The Killer Trees

Richard Paladin #3

by David E. Manuel

A logging company's employees have been turning up mysteriously dead. Terrorist tree-huggers seem the likeliest culprits, and when what's at stake is a contract to fell a national forest in Oregon—and the President of the United States just happens to be good friends with that company's CEO—it's time to send in Richard Paladin, America's top Environmental Protection Agent. But Paladin may just face his toughest challenge yet, because his adversary displays all the talents of a professional killer. Add a haunted wood into the mix, and it's an assignment Paladin may need all his luck to survive.

Genres: Mystery Thriller

290 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2012

About the author

DAVID E. MANUEL grew up in Houston, Texas and attended the University of Houston, receiving degrees in history and political science. After college, he worked for a few years in the corporate office of an offshore drilling company. In the mid-1980s he moved to the Washington DC area and took a job with the U.S. Government.

David lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and their English Shepherd, Falco, who, as far as we know, is not a secret government agent.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun jaunt with Richard Paladin, EPA hit man extraordinaire! He's a hoot. Quite a twisty mystery with a couple of interesting threads dangling. I didn't care much for the bear, but it was definitely unexpected & still has me thinking, so maybe that's not a bad thing. Actually, a fair amount was unexpected, a very good thing.

I'll be watching for the next. Write faster, David!
;-)

[David Manuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book so far in the Richard Paladin series. What makes me say that? Well, I wrote it!

[Debbie McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another excellent installment in the Richard Paladin series, and I ought to reiterate at this stage, having read all three (so far...optimistic for more) that this is absolutely not the genre of books that I usually read, so it says a lot about the quality of the writing and how engaging the story and its characters are if I'm reading the series.

I'm starting to like Richard Paladin, which is worrying. He's one of those lucky psychopaths who find a way to earn a living out of killing people, but there's a humane side and a sense of morality to him too. In this book he starts to question whether he is 'going soft', but there has always been this side to his personality - perhaps what I mean, then, is that I'm getting to know him, rather than like him. He is rich, deep, complicated, yet hides all of this behind the identity he has assumed in his job for the EPA, which on this occasion involves a very intriguing trip deep into the forest and some interesting encounters with the local fauna.

I totally recommend this book, and you could read it without reading the first two if you wanted to take a shortcut, but I recommend those too, if you want to get to know our man Paladin, or as well as anyone knows him.

I love the laid back, common sense easiness of David Manuel's writing. It's a real pleasure to read; knowing that the book has been well written and well edited only adds to this. Independent authorship in this case is a real gift and I'm very very VERY much hoping that the author will continue to write this series. I have a feeling, based on the ending of The Killer Trees that we haven't seen the last of Paladin. Or Bruce (please).

[Christoph Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Killer Trees” by David E. Manuel is the third in his Richard Paladin series and the third I read within the space of just a few weeks. After thoroughly having enjoyed the first two instalments I was curious where it might be going since the second book was so different to the first. This time Manuel moves his hero once more into a new and quite different setting: the world of forestry and tree huggers in Oregon.
I am not a regular crime fiction reader and with that in mind I was hoping to find fault with this book so I could spare more time to the more serious and work related reading of mine but I found that this instalment of the series was even better than the two previous ones. The main character Richard Paladin, an undercover contract killer working for the US government posing as a civil servant, has now come in to his own and in my opinion could probably carry off a much thinner plot than Manuel would be capable of writing without problems. Paladin’s politically incorrect opinions, the gentle side underneath his rough exterior, his sharp mind, his wit and his unpredictable interactions with the rest of the world are hugely entertaining and easy to read.
The side characters are once again well thought out and developed and provide Paladin with a lot of challenges to figure out what is going on in the woods where a series of fatal ‘accidents’ cause concern for the authorities. None of the people he meets seem to be straight forward to figure out or clear of suspicion. There are enough surprises and twists to keep you turning those pages.
This book is easily the most confident and effortless of the three as it is able to build on the solid ground the previous ones have established. I am amazed at the ideas Manuel has and the courage to move away from the safe option of a more repetitive and formulaic series-concept to a character-driven and genre-challenging style of writing. This has given him the opportunity to move Paladin freely to a huge range of future adventures and avenues closed to more pedestrian series writers.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, like they say, practice makes perfect.

And that is apparently exactly what David Manuel has done. His first and second books allowed him the opportunity to finely hone his skills as an author, and allowed him to create a true masterpiece as his third novel, The Killer Trees.

Manuel excels in character development, and as you begin to read The Killer Trees you feel reunited with old friends as EPA Hit-Man Richard Paladin presents himself along with other beautifully scripted characters.

The Killer Trees is the kind of book I love to read: It grabs your attention right from the first page and keeps you interested to the last page. As always, Manuel doesn't disappoint, mixing in priceless social commentary, and of course laying on the cynicism (I am not sure if I should have typed "Cynicism", or "Realism") thick in terms of Government Corruption.

Another excellent volume in the Richard Paladin Series by newcomer David Manuel. Keep up the good work David, we need more great authors out there!

[Ginney Etherton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This protagonist is not your basic cold-blooded killer, but no heart-of-gold romantic, either. What I found entertaining was his sarcasm and his almost foolproof logic, even if he does use his smarts to kill people. I haven't read the first two books of this series, but I can see why readers come back for more. It cracks me up that Manuel created an assassin for the EPA, and in my estimation, it is a unique character.
Manuel's depiction of rural Oregon is pretty darn close, except that it's easier to get Budweiser and Miller's here than he says. All the gun details seem authentic, but I'll have to take his word for that. I liked the paranormal (or pseudo-paranormal?) plot line. And I appreciate that the case's loose-ends were tied up, leaving readers with a satisfying ending and a hint of more to follow.

[Holly Spore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was well written, the characters were perfectly described. Not excessively or underdone. I was curious about the subject matter however, I felt that the plot of the story was believable and possible. I look forward to reading more from this author.

[L.F. Falconer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chuckled at the driest understatement of all time in the opening line of Chapter II: "It was raining in Portland when I arrived." David Manuel injects a great deal of irony into his pages.

The Killer Trees is a frightening excursion into American politics, corporate greed, and subterfuge, written with such ease and authority as to make it seem uncomfortably real. The characters are strong, with individual personalities and nuances. And while I would expect a man in Richard Paladin's profession to maintain a certain cold arrogance and indifference in his personality, this man seemed almost too much so, nearly robotic much of the time. I could feel no connection to this main character at all which could hardly entice me to care one way or another about him or the dilemmas he faced. Also, in my opinion, the back-story and haunted elements of the forest could have been handled more efficiently as to make the spectral components appear more natural and require less follow-up near the end.

While containing a fascinating plot, and well-written enough to keep me turning the pages, I was surprised when I finally reached the end, having not known I'd reached the end until there simply were no more pages to turn, making me realize the story's climax had occurred 3 or 4 chapters prior. No story should require that much time to tie up loose ends.

With a little more plot manipulation and a more human protagonist, this could have been edge-of-the-seat suspense. Unfortunately, it just fell a little short. But still, an entertaining read.

[Sally Pomeroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because reviewers said it had a bit of humor, along with the mystery and action. This is what I generally like in a book. It is well written and the story is solid. However, the humor mostly comes from the main character's relentlessly negative worldview and, well, I burn out on that pretty quickly.