independent. This is something that Gabriel will find repeatedly is the real source of his power, not his consultations with Benetsee the shaman, who has a knack for disappearing at crucial moments.
But humor or no, Notches is a brooding story about human evil. Duprés does what he has to to stop the killings, but this is an uncomfortable resolution. Bowen puts of the ending for as long as possible and then rushes through it at such a rate that the reader may miss the turning point until it is too late. "You not like this at all," Madelaine tells Duprés. "If you did, I would not love you." Of all Bowen's stories, Notches is perhaps the strongest.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Two-legged predators in a landscape from hell
25 May 2005
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Du Pré, master fiddler and part-time brand inspector is cast in the role of hunter in "Notches" where he is asked to assist police on the trail of two serial killers.
There are good reasons why the police might not want Du Pré at the scene of a crime. He spits a lot as he circles the corpse, rolls his own cigarettes and mashes them out beneath his boot heel. A forensic specialist would find traces of him all over the scene. In "Notches," he even hides evidence because he wants to track a killer without interference from the FBI.
On the plus side, nothing at the scene escapes him. If he is called in to examine one body, he may find two others near by that no one else has noticed--which is exactly what occurs in "Notches." Someone has been killing girls and dumping them "like old guts in the brush for the coyotes to eat," according to Du Pré's long-time mistress, Madelaine.
There are two serial killers on the loose in "Notches" which makes for a confusing plot. There are also two FBI agents who add to the scenery, but don't do much more than engage in slanging matches with Du Pré. Madelaine finally presses Du Pré into tracking the killers down when her own daughter runs away from home.
Du Pré is laconic to the point of partial sentences, but the interrupted staccato of his speech is a perfect counterpoint to the harsh Montana landscape and to the sometimes abbreviated lives of its inhabitants. Over 150 corpses form an even grimmer than usual backdrop to Du Pré's musings on the long history of his people and the land.
"Notches" is not so much a murder mystery as it is a complex landscape of hell from the pen of a Montanan Hieronymus Bosch.
There are good reasons why the police might not want Du Pré at the scene of a crime. He spits a lot as he circles the corpse, rolls his own cigarettes and mashes them out beneath his boot heel. A forensic specialist would find traces of him all over the scene. In "Notches," he even hides evidence because he wants to track a killer without interference from the FBI.
On the plus side, nothing at the scene escapes him. If he is called in to examine one body, he may find two others near by that no one else has noticed--which is exactly what occurs in "Notches." Someone has been killing girls and dumping them "like old guts in the brush for the coyotes to eat," according to Du Pré's long-time mistress, Madelaine.
There are two serial killers on the loose in "Notches" which makes for a confusing plot. There are also two FBI agents who add to the scenery, but don't do much more than engage in slanging matches with Du Pré. Madelaine finally presses Du Pré into tracking the killers down when her own daughter runs away from home.
Du Pré is laconic to the point of partial sentences, but the interrupted staccato of his speech is a perfect counterpoint to the harsh Montana landscape and to the sometimes abbreviated lives of its inhabitants. Over 150 corpses form an even grimmer than usual backdrop to Du Pré's musings on the long history of his people and the land.
"Notches" is not so much a murder mystery as it is a complex landscape of hell from the pen of a Montanan Hieronymus Bosch.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A lawman must think like a serial killer to catch him
21 Feb 1997
Format:Hardcover
A young, female corpse without her jaw and teeth is found along the side of the Hi-Line near Toussaint, Montana. The identity of the victim cannot be determined due to the mutilation of the body. Soon more corpses show up in the same mutilated shape. FBI agent Harvey Wallace obtains Du Pre's help to catch a couple of killers, who have murdered girls throughout Canada and the U.S. for too many years.
Making the deaths and subsequent investigation even more personal, Du Pre's lover Madelaine finds her own daughter missing. Du Pre promises to do everything he can to find the Hi-Line killer(s). To do so, he must learn to think like a serial killer, but pray what he learns does not become an intricate part of his persona. His most fervent hope is that he stops the killers before there are additional victims.
NOTCHES is an interesting mystery for fans who enjoy superb characterization. Du Pre is a great protagonist and his support cast are top rate characters, and no one brings Montana more alive then Peter Bowen. However, the simple identification of the two killers add nothing to the who-done-it; thereby leaving fans of that sub-genre looking elsewhere for their reading material.
Harriet Klausner
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Making the deaths and subsequent investigation even more personal, Du Pre's lover Madelaine finds her own daughter missing. Du Pre promises to do everything he can to find the Hi-Line killer(s). To do so, he must learn to think like a serial killer, but pray what he learns does not become an intricate part of his persona. His most fervent hope is that he stops the killers before there are additional victims.
NOTCHES is an interesting mystery for fans who enjoy superb characterization. Du Pre is a great protagonist and his support cast are top rate characters, and no one brings Montana more alive then Peter Bowen. However, the simple identification of the two killers add nothing to the who-done-it; thereby leaving fans of that sub-genre looking elsewhere for their reading material.
Harriet Klausner
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