Of A Sound Mind by DeGarmo

About the book

Of A Sound Mind begins when the main character, Jon Loucher, a thirty-nine-year-old piececutter, who lives in the woods of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, discovers the logging company he works for is involved in disposing illegal chemicals for a local paper mill. Jon and his friend, Dale Washburn, pursue the suspects, and it becomes clear that someone in the logging crew is helping a group of eco-terrorists collect vital information: trucking schedules and locations of various work-sites.

When the owner of the logging company, Red Coulter, and Lloyd McMasters -- a supervisor at the paper mill -- disappear, and the biologist for the Department of Natural Resources, who is also in on the chemical dumping scam, is arrested, Jon attempts to buy Coulter Logging with a large inheritance left to him by a friend, Carla Halverson.

But, yet another conflict confronts Jon: Carla's nephew, Neil Halverson, appears on the scene to contest her will. As Neil stirs things up, the terrorist group, Globe One, have moved into high gear to destroy the logging community. Neil finds himself in the middle of the commotion when he and Dale Washburn are kidnapped by two of the terrorists. Pieces are put together rapidly as the undercover agent, Rick Peterson, rescues them, and then enlists his team of enforcement officers to infiltrate targeted areas. He soon plays his last card by using one of Jon's logging trucks as bait, with Ron Dillard, the detective, hidden among the timber.

Jon finds out his girlfriend, Mae Lakarri, has been helping the DNR in their investigation all along. Meantime, Lloyd McMaster's wife, Melanie, has been constructing her own path of revenge to sabotage Jon's company once Lloyd's remains are discovered in the same decoy fuel truck used in the paper mill chemical-dumping scandal.

In a race against time, Jon tries to determine which crew member is giving information to Globe One. But, the facts don't come together until the criminals finally decide to ambush the logging truck. Once the criminals are caught and Melanie McMasters is arrested as she makes plans to leave town, Jon comes to terms with his feelings for Mae.