Mayor Shelby almost falls out of the Fire Department’s bucket truck during the annual Myerton Holiday Tree Lighting celebration. What first looks like an accident takes a sinister turn when it becomes clear that someone sabotaged the latch. While Mayor Shelby is convinced someone is trying to kill her, Helen is not as sure. It could be one of her officers, or even one of the town’s fire fighters. But when Mayor Shelby is attacked by Santa’s reindeer at the Myerton Holiday Parade, Helen, Dan, and the other officers of Myerton’s police force race to find her potential assassin before it’s too late.
Meanwhile, Father Tom tries to help a still-suffering Miriam Conway come back to the world. But will she ever be able to overcome what happened to her?
The Tree Terror is the nineteenth novel in The Mercy and Justice Mysteries, a contemporary small town mystery series. The series is a sequel to The Father Tom Mysteries that began with The Penitent Priest and includes the same cast of characters. It features Father Tom Greer, a Catholic Priest who is also an amateur sleuth in the tradition of Father Brown, and his wife Helen Greer, female Chief of Police and detective in the tradition of Kinsey Millhone.