The Stick Game

Gabriel Du Pré, Book Seven

By: Peter Bowen

Narrated by: Jim Meskimen

Du Pré investigates a gold mining company whose pollution might be poisoning the children of a nearby reservation

Something is rotten in the Fort Belknap Reservation. Life has always been tough on this barren stretch just south of the Canadian border, but now the children are dying. While playing his fiddle in a reservation bar, part-time deputy Gabriel Du Pré meets an accordionist who suspects that the children’s health defects and low test scores are connected to the nearby Persephone mine.

Meanwhile, Du Pré investigates the disappearance of one of the afflicted children. When the boy turns up dead, the accordionist’s theory gains credence. It wouldn’t be the first time that the rich men of Montana found wealth at the expense of the reservation’s children.

©2000 Peter Bowen (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Awesome-mystery meets history

I have enjoyed all these Montana Mysteries so far. Love learning about the Metis, about the ice age, the various tribes, and love the humor all rolled into a true mystery.

This story is even more relevant now

Jim Meskimen is steadily improving his narration skills as he works through the series. He is still not as versatile in character voicing as Christopher Lane, but he's trying. The pronounciation issues that were noticeable in "Specimen Song" are much better now, and Toussaint is now Too-sont, as it should be. He does have trouble with Belknap, which is more like Bell-nap, not Belk-nap. Benetsee has developed a good voice now.

I think of the Gabriel Du Pre' series as one long book. I listen to them over and over, not out of an interest in solving the mystery, but just as a visit in Montana with some people I like ver' much, and wish there were more books.

"The Stick Game" refers to an Indian gambling game, and one of Madeleine's cousins is very good at it. She's battling alcoholism, and her kids have their own problems. One is a deaf mute, but runs the household while her mother is off on her alcoholic tears. There are two brothers, one who is mostly okay, but one is having trouble...and he's missing.

Du Pre' searches for the lost boy as a courtesy, but he pretty much knows what he'll find out there in the sweetgrass country. A chat with the lad's friends takes him to a favorite hideout of the kids, and a rank odor leads him the rest of the way, where a rotting corpse dangles from a rope in an old well. The despairing boy had left a suicide note.

The spring in the hiding place is poison, no wildlife in it, plants all dead, and these kids have ben drinking from it. The survivors tell Du Pre' that Danny was slow but not too bad until a few years ago, when he suddenly couldn't concentrate. It was getting worse and worse, until Danny couldn't take it any more.

What's in that water? It's almost certainly a polluted source from a big gold mine in the area, but supposedly everything that mine does is clean and legal. Paperwork's right.

While Du Pre' asks questions, he and his friends make music at the bars. Them Turtle Mountain boys, Bassman and Talley, play them some good music, goes nice with his fiddle. Talley has suffered since he was born with spina bifida or something similar, leaving him with an open wound in his lower spine. When Bart learns of the man's condition, he promptly sends Talley to the Mayo Clinic for help. Got to help a good musician any way you can.

You need to read/listen to these books in order, as they grow on the previous events. You can read them as stand-alones, but you're going to miss about thirty percent of what's going on because you don't know the backstory.

By far my favorite so far of the series

I laughed hard, Piney & Norris were by far the most lively characters of the series so far.

Billy Drank the Gold

Loved this book. I wish this series could be made into a production with the music included. I can almost hear it. These books have such powerful themes but also characters that are real, compassionate, passionate and funny. I love that there isn’t the level of violence that other mystery series seem to feel they need to include.

another good story

these are stand-alone books but I would read them from the beginning you'll get much more out of the book if you do the characters are inter woven in each book and develop in each book it's like their lives and you see a little glimpse of it and the books are interconnected in that way.

New Favorite Author!

My husband is not a reader and he misses so many good stories! After listening to the first in the series, I was hooked and asked him to listen to the book with me. Soon I began searching for additional stories and books by Peter Bowen! We listen to them while traveling mostly and sometimes in the evening when TV finds us disappointed and wondering why we bother with it at all! Peter Bowen was a Master Story Teller! We were wondering if he has written other books besides those about Gabriel DuPre. He picked superb narrators to portray the characters and bring them to life! When searching we found he passed away in 2022 due to COVID complications. We were saddened to hear this news although we never knew him other than through his stories and characters we send condolences to family and friends!

Always a Pleasure

One of the DuPre books is like tubing down the Guadalupe, sun overhead, gentle movement of the water around my feet, lifting and moving the tube, and nothing to do but lean back, relax, and savor every moment. I believe in Gabriel Dupre, his Madeline, his friend Bart and everyone else in the books. It's easy to imagine driving to Montana and finding them all waiting, Gabe with his ditch and whiskey, Madeline with her sweet pink wine, and Bart with his seltzer. This story made me sad because it dealt with the obscene level of pollution caused by mining, and the damage it does to wild life and people, but it was still beautifully told. And Meskimen breathes life into every word. I'm spacing out the books, since there is a finite number of them. I will not allow myself another until after at least the first of the year. But I've never been disappointed by any of the stories.

One of the best in the series!

Heartache, laughter, and good whiskey. Yep, there all back in a small town were everyone knows good music and good friends can be found.