In the latest installment of Peter Bowen's acclaimed mystery series, Gabriel Du Pr� investigates a century-old crime Lieutenant John Patchen has come to Montana to persuade Chappie Plaquemines, his former gunnery sergeant in Iraq and the son of Gabriel Du Pr�'s girlfriend, to accept the Navy Cross. First, however, Du Pr� and Patchen must find the wounded marine, who was last seen drinking heavily in the Toussaint Saloon. They locate him soon enough, disheveled and stinking of stale booze, but a sobering visit to a medicine man's sweat lodge reveals a much greater mystery: the unsolved case of a band of M�tis who were last seen fleeing from General Black Jack Pershing's troops in 1910 before disappearing. Strange voices within the sweat lodge speak of a place called Bitter Creek, where the M�tis encountered their fate. To find it, Du Pr� tracks down the only living survivor of the massacre, a feisty old woman whose memories may not be as trustworthy as they seem. But when Amalie leads Du Pr� to Pardoe, an out-of-the-way crossroads north of Helena, he senses that they are about to uncover long-buried secrets. Discouraged by the US military, their lives threatened by locals whose ancestors may have played a role in the murders, Chappie, Patchen, and Du Pr� bravely pursue the truth so that the victims of a terrible injustice might finally rest in peace. "Peter Bowen's Bitter Creek is likely the top of the Du Pr� series, of which I've read all fourteen. It is a lively and absolutely fascinating look into Western history." -Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall "Peter Bowen writes mysteries that are truly mysterious-informed by Western legend, steeped in Indian superstition. . . . Riding with Du Pr� is some kind of enchantment." -The New York Times Book Review "Du Pr� joins a select group including Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, and Dave Robicheaux, characters that readers feel they've known all their lives. . . . Thought-provoking and always entertaining, this latest chapter in Bowen's ongoing Du Pr� saga shows the author at the top of his form." -William Hjortsberg, author of Falling Angel and Ma�ana "Bowen plays his language the way Du Pr� plays violin: plaintive, humorous, wild, the sounds of the sentences as meaningful as the story." -The Washington Post Book World "Bitter Creek is Peter Bowen's unforgettable series hero Gabriel Du Pr� at his fid