In Bowen's winning 12th Gabriel Du Pr? novel, the Montana lawman agrees to help his Aunt Pauline find her current husband, Badger, who's gone missing. Du Pr? contacts his FBI friend, Harvey Wallace, who shows him a photo of Badger, shot dead at the base of the skull execution-style. And that's just the beginning of an investigation that involves a racehorse named Stewball, treasonous government agents and two, or possibly three, charred corpses in a plane. None of this seriously discomfits Du Pr?, who remains as relaxed as ever, even in the face of illegal horse racing and a scalping. As in previous Du Pr? books, the fast-paced narrative offers ample doses of local color, evenly spaced bursts of violence and an unforced, laid-back style. While this contemporary western mystery breaks no new ground, it rewards with its pleasing lack of pretension. (Apr. 18) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The FBI, the ATF and the fundamentalist Patrick Henry Patriots lock horns in cowboy country. Auntie Pauline, who's gone through four husbands, is keen on holding on to Badger, her fifth. When he disappears after cutting a deal with the feds--they'll look the other way at his drug misadventures if he'll do them a small favor--she guilts her nephew, fiddling cowboy Gabriel Du PrÉ, into chasing after him. The coyotes have been at Badger's body before Du PrÉ catches up with him, and for Auntie Pauline's sake he lets Blackfoot FBI agent Harvey Wallace talk him into taking over for Badger, going undercover with Booger Tom and flushing out the guys running brush races, who not only launder the betting take but use it to finance political causes to the right of Genghis Khan. To enter the brush races, the feds supply Stewpot the horse, Du PrÉ's horse-crazy granddaughter Lourdes becomes the jockey, and the bets are bankrolled by Du PrÉ's rich friend Bart. But the bad guys are suspicious, and it will take all the wiles of gorgeous on-leave agent Samantha Pigeon, saloonkeeper Susan Klein, Du PrÉ's gal-pal Madelaine, and his other granddaughter, Precocious Pallas, to save the day. The plot gets lost somewhere between Montana and South Dakota--routine for plot-impaired Bowen (Badlands, 2003, etc.)--but there's real pleasure watching the sassy women outsmart all the men, all the time. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Badger wasn't a bad guy; he just fell in with the wrong folks and got busted running illegal quantities of prescription drugs down from Canada. The FBI agent who busted him hoped he could lead the feds to the bigger fish in the prescription-drug racket, but Badger ends up with a bullet in his brain. The FBI agent is Harvey Wallace, longtime confederate of Gabe Du Pre, the retired Montana brand inspector and sometime lawman. Turns out Badger was married to Gabe's cousin, so Harvey asks Gabe if he'd like to help catch the bastards who did it, who may be a gang of bent ranchers using the drugs to dope racehorses. Gabe, in turn, enlists the aid of Booger Tom, an ancient cowboy, and Lourdes, his horse-whisperer granddaughter. And, of course, to get into the races, you have to have a horse. That would be Stewball. The twelfth entry in the Du Pre series is as consistently entertaining as its predecessors. Gabe, ever skeptical of the modern world and its institutions, places his faith in people, the land, a hand-rolled smoke, and the occasional ditch-water highball. --Wes Lukowsky Copyright 2005 Booklist

When his aunt's latest husband runs off, Gabriel (The Tumbler) follows but finds the man shot to death. A little investigation shows that the victim and his cohorts may have run afoul of the FBI. Rough and ready in the West. Bowen lives in Montana. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.