Peter Bowen: 26 books

A “plain-spoken, deep-thinking Montana cattle inspector” takes on a serial killer in DC (The New York Times Book Review). With misgivings, cattle inspector and sometime deputy Gabriel Du Pré has left his hometown of Toussaint, Montana, for big-city Washington, DC, where the Métis Indian...

The contemporary western mystery series continues in these novels featuring a half Indian cattle inspector and “character of legendary proportions” (Ridley Pearson).   Officially, Gabriel Du Pré is the cattle inspector for Toussaint, Montana, responsible for making sure no one tries to sell...

“Peter Bowen does for Montana what Tony Hillerman does for New Mexico” (Midwest Book Review). Gabriel Du Pré’s aunt Pauline has burned through more than her share of husbands, so it’s no surprise when she shows up in Toussaint complaining that the latest one, Badger, has run off. Du...

With “unparalleled dialogue” and “a very sly sense of humor,” Luther Kelly’s debut adventure takes him from the Wild West to the land of the Zulus (Booklist). Luther “Yellowstone” Kelly had one of the longest, strangest, and most breathtaking careers in the Old West. The intrepid...

The first three novels in a contemporary western mystery series featuring a half-Indian cattle inspector and “character of legendary proportions” (Ridley Pearson).   Officially, Gabriel Du Pré is the cattle inspector for Toussaint, Montana, responsible for making sure no one tries to sell cattle...

First in the crime-fiction series set in the modern-day west, starring a half-French, half-Indian “character of legendary proportions” (Ridley Pearson). Officially, Gabriel Du Pré is the cattle inspector for Toussaint, Montana, responsible for making sure no one tries to sell livestock...

“With his distinctive, minimalist prose . . . Bowen’s writing is lean. . . . An unsentimental, galvanizing portrait of life in small-town Montana” (Publishers Weekly).   For generations, the Messmers have raised cattle in the rough country of eastern Montana. When the current owners die...

A Montana deputy takes on a mining company that’s poisoning reservation children in a novel the Washington Post calls “wonderful [and] wise.” Something is rotten in the Fort Belknap Reservation. Life has always been tough on this barren stretch just south of the Canadian border, but now...

A deputy discovers Meriwether Lewis’s journal in this modern-day mystery by an author who “writes about the rural West better than anyone” (Rocky Mountain News). When he’s asked to serve as a consultant for a documentary about the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark’s expedition up the...

The half Indian cattle inspector and “character of legendary proportions” is back—in this beloved contemporary western mystery series (Ridley Pearson).   Officially, Gabriel Du Pré is the cattle inspector for Toussaint, Montana, responsible for making sure no one tries to sell cattle branded...

The contemporary western mystery series follows the further adventures of a half Indian cattle inspector and “character of legendary proportions” (Ridley Pearson).   Officially, Gabriel Du Pré is the cattle inspector for Toussaint, Montana, responsible for making sure no one tries to sell cattle...

“Bitter Creek is likely the top of the Du Pré series . . . Lively and absolutely fascinating” (Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall). Lt. John Patchen has come to Montana to persuade Chappie Plaquemines, his former gunnery sergeant in Iraq, to accept the Navy Cross. First, however,...

A half-Indian, half-French deputy with “a shrewd mind and wry sense of humor” investigates a case of homicide on the range (The New York Times Book Review).   Two men have been cutting fences at the ranches of Toussaint, Montana, loosing thousands of dollars’ worth of cattle to use as target...

“Truly mysterious—informed by Western legend, steeped in Indian superstition . . . Riding with Du Pré is some kind of enchantment” (The New York Times Book Review).   A rumor circulates around academic circles that the long-lost journals of Meriwether Lewis are in the possession of a hard-bitten...