Peter Bowen Nails

Nails

Peter Bowen

St. Martin's, Feb 2006, $23.95, 224 pp.

ISBN 0312312075

M tis Indian Gabriel Du Pre is happy his granddaughter Pallas is home, even for a short visit while on hiatus from her studies in DC. Also back in Montana is Chappie, the son of Gabriel's friend. The lad lost a leg, an eye, and a wife while serving in Iraq; Du Pre thinks the veteran lost his mind too.

While the family reunions are going on, Pastor Flowers, a fundamentalist from Texas, and his extended family move into the area. Not long afterward, a young girl calls the cops asking for help as she is a runaway, but insists if they find her they will kill her. At the same time graffiti criticizing the local church ministered by Father Van den Huevel appears on the walls of that facility. As Du Pre, in between shots of whiskey and smoking his rolled cigarettes, and others search for the missing girl that he believes connects to the zealous religious fundamentalists who violently attack others with their my way is the only way theme.

Du Pre's latest Montana tale is a terrific thriller, but it is the tons of sidebars that reflect on many of today's issues, such as the health of returning veterans from Iraq, a slowly dying small town, and religious fundamentalism that makes the storyline fascinating. For instance, the impact of real sacrifice (not Bush claims of Americans giving up so much to support the war) on a solider in which the government fails to pay for an artificial leg - someone has to fund the tax cuts. Peter Bowen is at his best as he NAILS down much of what disturbs Americans with Du Pre's delightful thirteenth Big Sky thriller.