San Francisco P.I. Stuart Winter looks into the murder of a young, deaf heiress who volunteered as a sign language instructor—for a gorilla who may have witnessed her murder. Revised and updated edition.

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....