Evergreen Chase

Evergreen Chase (2021) Juneau Black (Shady Hollow)

It’s almost Solstice, but someone has stolen Shady Hollow’s solstice tree–the tallest in the forest! The one that Callum Burrows has been been tending for years.

It’s been my privilege to tend this year’s tree. It was selected thirty-six years ago, and it’s become the finest, tallest, and most beautiful specimen in Evergreen Chase. I watered it when it was a sapling, trimmed back growth around it, covered it with a blanket during the summer hailstorm twenty years back, and picked off beetles one by one during the infestation last decade.

Who would do such a thing?

“Look like teeth marks,” Meade said. “Could be muskrat or beaver.”

The beavers standing nearby huffed with offended pride. “We would never!” one declared.

“And, anyway, we’ve got tools for that!” another added, lifting a long saw the team had brought along.

A third beaver said, “Yeah, we’re not barbarians.”

“We only gnaw on dentist-approved wood products,”

But who would want to ruin the town’s holiday spirit?

Characters: Vera Vixen, Lenore Lee, Orville Braun, Howard Chitters, Theodore Meade, Parson Dusty, Lefty, Joe Elkin, Callum Burrows

Cover design and illustration by Perry De La Vega

Publisher: Vintage

Rating: 8.5/10

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