The language has a straight forward reading style and I finished the book in a couple of hours. My overall impression of the work is that it is quite masculine in feel. I do not mean that the crime solver, "Raff," is a super hero kind of sleuth. In fact, he has a bit of the charming bumbliness of Inspector Clouseau, a bit of the exactitude of Holmes, and a smidge of the class of Poirot. This is not to say that he cannot survive several thrashings with injuries that most of us would not be able to manage. He does what it takes to make a living. He is sort of an ordinary Joe who finds himself, by chance, in the midst of the evil doings of greedy people. We like him and we want him to thrive. The book has gore and it has humor. The title is a term in forestry. Should we clear out the remains of the woods to build homes for humans? Does this land need to be "developed?" Should we disturb life as it has been for generations? Read it before it gets snapped up by media moguls. My thanks to LibraryThing for a complimentary copy. ( )

I got this in exchange for a review at LibraryThing.

Now, the plot was good and the writing was direct and straightforward, which is normally good. However, I felt that the writing was little bit too straightforward. Sometimes, each a sequence of paragraphs on the same page would still start out with "I...". Plus, the vocabulary is a little simple. The book may seem better if there was maybe some more descriptive words for better flow and if some figurative language or reading elements could be added. ( )

Sid Rafferty, a writer for hire, lives with his girlfriend in a small town in Vancouver. The many threads of this novel include, but are not limited to, the preservation/cutting of old growth forests, historical events that might or might not become a movie, relationship issues that need to be dealt with, deaths that might be murder, illegal activities, politics, past relationships that impact the present and personal issues that may or may not be dealt with. Mr. Hughes has managed to tie everything up in a tidy story that is interesting left me wondering what will happen in the next book about Sid Rafferty. ( )

This book takes place on Vancouver Island, BC. As a BC girl I always enjoy a great story that occurs in places I am familiar with. This book was no exception. It combines a compelling mystery with a bit of romance and weaves in a lot of environmental issues that are relevant to the area. I enjoyed the story and the characters and look forward to the next in the series.

I received this book in exchange for an unbiased review through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. ( )

Fun - but slightly marred by a couple of unsupported jumps in the plot.

Sid Rafferty is a writer for hire - a freelance hack - doing promotional blurns and any form of wordsmithing that people would like to pay him for. Following complications in his previous life (almost certainly the details are from the previosu volume in the series that sounds worth reading, but isn't necessary for comprehension of this one) he has moved to a small Canadian town on the edge of the lakes surrouneded by some of the old Forest. Life is relaxed and low key, un pressured and uneventful.

There's always an 'until' however - he witnesses what at forst seems to be a tree felling accident, before the police determine it was murder - the site had been booby trapped. Just a day a later and another client of Sid's is found dead. Meanwhile he is persuaded to write the campaign materials for a local activist 'green' politician, some local drugs growers suspect he may have been involved in the loss of their crop, and his longtime school friend suddenly looks him up, asking him to investigate the local activist greens who are campaigning against the forestry logging. It never rains but it pours.

There are some obvious connections between these strands, but some of the less obvious ones are presented au fait with no explanation and even less supporting information. This is a shame because eveythign else is quite well done,. the characters have a distinct charm, the scenary and locals are well described and there is a little bit of contemporary discussion about modern society which is always interesting and makes it more than just a novel. The general feel of the story is someting along the lines of a Dick Francis novel without the racehorses - an ordinary person gets involved in something much bigger than they were expecting. ( )