Badland Peter Bowen April 2003 ISBN 0-312-26252-3 St Martin’s Minotaur 250 pages / $23.95

BADLANDS is the latest Gabriel Du Pre tale from Mr. Bowen. It opens with our favorite cattle inspector playing his fiddle to send former neighbors off to their new life. The Eides have been hit hard by the decline of the price of beef and the ranch that’s been in their family for one hundred years has been sold. Purchased by a California Cult it soon becomes apparent to the people of Toussaint that all is not well . As the cult moves in pre-fab buildings for housing and begins to set up their school their behavior suggests that something very bad is about to happen. Soon F.B.I. agents Harper, Pidgeon and Ripper are hovering at the outside of a clandestine investigation into the cult. The F.B.I. connection is tenuous; former members all murdered in different states at the same time. Therefore the case must rely on Du Pre and advice from the always oblique Medicine Man Benetsee.

Once again Bowen brings to life his little corner of the wild, wild west. Long live DuPre and his marvelous family. This is still one of my favorite treasures in all of mysterydom.

Ruth Jordan