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THE FOREST PRIME EVIL by Alan Russell

THE FOREST PRIME EVIL

By

Pub Date: April 1st, 1992
Publisher: Walker

The riddle of modern-day Johnny Appleseed Christopher (""the Green Man"") Shepard's death--was he killed by a falling redwood branch, as the police think, or by an operator-assisted branch, as his surviving friends in the radical ecological commune EverGreen suspect?--provides an excuse for San Francisco shamus Stuart Winter to drive to Garberville (whose two main drags are Redwood Drive and pot). There, he'll learn that the Green Man had antagonized not only logging bigwig Harold (Bull) Dozier, but also fundamentalist preacher Reginald Sawyer, marijuana moguls Red, Cincy, and Coop, and whoever didn't approve of his nudist midnight back-to-nature rituals. Stuart also learns that not all environmentalists like each other. Highly competent mystery-mongering, generously stuffed with red-herrings, subplots, and woodsy background--though several notches below Stuart's impressive debut last year in No Sign of Murder.