The Ghost Trees

The victim, cedar-tree poacher Bradley Olafsen, was found dead beside traces of a freshly removed cedar log and police detectives have fingered an old derelict found raving nearby. Henry George, a native with a grudge against modern society, stands accused of killing Olafsen to avenge the death of the tree. George's mad utterances about ghost tree spirits and his hatred for the dead man make it look like an open-and-shut case. But is it? Something otherworldly lurks among long-dead stumps around the murder scene.

Police are sure they've got their man, but McKean's brilliant mind sees beyond the obvious—which leads him into danger. He uses modern biotechnology tools to establish a thread of DNA evidence linking the cut tree to a shingle-splitting factory operation that uses wood of questionable sources. There, McKean identifies other suspects, but the police aren't buying it. No one has ever used DNA to solve forestry crimes.

McKean's suspects are on to him now and it's not long before his life is threatened. Somehow, the resolution of this tale of murder among the stumps of a long-dead forest will revolve around the shamanistic wisdom of old Henry George, McKean's wits and scientific skills, and answers that can only be found in a fern-choked grotto where the spirits of forest giants seem to watch the comings and goings of men, remembering Chief Seattle's famous words, "The dead are not entirely powerless."