Product Description
Peter Gabriel is as committed as ever to his beloved World Music and very publicly to his controversial political ideals. Troubled, complex and adventurous in both public and private life, Gabriel's paradoxes have intensified with time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The best biography out there for PG fans
Unlike some other reviewers, I found this book to be highly readable and very informative.I think Bright does a great job getting into Gabriel's motivations and interests and this makes for a very good biography.

Gabriel has so many interests outside of his own music and it's especially nice to get these viewpoints in the biography.He is involved in human rights, world music, multimedia, alternative health, and psychological therapies.These other interests do tell you more about the man than just a standard "Gabriel-released-this-album-and-toured" work.

The only complaint I have is about the some of the extremely long chapters.The book could be logically broken in better places to make keeping your place easier!

For the serious and patient fan only
For years I searched store shelves in vain looking for a quality book on Peter Gabriel.When I at last looked online, I thought I had found what I needed. However, this biography reads more like a textbook than a warm orinteresting biography.The author spliced the book together usingavailable quotes and interviews, and seems to never have talked to Peterhimself.And while there are many interesting tidbits, such as the factthat a schoolboy Gabriel once made a hat worn by Keith Richards of theStones on TV, it really drags.Even I, a serious fan, found myselfskipping through many sections. Worth the read?Yes.If you thinkof yourself as a serious fan.An enjoyable read?Not really.Infact, you may be disappointed in your hero when you learn how distant hewas from his wife and family.

more the man than the music
A welcome update to his previous work, Bright's new book still has the same positive and negative sides of the first edition. Excellent research is his finest point (he talked to people who knew the subject well and didgive great insights), but the stress on all matters personal and privateseems to me a bit over the top. Sure we want to know what kind of a personPeter is besides his rock-star persona, but the text doesn't always succeedin connecting this with Gabriel's musical output.

A life that unfolds like a sunrise...
This is definately the best biography about Peter Gabriel that exists. I was surprised at how intimate it was especially in a sexual way, but PGhimself I believe advocates openness. So... He also appears to haveendorsed this book about himself. I was glad also to come to the positiveending aswell. May happiness continue... A satisfying read all round andbest piccies.

Excellent in-depth assessment of a fascinating man!
Mr. Bright has created a work that is readable andinsightful about a man whose creativity and experimentation with rock sounds and textures is extraordinary.Especially interesting to this reader are the artist's ownexplanations of his lyrics, which are sometimes obscure (deliberately) butalways interesting.Mr. Gabriel doesn't talk down to his listeners; he hasmatured and assumes we are maturing along with him.A definite must-readfor anyone who is a fan of this long-term rock legend. ... Read more

Product Description
This biography traces Gabriel's early years, from his days as a singer in Genesis, to his departure and emergence as a solo artist in the mid 1970s. It also features chapters on his work with Third World musicians and his association with Womad. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

HE IS NOT ONLY A MUSICIAN
So you think Peter is dead? well don't just expect to see a CD released every year under his name.He is a serious musician, composer and human rights front man.So if you think he didn't do anything in the past six years well just take a look to his Real World catalogue.He also works and compose for others.Please before talking about him check his background.He help developing groups from all around the world.PETER IS THE BEST.Still growing up...

Not the best book about The Master, but worth having
If you are a serious fan, as am I, then you will want this book, because you will want everything you can get your hands on about The Master, the greatest vocalist/lyricist/composer of our time. Please ignore the first review above, which was obviously written by someone who only knows about Peter's hits. Peter is a serious musician and unequaled in his passion for creating serious music as well as being involved in myriad other projects. His latest album, UP, is a masterpiece! And his concerts are a religious experience! OK, I will quit gushing and review the book. Actually it is NOT well-written. The author is clearly not a writer, as it just does not flow very well. However, it is still worth having, because of the content. I have been a fan for 25 years and I learned quite a few little nuggets of info that I hadn't known b4, and these made it worth the price of the book.

1-7-06 update: Most of the 'tasty gems' of info can be found in Spencer Bright's PG biography, a much better read.

flummy
No."The man is dead, the man is dead. ..."What's hedone the last 6 years?

A Story Worth Telling
Chris Welch's book "The Secret Life Of Peter Gabriel" is a well written book about a legend in the music bussiness that goes by the name of Peter Gabriel.This book only helped to confirm what i had already knownabout Mr. Gabriel; that being that he is the best Singer/Songwriter in themodern day world. I have been a huge PG fan for some years now and thisbook pretty much gave a step by step analysis of Gabriels life.What ididnt know about Gabriel was what intrigued me most about this literarywork. Gabriel deserves to win a life time achievement award for the thingshes done in his life time, not only being a hero to his die hard musicfans, but for always trying to help those in need and always trying to makepeople happy. His mind is a asset to the world and we should all bethankfull for the genious that he has produced and bestowed in everyone andeverything around him.. The book was extremely well written from a firsthand approach in many instances. Well worth Reading... ... Read more

Product Description
One of the most successful rock acts of all time, Genesis enjoyed a longevity exceeded only by the likes of the Rolling Stones and the Kinks, and provided a launching pad for superstars Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. Turn It On Again is the first book to document the complete history of this popular and influential band, bringing their story up-to-date while placing them in the context of their time. It explores the relationship between the band members and the remarkable solo careers they have subsequently enjoyed. Drawing on dozens of exclusive interviews with band members past and present, as well as the musicians' friends and associates, author Dave Thompson chronicles Genesis's evolution from progressive-rock visionaries to mainstream rock stars, and the continuing careers of their most famous alumni. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Solid Genesis Biography
Given the lack of press they get these days, it's easy to forget how ubiquitous this band was in the mid-80's.So it is a pleasant surprise to find any book on Genesis, especially one taking up nearly 250 pages.Sure enough, this book contains an almost startling amount of detail on the formative and early years of the band.While I consider Genesis one of my favorite groups, and I think I know quite a bit about them, there was quite a bit of new info to me in this book.

You get the feeling though, that the author is solidly in the camp that Geneis didn't do much of note after Hackett left the band.The entire 80's output feels glossed over, focusing mainly on Colins' solo career and noting that his sucess had an impact on how things were done within Genesis.There just is not that much behind-the-scenes info here covering the period when the band was at the height of their popularity.To be fair, Genesis has never been a band with a seedy back story, so there just might not be that much to say.But given how much space the author devoted to peripheral players, such as the band String Driven Thing -- whose only connection to Genesis was as labelmates and sometime openers -- I was a bit let down by this lack of coverage of the band the book was supposed to be about.Likewise, as has been noted in other reviews, some key events are a bit rushed here.As an example, while the split with Gabriel is of course documented, there is almost no coverage of events leading up to the breakup.

Nonetheless, I unreservedly rate this book a solid 4 stars, and highly recommend it to any Genesis fan.It's a sure bet that you'll learn something new here.

Gabriel rules (but even Collins sounds okay)
I didn't expect to get past the Peter Gabriel years when I started reading this... who cares about Genesis after that, after all?But Thompson's writing style is so engaging, his humor is so strong and his passion so contagious that the band had broken up before I put the book down, and I was actually calling up my sister to borrow her copy of Abacab.Recmmended to everyone who actually cares about the music (and doesn't just want the dirt on their private lives...)

Reads Like a Discography
I've been fascinated with Peter Gabriel since I was 12 years old.I bought this book hoping to get some insight into the man and some info on those early Genesis albums.The book got off to a great start; discussing the early days of Genesis as school chums.But as the book progresses it begins to read like a discography.So-and-so made a solo album with these musicians, Genesis made this album, here's how it did in the market.The writing is marked by british style humor and language. But this does nothing to make this book any more interesting.It lacks insight into the bands characters and barely discusses what's going on in their lives.For example, at one point the book mentions Peter Gabriels wife Jill.Uh, no one told me he got married! who's this jill person?what does she do?Later the same thing happened with phil collins.When did he get a wife?early on there are some good stories but later all we hear about is that they put out a new album, who was on it and how the album did.a little about the sound too.oh well, they'll stay mythic in my mind. ... Read more

Product Description
It's dry season in Montana, and fires blazing west of Touissant have spread to the Wolf Mountains. Métis-Indian fiddler, tracker, and reluctant sleuth Gabriel Du Pré suspects the fires have been intentionally set and are linked to the recent murder of Old Maddy Collins, an eccentric woman found in her living room, her head beaten in with a cast-iron hatchet. Du Pré's suspicions are heightened when two teenagers snooping around Maddy's house turn up dead in the mountains, buried beneath ash and riddled with bullet wounds.

With its sly wit and comic touches, combined with colorful characters and lyrical prose evocative of Montana, Peter Bowen's Ash Child makes for an exceptionally rich and deeply satisfying novel.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

It's a rough ride for Du Pre this time around.
This is one of my very favorite mystery series. I'd like for it to be one of yours, too, but in order for that to happen, you'll have to check any political correctness you may have at the door before you walk into the Toussaint Saloon to meet with characters that are so fully fleshed you'd swear they were alive. They are also farmers and ranchers, and their language may be a tad saltier than you're used to.

Gabriel Du Pré is a Métis Indian and occasional cattle brand inspector in the wilds of Montana. Nowadays he helps out the local sheriff when he isn't playing some of the best fiddle music you've ever heard in your life. Du Pré is probably more than a little bit different from the characters you're used to reading about:

"I checked you out," said Vook. "Du Pré is a good guy, they say, real good guy, runs on Bull Durham and bourbon and he pisses on the little laws but he's good about the big ones."



Maddy Collins was an old lady who lived on the edge of Toussaint and pretty much kept herself to herself, but everyone in town is upset when her body is found inside her small house. Someone had bashed in her head. Who on earth would want to do something like that to a person who'd never caused harm to another soul? Maddy's death doesn't set well with Du Pré, and he starts looking for the murderer. When he and Madelaine, the lady in his life, find out that drugs might have something to do with the woman's death, they ask an expert what they should be looking for. The expert gives them some things to look for, and--since they live in a small town--they know exactly who's involved.

An old woman's death, drug trafficking in a small Montana town...and then the Wolf Mountains start to burn. Everything Du Pré holds dear, including his own life, is at risk.

Peter Bowen is a master craftsman. The Métis speech patterns, at first strange to the ear, become more familiar with each book until they're completely natural. The independent spirit of all the people living in and around this small town feels familiar. When faced with a problem, they prefer to deal with it themselves. No agencies or government bureaucrats for the people of Toussaint. Even Du Pré's fiddle playing has a life of its own. Bowen's prose are lean and totally evocative of the place and the people of which he writes. There's not an unnecessary scene or phrase to be found.

If you'd like to spend a couple of hours with some real characters taking care of business, if you'd like to get a feel for the real West, you can't go wrong with a Gabriel Du Pré mystery by Peter Bowen.

"For he is like a refiner's fire"
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.

Great color but the mystery isn't exactly solved
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.

A'growling and a'prowling
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.

Couldn't figure this one out
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! ... Read more

Product Description
Peter Bowen’s unique Montana mysteries featuring cattle-brand inspector and occasional sleuth Gabriel Du Pré have always received the critics’ highest praise. Now these two highly acclaimed mysteries in the series, Wolf, No Wolf and Notches, are brought together in one volume.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Wolf No Wolf must read for endangered species huggers
As a long time, dedicated extreme tree hugging Sierra Clubber I very strongly recommend Wolf, No Wolf to all other extreme tree hugging Sierra Clubbers. Too often we try to impose our values on those we see as backwards and unenlightened neandrathals.Bowenthrough Du Pre shows us the other side of the endangered species issue, its effects on those on whom we attempt to impose our values, in this case,ranchers and other residents in a dying Montana culture. If their reaction to outsiders forcing change on them is sometimes violent, that is understandable if not forgivable. I also live in a small rural town and have been to meetings almost exactly as Bowen describes them and can testify that Wolf, No Wolf does not contain a false note. We enviros must try to better understand the other side and be much more empathetic towards others needs and feelings.
It is unfortunate that Notches has been paired with Wolf, No Wolf. The first is very trenchant social commentary wrapped up as a mystery. The second is a very bloody mystery whose only redeeming quality for me is the byplay between the usual cast of characters. If this were not a Du Pre mystery I would not read it.

Montana, Its Glories, Its People
Wolf/No Wolf is on the sad juxtoposition of those who have lived on the land and loved it, trying to eke out a living, and those who would like to return the Earth to its natural wonder.Interesting to point out that some environmentalists might be a tiny bit control-oriented, and that those against them may have agendas other than just protecting a way of life.Notches takes up serial killers, who prey on young people who may have been bounced from home or run from an abusive situation and are not just spoiled brats.Du Pre's solution to problems recalls Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee and Ellis Peters's Cadfael in which justice prevails, perhaps ignoring externally-applied laws.Additional is telling of a way of life of the Metis, of whom I never learned in school.

Notches is the book worth reading!
Notches is the book that saved me from giving this whole thing a bad review.

Wolf, No Wolf is about how a bunch of tree huggers (yes I have Montana blood in me!) end up dying. Du Pre and Bart (the sheriff in this book) know its one of the locals, but they aren't sure who. Benetsee is his mysterious self and theres a couple of new characters that play a fairly large role. They don't last long, but they are interesting to see.Bart and Du Pre wrap this case up in usual fashion.

Although some might think that Notches is a bit grim, I did enjoy it.Notches is the story of how Du Pre takes matters into his own hands regarding two serial murder's (skinned little girls keep showing up along Highway 2 and another highway that runs north and south...can't remember the name right now).This book is a quick read and the pace keeps things moving along.

Four-legged and two-legged predators
"Wolf, No Wolf" will never make the Sierra Club's list of recommended reading.It is third in a series of mysteries starring Gabriel Du Pré, the Métis descendant of French Voyageurs and Plains Indians, and it is rabidly anti-environmentalist and pro-rancher.

"Notches" is the fourth in the series, and while the former features four-legged predators, the latter concerns itself with the two-legged variety.

Rabid or not, such is the power of Bowen's writing and the nobility of his characters in "Wolf, No Wolf" that even clean, green bunny-huggers (like me) might end up voting for the ranchers and against the re-introduction of wolves into Big Sky Country at story's end.

All of the regulars at Touissant Bar are part of the action.Du Pré, master fiddler and part-time brand inspector is cast in the role of peacemaker. With help from his friends, the Shaman Benetsee, Bart the rich-guy-turned-sheriff, Du Pré's long-time mistress, Madelaine, and Booger Tom, the ancient, homicidal cowhand, he braves avalanches, gunfire, and false medicine men in order to prevent open warfare between the ranchers and the Earth First! crowd.

There are good ranchers, and there are really evil ranchers who sell dead horses for dogmeat.

There are good FBI agents (not very many) who are either Montanans and/or part Amerindian.The vast majority of agents are feeble, clueless, and from out-of-state.Some of them are so dim-witted as to try and arrest the Shaman Benetsee, who plays a wonderful joke on them with his coyotes.

All of the environmentalists, New Age mystics, and Yuppies in "Wolf, No Wolf" are easily identified by their expensive, crassly-colored, mail-order garments of many pockets.They are even dumber than the FBI agents, and are easily led astray, even unto death, by the book's villains.

And die they do, by avalanche and grizzly, by gunshot and knife, and by freezing to death in Alberta Clippers.The ranchers rescue as many as they can, but winter in Montana is truly hell-frozen-over.Some of Bowen's leanest, most vivid prose is devoted to descriptions of out-landers and cattle that venture out into the jaws of a Blue Northerly.

Better to stay in the Touissant Bar and drink fizzy, pink, screw-top wine, and listen to Du Pré fiddle the sad, old Voyageur songs.

On the other hand, if you're still in the mood for mayhem, follow him into "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 (see above "Wolf, No Wolf") 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. ... Read more

Product Description
MysteryLarge Print EditionDu Pr has the soul of a poet, the eye of a wise man and the heart of a comic . . . Mr. Bowen has taken the antihero of Hemingway and Hammett and brought him up to date.New York Times* 1996 Spur Award Finalist forBest Western NovelDu Pr remembers when you could trade animal skins for merchandise at Sears & Roebuck. Now the wolves are gone from the mountains and outsiders want them back, but the trouble over wildlife is getting people killed. First, two activists die by sniper fire. Then four more lives are snuffed out as a brutal winter storm barrels down on a carnival of Feds, reporters and protesters. Du Pr knows one of his own people is behind the bloodletting and that in a rugged land, you dont quit hunting until youre dead . . .Amazon.com Review
Gabriel Du Pre (introduced in Bowen's two earlier books, Coyote Wind andSpecimen Song) is fiddling for a crowd of dancers in the ToussaintBar when strange news arrives:someone has cut the fences of several Montana ranchersand shot their cattle.Environmental protesters are suspected.But when theprotesters are shot and burned in their cars, Du Pre must look for answers -- hindered by the FBI and by a winter storm that buries evidence and nearly buries him as well.Mingling Indian lore, humor, and a feel for the West,Wolf, No Wolf is a potential crime classic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Ranchers� side of the story
"Wolf, No Wolf" will never make the Sierra Club's list of recommended reading.It is third in a series of mysteries starring Gabriel Du Pré, the Métis descendant of French Voyageurs and Plains Indians, and it is rabidly anti-environmentalist and pro-rancher.

Rabid or not, such is the power of Bowen's writing and the nobility of his characters that even clean, green bunny-huggers (like me) might end up voting for the ranchers and against the re-introduction of wolves into Big Sky Country at story's end.

All of the regulars at Touissant Bar are part of the action in "Wolf, No Wolf."Du Pré, master fiddler and part-time brand inspector is cast in the role of peacemaker. With help from his friends, the Shaman Benetsee, Bart the rich-guy-turned-sheriff, Du Pré's long-time mistress, Madelaine, and Booger Tom, the ancient, homicidal cowhand, he braves avalanches, gunfire, and false medicine men in order to prevent open warfare between the ranchers and the Earth First! crowd.

There are good ranchers, and there are really evil ranchers who sell dead horses for dogmeat.

There are good FBI agents (not very many) who are either Montanans and/or part Amerindian.The vast majority of agents are feeble, clueless, and from out-of-state.Some of them are so dim-witted as to try and arrest the Shaman Benetsee, who plays a wonderful joke on them with his coyotes. (A previous reviewer compared Benetsee to Yoda.Boys and girls, that reviewer was dead-on.Lucasfilm© should take Peter Bowen to court for kidnapping.)

All of the environmentalists, New Age mystics, and Yuppies in "Wolf, No Wolf" are easily identified by their expensive, crassly-colored, mail-order garments of many pockets.They are even dumber than the FBI agents, and are easily led astray, even unto death, by the book's true evil empire (sorry, Lucasfilm©).

And die they do, by avalanche and grizzly, by gunshot and knife, and by freezing to death in Alberta Clippers.The ranchers rescue as many as they can, but winter in Montana is truly hell-frozen-over.Some of Bowen's leanest, most vivid prose is devoted to descriptions of out-landers and cattle that venture out into the jaws of a Blue Northerly.

Better to stay in the Touissant Bar and drink fizzy, pink, screw-top wine, and listen to Du Pré fiddle the sad, old Voyageur songs.

Gabriel Du Pre is fascinating, unique, one of the best ever.
If you like Dick Francis, you'll love Peter Bowen. Gabriel Du Pre, a Montana Metis, is more woodswise than Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon, tougher than sun-shrunk rawhide, and thoroughly believable. Peter Bowen has captured the fiery independence of the REAL rural west ... Read more

Product Description
Gabriel Du Pr, the protagonist of Peter Bowen's atmos-pheric, engrossing series set in the dirty, dusty Montana prairielands, is besieged by a rumor about a parcel containing the lost journals of Lewis and Clark. Outsiders are beginning to invade Toussaint, drawn by the spirit of the legendary explorers, not to mention the payoff for those to come up with the priceless journals. When Du Pr's friends and family wind up squarely in the face of danger, he doesn't have much choice but to wade in and fight it out, hoping to protect those who are most dear to him. Peter Bowen's work has been called smart, shrewd, funny, imaginative, special, solid, wry, pictures-que, totally absorbing, intelligent, outstanding, and dazzling, among many other things, and The Tumbler continues the tradition in what has become a classic series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

I enjoy the time I spend with Gabriel Du Pre
First Line: "She was some pissed," said Bassman.

It is said the lost journals of Meriwether Lewis are somewhere to be found in Toussaint, Montana. It is also said that Gabriel Du Pré is the only person who knows where they are. Technically that's not true, but Du Pré's old friend Benetsee isn't exactly the type of person to do anything he doesn't want to do (which is precisely why Gabe gave him the journals). The federal government believes that he should hand over the journals free of charge, and while Du Pré's lawyer has the Feds tied up in knots, other less pleasant forces make it clear that they want the journals, too.

Du Pré throws back the cash-filled envelopes they leave on his car seat; he has no use for them. Unfortunately the stakes are raised when two friends are kidnapped with the journals sought as ransom. Will Du Pré be able to settle everything to his satisfaction with none of the good guys getting hurt?

I love this series, and I've always been clear about Du Pré being about the furthest away from a Politically Correct character that a reader can find. He drinks too much, he smokes too much, he drives too fast (often all three at the same time), he ekes out a living playing a fiddle in local roadhouses-- even his child-rearing techniques won't pass inspection with today's modern mothers.

What he doesn't lack is a moral center made of flawless diamond. Evidently all that cigarette smoke and alcohol not only fuels his fiddling but adds to this man's unshakable integrity. The beauty of Montana and the history of a small segment of its population are two reasons why I love this series so much, but there's another reason for my love. Du Pré's Montana is shown as a battleground where technology and greed smash headlong into the concept of personal integrity.

Long live responsibility and integrity.

Up above the world you fly...
It is easy to get accustomed to Peter Bowen's mysteries starring Gabriel Du Pre.In a sense, the Metis Indian is someone we all want to be.Smart, deeply in tough with his community and its environs, a man with strong relationships, good friend, and a wry, penetrating wit.Equally at home with the mysticism of medicine men and FBI agents.And very determined to see his way to the truth.

The truth is what is most elusive in The Tumbler.Du Pre and Benetsee (the ageless medicine man) have discovered some important Lewis & Clark artifacts (or have they?) and the government is suing to get them, people are dropping money in an effort to buy than, and someone seems perfectly willing to murder to get their hands on them.In the midst of this Julie, the niece of Bart Fascelli (Du Pre's rich friend) shows up in Toussaint to work on her own issues.All this makes for a rich, multi-layered stew of motives and priorities.

In retrospect, the story is even more of a tapestry than Bowen's previous efforts.Thieves, murderers, the law, sorcerers and gymnasts are the threads, and Du Pre, with the help of his companion Madelaine and the mysterious Benetsee must find where the knot is and untie it before the worst happens.Bowen's stories are noted for luring you in with light banter and intriguing characters only to his you firmly over the head at the end. And The Tumbler is no exception.Be prepared.

One thing I had not realized is that Peter Bowen is a private person.I was curious about why this particular title was chosen.Young Julie and her boyfriend are gymnasts, which is part of it, but my intuition tells me that there is more.Something like the sacred clowns of the Navaho.After scouring the web I can report that other than book reviews and short bios, Peter Bowen has a very light network footprint for this day and age.Yet another mystery in a book that asks more questions than it answers.In many ways this is the most thoughtful and, perhaps, the best written of the Du Pre stories.Enjoy.

Fans will enjoy it
The latest installment in the DuPree mysteries was a little more convoluted than I expected.Even when I finished, I had to go back and reread parts of the story to figure out just why/what happened.Bowen never spells it out, he leaves you to work it out for yourself, much like Benetsee does to DuPree.
As far as the mystery goes, it's not my favorite in the series, Ash Child and Notches worked better in that department.But for pure enjoyment,the storytelling was superb, the humor wry, and the people so real you feel you could eat at the roadhouse next friday.
As to the other reviewer who disliked the book, I think this story would be more enjoyable to people who are already somewhat familliar with the series than to a first timer.The relationships of the characters are more important to the story than the mystery.If you can start with the first book and work your way through, you'll get far more out of it.
I did like the cast of players in the front.Finally we have a count of and names for Madaline's 4 (+-) children (Although I have to wonder what happened to Stephanie, her oldest from Coyote Wind, Simon and little Sebastian, and the two or three other children named earlier in the series...maybe I'll just chalk it up to DuPree or possibly Bowen having one too many ditches...)
But as for The Tumbler, fans of the series will definitly enjoy this latest installment. I look forward to the next book.

Much Ado
My husband gave me this book for my birthday.It was the only book I took with me on a business trip to Vancouver.I REALLY wanted to like it.I actually wanted to love it.I was completely frustrated by it:not the language, which I found the most interesting part of the whole thing.I just thought the characters were smug and full of themselves and the mystery wasn't very compelling and all the good stuff happened in between the chapters.And if Du Pre went out to see if the wise old Benetsee had come home ONE MORE TIME I think I would have started ripping pages out of the damn thing.Bowen needs to write a book about the music of the Metis (the only exciting parts of the book were when Du Pre and Bassman and Pere Godin were playing their music) and forget about the "mystery" since he's not any more involved in it than we aren't.

Excellent and thoughtful
Violence is never far removed from Gabriel Du Pre's life. It starts when an angry girlfriend breaks in on Du Pre's band and starts shooting the bass player. But things get worse when someone attacks one of his friends and maces the friend's daughter. And the legal troubles Du Pre finds himself in over the journals he's discovered from the Lewis and Clark Expedition suddenly explode when someone starts offering big bucks for the journals--no questions asked. Du Pre isn't selling, but Indian wise man Benetsee tells Du Pre that his troubles are only starting. Before long, there will be death. And Du Pre and his friends will be in the middle of it.

Author Peter Bowen tells a fascinating story of old treasure, modern greed, Indian wisdom, and the west. Du Pre, Benetsee, and several of the other characters ring absolutely true and Bowen paints a vivid picture of rural life in Montana.

As with the other books in the Gabriel Du Pre series, THE TUMBLER is both a fascinating mystery and an even more fascinating look into character and the land. Du Pre and the other characters don't speak much and when they do, their dialect takes a bit of getting used to, but I found charm, wisdom, and a nice sense of humor combined in what they had to say. THE TUMBLER is a definite winner with plenty of red herrings, lots of people with more money than sense, and an ending that is exciting and satisfying, while being as wistful as is Bowen's picture of the dying west. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Book
Having admittedly bought this book at a Phar-Mor "bargain books" section in 1989-ish for one or two dollars (those were the days!!), this book immediately entered into the (literally)"bang for the buck" category!Kamin's extraordinary photos, though somewhat biased toward the "trio years" and 1980-84 in general, well capture the theatrics and imagination of Genesis' and Peter Gabriel's stage shows, and its commentary by Goddard, though somewhat equally biased toward this period, is equally evocative.The good but overly short interviews of Collins, Rutherford, Banks and Gabriel (PG in "Plays Live" mode; Collins only a year away from the success of "No Jacket Required") are also of interest, clarifying the misunderstandings (no pun intended!) on the group's shift from progressive rock pioneers to superstar intelligent-pop trio of the 1980's, and the making of the trio's self-titled 1983 release.

Excellent Book
Having admittedly bought this book at a Phar-Mor "bargain books" section in 1989-ish for one or two dollars (those were the days!!), this book immediately entered into the (literally)"bang for the buck" category!Kamin's extraordinary photos, though somewhat biased toward the "trio years" and 1980-84 in general, well capture the theatrics and imagination of Genesis' and Peter Gabriel's stage shows, and its commentary by Goddard, though somewhat equally biased toward this period, is equally evocative.The good but overly short interviews of Collins, Rutherford, Banks and Gabriel (PG in "Plays Live" mode; Collins only a year away from the success of "No Jacket Required") are also of interest, clarifying the misunderstandings (no pun intended!) on the group's shift from progressive rock pioneers to superstar intelligent-pop trio of the 1980's, and the making of the trio's self-titled 1983 release. ... Read more

Product Description
In this collection of quotations Peter Gabriel talks about his life and music from his days as lead singer with Genesis to his solo career. He discusses his spectacular live concerts, his involvement in the Womad Festival, and his support for the Anti-Apartheid Movement. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

SO DISAPPOINTING!
When I bought this book, I thought it would be more of an autobiographical type of book.I was so disappointed to find out that all it is, is a compilation of quotes from Peter Gabriel over the years.
Yes, there were a few interesting facts to be found in it, but nothing that would really, truly give anyone a feeling that they finished the book knowing any more about this brilliant artist than they probably already knew... it simply stated a topic.. and then followed with a few pages of various quotes on that subject by Gabriel.Not what I expected by any means.Not worth the money in my opinion.You could probably get more info through Google or any other site like that.Don't waste your money on this.

Leaves much to be desired...
I bought this book to learn more about one of my favorite musicians.Instead, this book simply provides random quote after quote.I didn't learn anything from this book that I didn't know before, it provided verylittle insight into the artist himself.It was also very short (only 95pages).Hardly enough to describe anything in detail.One plus though,were the photos.Seeing pictures of Peter Gabriel in concert was a greatquality of the book.If you want a light read about a great musician, thenthis is the book for you.If you really want to learn something about theartist himself, look elsewhere.

Peter Gabriel - the man himself
In this book, Peter Gabriel talks about everything from his childhood experiences, musical influences, the inspirations for his music and gives the meanings to his music and songs.An all-round excellent book for those interested in music, world music, and musical advances or even the man himself ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

The Other Person's God is the Devil
A dark novel in which Bowen and Du Pre Father Van der Heuval face the all-too-frequent situation of Fundamentalists, those farthest from a prophet's original teaching, who take their own "truth" to the ultimate horrors.

Never mind that Jesus, and Muhommed, and Budda all urged compassion, and integrity, and joy, their even saying,"Whoever is not against us if for us."As in the Viet-Nam war, these groups destroy the village in order to save it, even unto the death of whichever "other" person it faces.(A character excuses himself that he should be forgiven causing the death of "an other," as he hadn't intended death, just releasing the victim from the unclean spirit he perceived within the person.)

Rodney King says,"Can't we just all get along?"Jesus and Muhommed and Budda would be nodding their heads at him.

Nails
Any Gabriel Dupree mystery by Peter Bowen is a literary gem, and this novel is no exception. Aided by a wonderful cast of eccentric family and neighbors, Dupree again unravels a knot of murder, greed, and human folly. I particularly enjoyed the prominent role played by the loveably klutzy priest, Father Van Den Heuvel, in this book.

Gabriel Dupree...
is one of my favorite characters.Peter Bowen really shows what the West was all about in writing these books.I grew up in Central and Southern Oregon which is still cow country with authentic cowboys who wear pistols and carry rifles in their rigs.Gabriel Dupree and his friends are a little overdrawn but not by much.The language, characterizations, plots, and landscape are all entwined to create a sense of place and time that is fast disappearing.The story "Nails" has to do with horse racing and the use of young teens as jockeys.There is also a sub plot having to do with white supremists and certain individuals who have too much money and not enough brains.This book fleshes out some of the characters that have been floating through the earlier stories, such as Gabriel's granddaughters and Booger Tom.

A good read
This is not the best of the Gabriel Du Pre Mysteries but is still a good read.

A Dying Place
Peter Bowen alternates between serious detective fiction and a more lighthearted style the often makes gentle fun of life in upstate Montana.I like both, but lately Bowen has been more humor than mystery (consider Stewball, for instance).Nails is a return to the harder fiction style of Wolf, No Wolf and Notches and once again proves that Bowen is a writer to be reckoned with.

The subject is a touchy one.A group of Evangelical Christian has moved into the Toussaint area, and trouble starts happening.Graffiti starts appearing on the door of Father Van Den Heuvel's church.For those of us who have become fans of the clumsy priest who habitually shuts is head in the car door, Nails is a special treat.The good father gets a real part and some surprising facets of his character come out.But, as Van Den Heuvel himself points out, this is hardly the real problem.

A young girl calls 911 and begs for help, a body found, and gradually a series of strange events centers around the evangelicals and the local people who have welcomed them.Not just a spate of graffiti, pop-up sermons, and minor larceny - child abuse of the worst sort is feared, and Dupre is once again on the hunt - and complaining about the lack of help from Benetsee, the local shaman.Even without spiritual help, Dupre is inexorable.He smells evil and intends to root is out.

As I've already said, Bowen focuses on a sensitive issue, and he doesn't pull any punches.It is interesting that I read this book just as several stories about excessive discipline appeared in the news.Most of us don't realize that what we see - what actually gets report - is the very tip of the iceberg.Bowen takes the issue head on, mixing in enough local color to provide a stark contrast.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Theother reviewers missed out
on telling you that the author was on of the two to three collaborators of Einstein (The others being Valentine Bargmann and Leopold Infeld) on Unified field theories.

It is a beautifully written account of the gravitational theory. The monster mind himself has written the foreword.

Buy a used copy
This book is one of the first introductions to the theory of relativity that has the endorsement of the discoverer of the theory. Albert Einstein was alive when the book was first published, and writes the foreward to the book. Individuals who want to learn relativity should still take a look at this book, in spite of the somewhat outdated mathematical notation. In more contemporary textbooks and monographs the physical intuition is usually sacrificed and replaced with mathematical formalism. But here the author puts the main emphasis on the physics behind the subject. It is one of the few books still in print that discusses the relativistic mechanics of mass points and continuous matter.

The reader will also get an overview of early approaches to unified field theories. Historians of science will be interested in particular with this discussion. It is amazing how much has changed in this area since this book was published in 1942. The advent of superstring and M-theory has given physicists a view of reality that is set on a mathematical structure that is quite formidable. It now takes years for a student to obtain the necessary mathematical background to reach the frontiers of unified theories. In this book, it only takes the reading of the first two parts to be able to understand the author's overview of unified field theories. Particular attention should be paid to the treatment of the gauge-invariant geometry of Hermann Weyl, because of its relevance to the construction of gauge theories in elementary particle physics. The geometry of Weyl is constructed using a symmetric tensor representing the gravitational field and a pseudovector that represents the vector potential. When a gauge transformation is applied to this vector potential, it changes by a gradient, which, as the author remarks, is the historical reason for calling the addition of a gradient to the electromagnetic vector potential a gauge transformation. In addition, variational principles play a role in this discussion, and these principles have wide applicability to the quantization of gauge theories in modern developments. The role played by adding extra dimensions to formulate a field theory is summarized here by the author in his discussion of five-dimensional field theories and Kaluza-Klein theories. Ten- and eleven-dimensional theories now dominate modern unified theories. It would be very interesting to know what the author and Einstein would have thought about the theories of today, entrenched as they are in the most complex mathematical constructions ever applied to physical theory.

Excellent first exposure
Don't know of a superior first exposure to relativity.It starts with elementary situations and examines the conflicts with pre-relativistic kinematical viewpoints.This motivates the requirements for special relativities' postulates and their immediate consequences.

From here, the more complex issues of special relativity are dealt with in an orderly fashion; e.g. rigid body dynamics, relativistic hydrodynamics and electromagnetic theory from a relatavistic point of view.

General tensor analysis is covered in a separate chapter for pursuing the general relativity chapters of the book.Incidentally, this chapter is among the most clear expositions on tensors out there.

Finally, general relativity is covered in the same stepwise fashion as was done in the special relativity chapters.The natural introduction of more complex ideas which start from basics is perhaps, the single reason why this book is a hard to beat introduction to relativity.

After a thorough digestion of Bergmann, one is ready to spring up to the next level, the masterful Weinberg.

Making the complex understandable
Peter was able to give examples which made the complex easier to understand. The edges of the first sections in a copy in the Caltech library were black from use. I was privileged to be a guinea pig for the first edition.

A masterpiece in physics.
This book describes the foundations of relativity in a clear and concise way. The development of tensor analysis is especially clear. It is great for anyone who has studied calculus, differential equations, and classicalphysics. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Peter Bowen's Montana Mysteries
Once we became acquainted with Peter Bowen's Montana Mysteries with Gabriel DuPre, Mdelaine, Benetsee, and the other Toussaint regulars, we were hooked.
How could we miss any of their adventures, their irreverent attitude, their music, their Metis culture.
They have become real people we have enjoyed knowing.

Silly Plot and Character Development
The Bowen mystery series are not the Great American Novel, and yes they are a bit formulaic, but the mysteries are always complex and often intertwined in the lives of multiple characters often appearing in multiple books and story lines. The dialogue is unique to the Montana Mysteries and well worth the price of admission.

This particular book was not among the best in that Bowen really strained credulity to get a bunch of neo-nazi crazies accepted as somewhat normal gun-owners. I though this strained the plot and really had the main characters playing out scenarios and expressing (or at least not countering) some pretty silly anti-gun sentiments. I can't accept the premise and the story line is also strained, as if Bowen has gotten too much flak for berating lefties and not enough rightwing-bashing in earlier novels and is trying to cozy up to an ultra-liberal new love interest at the expense of his normally more fluid and authentic western US attitudes. Get back to Red State acceptance! This is the first review I have given less than a 4-star rating to a Dupre novel.

"Good country, this."
We're back in another trip to the world of the Metis, who inhabit Montana and parts north, and have a culture uniquely their own - full of music, a love for the independent life, and a fractured grammar that makes backwards, everything.Peter Bowen has spent a lifetime telling the stories of Gabriel du Pres, cattle inspector, brilliant fiddle player, and solver of mysteries.Don't get the idea that Gabriel is a superman.He is carefully herded and guarded by his woman Madelaine, his daughters, madeliane's daughters, and Benetsee the shaman.

In Stewball, Gabriel sets out to find Auntie Pauline's latest boyfriend, and finds a corpse instead.Badger, Gabriel discovers, was doing the FBI a favor, and apparently ran into something bigger than he expected - big stakes horse racing and right wing militancy.Gabriel decides to get involved.Soon he and Booger Tom are the front men in a sting operation that seems to involve the FBI, the ATF, and any other law enforcement organization in the neighborhood.

As always, this story is more about the people than it is about the crime.Of everyone who appears though, the star of this story is Lourdes, Madelaine's oldest daughter, a natural horsewoman, and every bit as frightening as the other women in our hero's life, including Lourde's sister, Pallas, 10-year-old genius and evil spirit.

It is Lourdes' riding skills on Stewball that enable Gabriel and Tom to appear as wealthy horse racers so as to infiltrate the secret brush races and expose the doings of a closed circle of plotters.But men have died already, and the members of the club are wealthy enough to buy their way clean.The forces are evenly matched, but never count a determined Metis out of any fight.

For all its serious moments, Bowen tells this story with a very light touch and vivid characterization.I have come to love all the du Pres stories, but Stewball is special, full of all the things that makes this series entertaining.For all that this is the twelfth book in the series, you could easily start right here.Most likely you will go back and read them all.

Ole Stewball was a racehorse
I was as puzzled by this book's ending as I have been with all of Peter Bowen's endings since "Ash Child."I finished it, but I felt like I'd been dragged through a séance in the sweat lodge with the inscrutable Benetsee.Maybe the meaning of "Stewball"s conclusion will come to me in a dream.

At least the rich neo-nazi ranchers come out of this book nearly as whupped as the readers.Not that I think they don't deserve a good bashing, but I wasn't quite sure what the evil rancher intended to do with his vintage World War II P-38.He goes wooshing around in it at the end of the book, but he has no specific target that the readers need to worry about like an NAACP Convention or an American Civil Liberties Union picnic or a Navaho Tribal Council.

Nobody out on the prairie, Mr. Blackmore, except us chickens.We're all Aryan chickens so don't be pointing those cannons at us.

Oh well, I get the feeling the author wrote "Stewball" on automatic pilot.It consists mainly of non-expletive-deleted dialog between characters from his previous books.Luckily, Bowen provides an index of characters at the beginning of this book; otherwise new readers will never be able to figure out who's who.

Booger Tom, one of my favorite characters from previous novels in the Du Pré mystery series, gets lots of face time in "Stewball."He is pretending to be a race horse trainer.Bowen also clues us in on this old ranch hand's background: he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor at Heartbreak Ridge in Korea, and also fought in France and Austria in WWII.

This old guy should be writing his memoirs, not mending barbwire and worming cows!

Anyway, Du Pré, the retired brand inspector and Booger Tom team up to race an Australian Quarter Horse named Stewball in brush races attended by neo-nazi ranchers.Du Pré's FBI buddy, Harvey Wallace asks them to discover who murdered one of his snitches, who was passing counterfeit money at a brush race.The snitch also happened to be married to one of Du Pré's aunts.

That's about all the plot there is.Benetsee holds a couple of séances in his sweat lodge and dons his war paint.Du Pré laces on his Cree running moccasins and rubs dirty engine oil on his face.He shoots a couple of bad guys with his MP-40, sets fire to a bunch of aviation fuel drums, and drinks a whole lot of bourbon.

Stewball wins a few races.

That's it, except for some long-winded, expletive-not-deleted lectures on the American far-right.

P.S. Mr. Bowen, if Stewball is a blue roan, he has a black mane and tail, not gray or white.

Stewball's fast paced and perfect Gabriel du'Pre
All of Peter Bowen's books are a fast, furious, and a fun read, including Stewball.I love Gabriel's friends and family.I also love the focus on Metis and their culture, because I am familiar with it, and also with the geographic areas the stories tend to be set in.The characters are pretty much like real people seen though a sardonic eye, with a bit of poetic license thrown in.They are real enough to draw you into their concerns but exaggerated enough to make it fun.May the ink never dry in Mr. Bowen's pens. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is the first time in over 20 years that Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford have collaborated creatively on a project, working together to create the complete history of Genesis. It is a story that spans 30 years and 30 albums selling a staggering 212 million copies worldwide. It embraces world tours that have played to 25 million people and it covers the high-profile departure over the years of one vocalist, (Peter Gabriel), one highly influential guitarist (Steve Hackett) and their best-known drummer and vocalist (Phil Collins). Key fellow members of the band, management, road crew and entourage have also been interviewed, including Jonathan King (their first manager, who got Genesis signed to Decca in 1967), long-time cohort and road manager Richard MacPhail, Anthony Phillips (guitarist, founder member to 1970), Tony Smith (manager since 1973), drummers Bill Bruford, Chris Stewart and John Silver, and Ray Wilson, the Genesis vocalist after Phil Collins. ... Read more

Product Description
As gruesomely dismembered corpses of young women are discovered one after another in his small Montana ranching town, Gabriel Du Pre angrily begins the hunt for a murderer and finds that he must try to think like the serial killer in order to catch him.Amazon.com Review
Relying on intuition as much as hard evidence, Gabriel DuPré turns his trained eye on the trail of the monster, ormonsters, responsible for a horrific string of murders in Montana. Theinitial clues are few, and identification is impossible because thevictims--all young women--were discovered with their lower jaws andteeth removed. The case hits close to home when the daughter of DuPré's lover, Madelaine, turns up missing. Working with G-manHarvey Wallace, Du Pré begins, almost unconsciously at first,to mirror the patterns of a serial killer in a desperate attempt toprevent another death, knowing too well that his descent into madnesscould have a profound and permanent effect. Notches is thefourth book in a series of Du Pré mysteries in which PeterBowen infuses elements of Indian folklore into his sparse writingstyle to create deep characters who reveal much in few words. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

"Your babies are safe."
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.

Two-legged predators in a landscape from hell
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.

Its not a great cigar just good chewing tobacco
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

A lawman must think like a serial killer to catch him
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 ----- ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

PETER GABRIEL
I OWN ALMOST ALL OF ARMANDO GALLO'S BOOKS. BY FAR THIS IS WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD. IT IF FULL OF PICTURES BOTH COLOR AND B & W.
IT IS MY PRIZED BOOK NEXT TO MY LEATHER BOUND AUTOGRAPHED 'I KNOW WHAT I LIKE'.
PLUS ARMANDO HAS A HEART OF GOLD.[I'M PARALYZED] I GET STRENGTH FROM READING HIS BOOKS AND LOOKING AT HIS WONDERFUL PICTURES. IT REMINDS ME OF ALL THE GREAT GENESIS CONCERTS I HAVE BEEN TO BOTH BEFORE BEING [JULY 13 1982] PARALYZED AND AFTER. IF YOU CAN GET ANY OF HIS BOOKS YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED. PLUS HIS DAD IS GREAT PAINTER IF YOU LIKE ART. MAY GOD WATCH OVER HIM AND HIS FAMILY. I HOPE TO SEE MORE BOOKS BY ARMANDO AND PAINTINGS FROM HIS DAD. THANK YOU ARMANDO,
JIM KISTNER

peter gabriel by armando gallo
i want buing the book : peter gabriel by armando gall

peter gabriel by armando gallo
i want buing the book : peter gabriel by armando gall

Peter Gabriel by Armando Gallo
This is THE best book on Peter Gabriel ever done, mostly because it was written by Peter's close friend. Armando Gallo is a professional photographer, so the book is HEAVY on not just photographs, but excellent photographs of the man and his music. Peter also answers quite a lot of questions in his usual unusual way. Makes you PROUD to be a PG fan! The best part of the book is seeing PG in an apron doing the host of a party's dishes. Everyone else was smoking pot and Peter decided to wash pots. Good luck finding an intact copy of this--most owners of a copy would rather sell their firstborn than this. I knew one fan who sold INDIVIDUAL PAGES of it and made a small fortune. I myself do not have a copy--just got to borrow it. (Hint, hint ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (31)

A Must Have for Any Genesis Fan!
A wonderful book, full of insights from the band itself. Every member of Genesis past and present was interviewed for this book. From Peter Gabriel, to Anthony Phillips, to Steve Hackett, even Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson give insight into what it was like being in a band of Genesis's caliber, and of course Phil Collins, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford also have plenty to say!
This book is a must have for any true Genesis fan. If you have ever wanted to know the true story of one of the most popular bands ever, this is the book for you!

Great for the casual to intense Genesis fan
I am somewhere between that casual and intense Genesis fan. I have most of their albums, but I respect all of their work. I enjoyed both the Peter-fronted Genesis as well as the wide range of albums that followed. Even though I don't own Calling All Stations, I purchased a song or two from it and can appreciate it as well. That said, I've been on a Genesis kick lately with all the remastered releases, and I saw this book recommended somewhere. I agree with the typographical errors, although in a book this size, I think a few are forgivable. The most distracting, to me, were the instances where punctuation was missed because it sometimes altered how I'd read the sentence.

In any case, this is a great book. I didn't really get into the extremely early era of Genesis so it was great to read so much about their background and how they formed. I grew up in a world where Peter Gabriel was a solo artist so it was fascinating to read about him interacting within the context of a band. He seems so individualistic that I found that part of the book alone just a treat. What's great about the book is that they spared nothing -- they got everyone's viewpoint. Another reviewer commented that some things were edited out and I would have to imagine that with any book of this type, one would have to do some editing. Still, unless there are rumors out there or information in the other books mentioned that was left out of here, I can't imagine how someone would know otherwise. (This was the first book about the musical group Genesis that I have read.) Even if there was stuff mentioned in other books, perhaps that would be a good reason not to rehash old information.

In the long run, I thought that the editing was fairly clever. I don't know the order in which they interviewed each person and if they went back for multiple interviews, but each person's commentary is strung together so well that it appeared as if they were all in the same room commenting on the same topic. The photos do make up half the book and they are just fantastic. They are of high quality, fully annotated, and relate explicitly to the story being told. For example, there is a section on how Genesis innovated their light show and then the photos that follow specifically show the various lighting techniques being talked about. In another case, the various interviewees are talking about the importance of family and then there are family photos. I got the impression that everyone really opened up for this book. It's not what I'd call gossip-y, but it felt like privacy was not at the forefront, either. There is a definite bit of vagueness at the various points when band members left, but come on, they can't tell us everything, and I was pretty impressed with the memory people had.

There are interludes where you get "the manager's story" or "the former drummer's story" and these two-page excerpts are usually worth reading. They summarize what's been stated leading up to their involvement in the Genesis story but they add in an additional viewpoint and then the viewpoint ends with the editor summarizing the person's career and what they are doing now. It was a nice way of closing out each person's "chapter". Another reviewer said that the albums only received two or three pages each. I can understand that viewpoint because the albums are how we initially came to know Genesis and that's what we want to read about. I actually thought that the early part of the book dove deeply into each of the early albums. It felt that way because there were more band members commenting on the album (until the number of musical contributors dwindled down). It may have also seemed that way because some of those really early albums had 6 or 7 songs on them, and the later albums had 9 or 10 songs on them, so it was easier to describe an album song-by-song for those earlier songs.

Overall, I thought this was ridiculously enjoyable for someone who is fairly into Genesis. I put on my iPod with each set of songs or each album that was being talked about and listened while I was reading just to enhance the experience. If it's an album-by-album commentary you are looking for, I think this is still satisfying because while they do not dissect each track, they instead tell you about what is going on in their lives and in the music world which is what helped influence each album. They could probably make a tiny fortune putting all of their song lyrics into a book and having the main authors comment on each song. I think a few other artists have done this and I could see that being a great companion piece because it could act more as a reference book.

Excellent - "everything you ever wanted to know about Genesis"
This is a wonderful book.It tells the entire story of the band Genesis, including, of course, their origins, and their history, and also focuses on Phil Collins' and Peter Gabriel's solo careers.The book itself contains fantastic photos throughout, and is told "in their own words" for the most part, quoting them throughout the years.There are also separate essays from many of the people associated with the band, so you get a complete picture of how it was to be a part of their circle.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Genesis.

the best review of a prog group i ever seen.
modern, big, easy to understand nice photos, especially for the fans, who knows the group very well, excellent price.

Great Companion to the remixes...
I have read about Genesis for 25 years, and yet this book actually told me some things that I didn't know. Great for completists who want to know more about Anthony Phillips, and the various drummers who worked with them before and after Phil joined. Great selection of photos, as well.

A few typos, but I don't feel this takes from the value of the text...

Great product. The perfect companion to one of the greatest bands of all time. ... Read more

Product Description
Featuring Montanan cattle-brand inspector and occasional sleuth Gabriel Du Pré, Peter Bowen's spare and lyrical mysteries have always received the critics' highest praise.Now, the first two mysteries in the series, Coyote Wind and Specimen Song, are brought together in one volume.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great series set in Big Sky Country
What a great discover this series was! This volume contains the first two books in the series and I rate Coyote Wind five stars and Specimen Song four stars.

The heros name is Gabriel DuPre and he is a descendant of French voyagers and plains Indians called Metis. He is surrounded by a fantastic cast of friends and family that create a wonderful environment surrounding the stories.

The author writes sparingly in clear simple language that coveys a great deal of emotion and feeling among the characters in the series. The author says so much with so few words it is astounding. If you like books about real down to earth people, a wonderful, somewhat bleak environment andwarm human relationships revolving around a great mystery you should read this series.....Great reading and people you will remember and want as friends.

Primo intro to Montana thought processes
Coyote Wind and Specimen Song: The First Two Montana Mysteries Featuring Gabriel Du Pre (A Montana Mystery Featuring Gabriel Du Pre)

First of the MANY books in this series I have read, but only the first of many since. A bit formulaic in its approach and story line, but good character development and interesting plots. I enjoyed the Montana setting and the introduction to Montana politics and peoples. I did not agree with all of the notions and lifestyle choices expressed but found the two works worth the read!

Very Entertaining and the characters are great!
This series of books was recommended to me by my mom.We usually share the same opinions on books, but I wasn't sure about this one.

It took me awhile to get into the first book, but I did. The author switches viewpoints a lot which took me awhile to get used to.Once I did, it was great.

In the second book he picked up right where he left off. The characters are the same and the author seems to be more in tune with the characters (things flow more smoothly in my opinion).

Both stories are your generic murder mysteries with Indian superstition thrown in.In the first one Du'pre is trying to find out who killed his new friends brother 25 years ago.In the second one, someone is killing Indians in Washington DC.Bart, his new friend, falls in love with a detective in DC and Du Pre solves the mystery. Well I should say he takes justice into his own hands.

If you like interesting characters this series is great.

First two volumes of a unique Big Sky Country series
I think it was a mistake to bundle these two books together, even though they are the first two in a series of Montana mysteries featuring Gabriel Du Pré---and even though I saved money by not having to buy them separately."Coyote Wind" is a definite 'five stars.'"Specimen Song" drops down to 'three stars.'

"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 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.

"Specimen Song" features the same cast of characters as its predecessor.However, their personalities are exaggerated to the point of disbelief.The Métis prophet performs magic tricks.Du Pré goes jaunting back and forth to Washington D.C. in his friend's private jet, after turning the brand inspection business over to his son-in-law.He also canoes through the Canadian taiga, following the river route of his Voyageur ancestors.All of this traveling is in search of a killer, but somehow Du Pré seems more blustery than heroic when he is removed from the land where he can read the turn of a leaf.

Or the body language of an enemy.

I very much hope that Du Pré returns to Big Sky Country in volume III.

Good mysteries and great characters!
If you enjoy character development, these are the stories for you. GabrielDu Pre' and his cohorts are delightful---people you'd like to meet andspend time with---and you learn to know them as you get deeper into thesenovels.These are mystery stories written with a wonderful ear fordialogue and a wry take on life.Buy this book and enjoy these novels; youwon't be disappointed. ... Read more