Murder And Mayhem In Montana

Quiet fields broken by gunfire, the splash of a body dropping into the Madison River, cries for help cut off into silence and the grim last words spoken on the gallows all color the bloody history of Gallatin County. Cut-and-dried murder charges, unsolved cases and questionable accusations all paint the picture of law enforcement in and around early Bozeman. From the gruesome to the mysterious, sordid accounts of robbery, crimes of passion and fatal self-defense fill the annals of the historic county jail. Gallatin History Museum curator Kelly Suzanne Hartman chronicles each tale, allowing the reader to follow along the path of the investigations and the pursuit for justice.

As Jaci makes plans to travel to her deceased Father's ranch in Montana, she is unaware that a murder has taken place and that terror and mayhem await her arrival.

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 cattle branded by another ranch. Unofficially, he is responsible for much more than cows’ backsides. The barren country around Toussaint is too vast for the town’s small police force, and so, when needed, this hard-nosed Métis Indian lends a hand. In Gabriel Du Pré, “Bowen has taken the antihero of Hemingway and Hammett and brought him up to date . . . a fresh, memorable character” (The New York Times Book Review). Notches: Working alongside a Blackfoot FBI agent and his feisty female partner, Du Pré tracks a serial killer hunting young women in the Montana wilderness. “A haunting tale, punched out in arresting rhythms of speech powerful as a tribal drumbeat.” —Entertainment Weekly Thunder Horse: After an earthquake exposes an ancient burial site, Native American tribes fight over the remains and a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex tooth is found in the hands of a murdered anthropologist. Time for Du Pré to start digging. “Strange, seductive . . . The wonder of these voices is that they are . . . blunt, crude, soaked in whiskey and raspy from laughter, but still capable of leaving echoes.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review Long Son: After greedy, vicious Larry Messmer inherits his parents’ ranch, the FBI asks Du Pré to keep an eye on the pathological prodigal son. When violence inevitably erupts, Du Pré finds himself caught in the crosshairs. “Bowen’s writing is lean and full of mordant observations. His hardy characters . . . come to life, and his wry humor . . . provides relief from the haunting, wind-bitten cattle-ranch landscape.” —Publishers Weekly

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 branded by another ranch. Unofficially, he is responsible for much more than cows’ backsides. The barren country around Toussaint is too vast for the town’s small police force, and so, when needed, this hard-nosed Métis Indian lends a hand. In Gabriel Du Pré “Bowen has taken the antihero of Hemingway and Hammett and brought him up to date . . . a fresh, memorable character” (The New York Times Book Review). Coyote Wind: Newly discovered plane wreckage in the desert leads Du Pré to a hidden crime stretching back a generation. “Gabe’s rhythmic, regional voice and his sly wit take the novel to another level.” —Booklist Specimen Song: In Washington, DC, to play his fiddle for a Smithsonian festival, Du Pré pursues a serial killer who’s targeting Native Americans. A “plain-spoken, deep-thinking Montana cattle inspector” takes on a serial killer in DC. —The New York Times Book Review “Bowen’s prose is often droll and his characters well-etched.” —Publishers Weekly Wolf, No Wolf: When two activists agitating for the reintroduction of wolves into Montana’s high plains are murdered, Du Pré finds himself caught in the cross fire between ranchers, environmentalists, and FBI agents. “Fiddler, father, widower, cowboy and lover, Du Pré has the soul of a poet, the eye of a wise man, and the heart of a comic.” —The New York Times Book Review

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 branded by another ranch. Unofficially, he is responsible for much more than cows’ backsides. The barren country around Toussaint is too vast for the town’s small police force, and so, when needed, this hard-nosed Métis Indian lends a hand. In Gabriel Du Pré, “Bowen has taken the antihero of Hemingway and Hammett and brought him up to date . . . a fresh, memorable character” (The New York Times Book Review). The Stick Game: After a Native American boy turns up dead, Du Pré takes on a mining company that’s poisoning reservation children. Is there something more sinister than greed and indifference at work? “Wonderful . . . wise.” —The Washington Post Book World Cruzatte and Maria: While reluctantly serving as a consultant for a documentary about Lewis and Clark’s expedition up the Missouri River, Du Pré stumbles upon a national treasure: Meriwether Lewis’s lost journals. Then members of the film crew start dying . . . “A solid entry in a great series.” —Booklist Ash Child: In the midst of a drought in Toussaint, Montana, brushfires, meth dealers, and murder challenge the Métis Indian tracker and cattle investigator. “Compelling . . . plenty of action . . . a pleasure to read.” —Publishers Weekly

In On the Road Again, William Wyckoff explores Montana’s changing physical and cultural landscape by pairing photographs taken by state highway engineers in the 1920s and 1930s with photographs taken at the same sites today. The older photographs, preserved in the archives of the Montana Historical Society, were intended to document the expenditure of federal highway funds. Because it is nearly impossible to photograph a road without also photographing the landscape through which that road passes, these images contain a wealth of information about the state’s environment during the early decades of the twentieth century. To highlight landscape changes -- and continuities -- over more than eighty years, Wyckoff chose fifty-eight documented locations and traveled to each to photograph the exact same view. The pairs of old and new photos and accompanying interpretive essays presented here tell a vivid story of physical, cultural, and economic change. Wyckoff has grouped his selections to cover a fairly even mix of views from the eastern and western parts of the state, including a wide assortment of land use settings and rural and urban landscapes. The photo pairs are organized in thirteen “visual themes,” such as forested areas, open spaces, and sacred spaces, which parallel landscape change across the entire American West. A close, thoughtful look at these photographs reveals how crops, fences, trees, and houses shape the everyday landscape, both in the first quarter of the twentieth century and in the present. The photographs offer an intimate view into Montana, into how Montana has changed in the past eighty years and how it may continue to change in the twenty-first century. This is a book that will captivate readers who have, or hope to have, a tie to the Montana countryside, whether as resident or visitor. Regional and agricultural historians, geographers and geologists, and rural and urban planners will all find it fascinating.

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 by another ranch. Unofficially, he is responsible for much more than cows’ backsides. The barren country around Toussaint is too vast for the town’s small police force, and so, when needed, this hard-nosed Métis Indian lends a hand. In Gabriel Du Pré “Bowen has taken the antihero of Hemingway and Hammett and brought him up to date . . . a fresh, memorable character” (The New York Times Book Review). Badlands: When a mysterious cult takes over a cattle ranch, the people of Toussaint try to ignore their suspicious behavior. But when Du Pré gets a tip from an FBI contact that seven Host of Yahweh defectors were recently shot to death, he takes another look at the glassy-eyed conclave. Behind their peaceful smiles, evil lurks. “Gripping and humorous . . . truly riveting.” —Publishers Weekly The Tumbler: A few years back, Du Pré led a documentary film crew down the Missouri River to commemorate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Rumor now has it that the Montana fiddler is in possession of the long-lost writings of Meriwether Lewis, and an unscrupulous billionaire has kidnapped two of Du Pré’s friends to get his hands on the journals. “[Du Pré’s] moral center is unshakable. Another wonderful adventure in a great series.” —Booklist Stewball: When his aunt Pauline’s latest husband turns up shot, execution-style, Du Pré goes undercover to infiltrate a cabal of wealthy gamblers who pass their time racing horses in the barren Montana brush, among other nefarious activities. “[The] fast-paced narrative offers ample doses of local color, evenly spaced bursts of violence and an unforced laid-back style.” —Publishers Weekly

From gruesome murders to ghost sightings, a collection of historical stories ranging from terrifying Texas to spooky South Dakota. The Wild West is infamous for its outrageous stories, cowboys, and gun battles. But the region is also known for its ghost stories, unexplained deaths, bizarre murders, and peculiar burials. This book features numerous tales of true crime and odd phenomena from the frontier—from an investigation into a series of massacres that a female suspect claimed were committed by a religious cult to a body buried in the middle of a road and much more. Drawing on newspaper reports from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it’s a chilling tour of the farmhouses, saloons, graveyards, and gallows of the West.