Crossroads - Flathead Valley, Bk 1 Author:James L. Thane Kalispell, Montana attorney Dave Matthews is on a downhill slide. Blaming himself for the recent death of one of his closest friends, Dave is drinking heavily and generally avoiding his responsibilities when the brother of another close friend is charged in the murder of a prominent environmentalist. The victim, an attorney named Toby Martin, ha... more »d recently filed suit on behalf of a group of environmentalists seeking to halt logging activity in the Kootenai National Forest in northwestern Montana. If successful, the suit would adversely affect many loggers, mill workers and others whose livelihoods depend on the logging activity. The suspect is Steve Helstrom, a mill worker who had fought with Martin the night before the killing. Reluctantly, Dave agrees to defend him.
The murder case thus plays out against the backdrop of the furious environmental battle that now rages in Montana and in much of the West. On one side are the loggers, miners and others who believe that they should be allowed to freely exploit the forests. Pitted against them are environmentalists, people connected with the tourism industry and others who want to conserve the forests and to severely limit logging and other such activities within them. As both the murder investigation and the environmental battle gain momentum, Dave struggles to solve the mystery of Toby Martin’s murder, to defuse an explosive environmental conflict, and to find some small measure of personal redemption for himself.« less