Timber Line
by Warren Murphy
His name was Remo and the air was cold.

A New Leaf

Tulsa Torrent, America's biggest limber company, is stumped when a couple of its key scientists are axed. Seems the deceased were part of a team developing an oil-producing tree, and a lot of interested parties have been looking to grease their palms.

Before anyone else is pulped, Remo and Chiun are planted to see the project out of the woods. But danger sprouts at every turn, and when the environmentalist High Sierra Society enters the picture, determined to make Tulsa Torrent take a hike, the project rests on pines and needles.

Somebody's barking up the wrong tree, and Remo and Chiun must get to the root of the matter before the unknown hatchet man mulches America's energy future into one big compost heap....

Review: Rarely, have there ever been more, or worse puns crammed into a novel's back cover copy. The is a thoroughly standard book, without too many surprises or shocks. The only thing about this outing that stands out is Joey Webb, Smith's foster daughter. She's another character who would be nice to see again. I thought she was well-drawn and realistic, something lacking in far too many female characters in the series. Read this one just to catch a glimpse of Smith's human side.

I give Timber Line tree stars (ha, ha, ha) .