NOTCHES

NOTCHES Peter Bowen (St. Martin's, $20.95) Not too far from the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn, Gabriel Du Pre's great-grandfather watched the last wild buffalo being killed by white men. Now the ruminating Metis detective tries to prevent a different kind of slaughter in the Montana sagebrush. Assisted by quirky characters like FBI agent Harvey ''Weasel Fat'' Wallace (a lapsed Blackfoot Indian who says moccasins make his feet hurt), trucker Rolly Challis (''an avenging angel in a big rig'') and a wannabe seer called Young-Man-Who-Has-No-Name, Du Pre uses his Native American wisdom to track down a vicious killer -- or maybe two -- who has been burying young girls along the highway. A haunting tale, punched out in arresting rhythms of speech powerful as a tribal drumbeat. A-