Half Nelson

It's the greening of America that's got Tom Bethany seeing red these days. More accurately, it's the storm trooper tactics being used against charismatic ecologist Robert Rackleff by the Brotherbund, a skinhead goon squad that favors the extermination of the conservation movement. Death threats from the sieg heiling right-wingers aren't enough to scare the dedicated Rackleff from his crusade. But a volley of bullets speaks much more persuasively than hate mail - and convinces the earnest eco-warrior to recruit a more traditional sort of soldier. Bethany, college wrestler extraordinaire, canny Vietnam vet, and all-around resourceful hardcase-for-hire, is glad to answer the call of duty. In the endangered forests of northwest Oregon, Bethany runs interference as a bodyguard for Rackleff. His environmental organization, Earth Everlasting, is about to blow the whistle on the criminal activities of the local lumber industry, whose only 'green' interest grows at the U.S. Treasury. Even Bethany is impressed by the gutsiness of Earth Everlasting's plan, and the quiet resolve of its leader. So when a car bomb makes a martyr of Rackleff, Bethany takes it personally, and decides it's time to start cleaning up the environment his way - by running those responsible through the sawmill.

This is #6 in A Tom Bethany Mystery.