The Forest Prime Evil

Stuart Winter #2

by Alan Russell

Part hero, part activist, the Green Man is a modern-day Johnny Appleseed whose grass roots campaign to preserve the redwoods gets the axe when he is felled by a plummeting branch. But echoes of foul play reverberate through Northern California's ancient forests.
Hired by a radical conservation group to investigate, P.I. Stuart Winter ventures into the heated war between activists and the timber industry and discovers the Green Man's private life wasn't nearly as down to earth as his image.
Seeds of scandal, greed and danger are sprouting all over sequoia country and Winter's attraction for the gorgeous activist Ashe O'Connor makes it hard to see the forest for the trees....

Genres: Mystery

260 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Follow Alan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/alanrussellmysteryau...

Alan Russell is the author of The Last Good Dog, the sixth book in the #1 bestselling series featuring LAPD detective Michael Gideon and his K-9 partner, Sirius.

In 1990 Walker & Company published Alan's first book, No Sign of Murder, which received positive reviews, including a standalone rave from The New York Times. The work was followed up by The Forest Prime Evil and comedic mysteries The Hotel Detective and The Fat Innkeeper, which won him the Lefty Award, given to the best humorous mystery of the year, and a Critics’ Choice Award. His novel Multiple Wounds, a psychological thriller, earned him a nomination for both an Anthony Award and the Macavity Award for best novel of the year. Russell then published Shame, a novel of psychological suspense. His novels Exposure, Political Suicide, A Cold War, and The Homecoming, have been categorized as suspense novels. Alan is also the author of St. Nick, a Christmas Cop Novel, and the Gideon & Sirius novels, which include Burning Man, Guardians of the Night, Lost Dog, Gideon's Rescue, L.A. Woman, and The Last Good Dog.

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not Really a Fan of this book, but definitely a fan of Mr. Russell!!!

I just felt like it was a book explaining the scalping of the Red Wood Forests..
Nothing more, nothing less. Stuart Winter was involved in a very unique way by
making him the investigator of the story...you don't feel that he is doing his job
but more that he wants to solve a mystery.
Enough said....

[Diana]

Alan Russell is a favorite of mine...

I enjoy his wit that he places in each character.
I'd read the first book and now know why that was some time ago. P I Stuart is not a favorite. He rambled from one end of the red woods to the other in great detail. Reminding

me of a basketball game. I'm still confused as to if the Green Man was a good guy or bad. I couldn't decide this about any of the people, except Stuart.
I read Russell's St. Nick every Christmas. He introduced me to K-9 books with his Gideon series. I wish he would bring that back and forget the red woods. I've seen and admired them, I hope this story is pure fiction!

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A famous ecoactivist and tree planter, called the Green Man, dies a sudden death in the redwood forest of Humboldt County, CA. The widow-maker (branch) through his head could have fallen by accident but some people in the Sequoia Summer group think their hero was murdered and hire PI Stuart Winter.

[Lana Mccall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining

The green man is dead but did he die from natural causes or was he murdered? Stuart Winter has been hired to investigate but after he stats asking questions the people that hired him are not very cooperative and some are down right angry.

[Tanyx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not truly a detective novel, lots of extra strings instead of a logical sequence. I loved the Humboldt description, with scientific detail of the redwoods.

[Andy Plonka · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a bit to get into this one which is a mystery encased in a brief history of the redwood forest in California which, though written in the 1990's still has value today.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn’t be a good PI

Me. Winter is way more intuitive than I. It would have taken me much longer if ever to come to the same conclusions.

[Pippa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my 15th by Alan Russell but it is actually his second book, originally published in 1992, it has only just been made available on Kindle this side of the pond. As with the first “Stuart Winter” book it has been updated to include the very different technology of today but is otherwise unchanged. I must confess to being truly impressed by the standard of writing shown by such an (at the time) inexperienced author. I certainly would never have guessed, and any note-to-self reminders to temper my expectations proved entirely unnecessary. I love his “voice” and his vocabulary is refreshingly broad without sounding like he is deliberately using big words to impress, his stories always include a wealth of information adding to the overall interest. Excellent and probably even more topical than in 1992.

[audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Run-of-the-mill mystery paperback improved by the presence of a Grumpy A-hole protagonist, but marred by the fact that everyone in the book has the exact same speech patterns and fondness for puns. Great Humboldt County setting, though.