• Thunder Horse

  • A Montana Mystery Featuring Gabriel Du Pre
  • By: Peter Bowen
  • Narrated by: Christopher Lane
  • Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (297 ratings)

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Thunder Horse  By  cover art

Thunder Horse

By: Peter Bowen
Narrated by: Christopher Lane
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Publisher's summary

Toussaint, Montana isn't easily rattled, but an earthquake uncovers an ancient burial ground and the well-preserved bones of a primitive people. When an archeologist is found with a bullet in his back and a dinosaur tooth in his pocket, sometime sleuth Gabriel Du Pre steps in with the wisdom and vision of his Metis ancestors to uncover the answers. But while Indian archeologists and entrepreneurs battle for valuable land and the precious remains of a dinosaur, a predator more dangerous than the great T. Rex walks the Montana plains, hungry to strike again.
©1998 Peter Bowen (P)2003 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Strange, seductive...haunting....The wonder of these voices is that they are...blunt and crude, soaked in whiskey and raspy from laughter, but still capable of leaving echoes." (New York Times Book Review).
"Gloriously unbridled... [Du Pre] resonates with originality and energy." (Chicago Tribune).
"Wonderful...a wise tale that wears its idealism as casually as a pair of old jeans." (Washington Post).

What listeners say about Thunder Horse

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent on every front.

This is a great story, it is written extreamly well, it is narrated in an outstanding manner and the dialog is so entertaining that there are no moments where you want the action to move any faster than the pace it was written at. I loved the eccentric characters, the back story on archeology. I would highly recommend this book, it is one of the best finds I have run across in a long time.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, and fresh

The subject matter was interesting, and the plot worked out well, and the narration was really very good. The made-up dialect of the tribe was a little hard to follow sometimes, due to the scrambling of the tenses and omission of modifiers that could have made meaning clearer. On the other hand, perhaps the author thought he was compensating for the minimalist tribal dialect by supplying an overabundance of personal pronouns in his own descriptions of action, plus the usual examples of word padding so often found in modern literature. In addition, when the material was copied from disk to the Audible files, at least one "end of disk" message was missed in the editing, plus a couple of minutes of repeated material right at that point. Then, too, I should mention that the depiction of the long-term Montana residents as quite xenophobic (especially regarding Californians), uneducated, slovenly and brutish doesn't really jibe with my impression of Montanans that I've known, who are actually very fine folks. Of course, works of fiction aren't expected to be realistic in all matters, and in a mystery novel it's really all about the plot, isn't it? We wouldn't want them all to be Sherlock, so, as long as one can overlook, or forgive, such shortcomings and can tolerate considerable profanity, it's possible to be quite well entertained by this book. I was, somehow.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

My pet peeve

I love all the Du Pre stories. Bowen’s writing is witty ,holds your interest. My rating is for his writing in this book. Not the actual story. This is his 4th or 5th book so there is absolutely NO excuse for him devolving into the LAZY,irritating habit of using “said” ad nauseam. It is SO bad in this book,I almost had to stop a couple times.
Example: “Really? said Burdett. Yes,said DuPre. You ok? said Burdett. I’m ok,said DuPre. Good God! When you read you can kind of skip over the excess but when listening it is magnified.
Mr Bowen, you are a WRITER a WORDSMITH. Use them!! A few dialog parts it was used more than all the words in the conversation combined. Even the QUESTIONS were followed by “said”. Asked,queried,wondered,replied...just a few choices rather than the obnoxious “SAID”! Also when you know who the characters are that are talking each and every sentence ended with...said(whoever). Unforgivable for an established author. I put as much blame on the editor for allowing such overuse. Christopher Lane makes it almost tolerable. The narrator he also uses is wooden, monotoned, i’d rather read them than listen. I’ll try a couple more. Very,very disappointed

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Thunder Horse

I liked this book a lot. It was a good read and the reader was excellent. Good plot, good characters...good reader. What more do you want!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Ok

It was alright, guess I like del Rey and and characters in the story and their accicent.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

With so many positive reviews, I was eager to listen to this book. Unfortunately, the story was lackluster. The performance was very good though.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well done!

Great book! Thank you! We listen to all of these books over and over. Well done.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Love the Gabriel Dupere books, and this one is no exception.
The narrator does a fabulous job, making it an enjoyable listen

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A bit confusing

I found this kind a bit confusing... but will listen again as I do enjoy the Dupre series. Maybe I was distracted at key times...?

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best series of novels that I’ve read!

Peter Bowen‘s series with Gabriel Du Pre is one of the best set of novels that I have enjoyed listening to. This series has open my knowledge of the Métis people, truly rich in history and culture. The characters in the story are equally entertaining.
These books of lead me to Google more about Métis fiddle playing in music. I also was drawn to look for YouTube interviews of Peter Bowen. He was a great writer and equally entertaining to hear his street shooting love of Montana, the beauty of its nature and the people that have lived there over the ages. Thank you Mr. Bowen!

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