The Trees Have Arms

The Trees Have Arms – Kindle (available for Pre-Order on Amazon. Release date is October 3, 2026)

Sheriff Cade Parker knows these woods. He knows the rhythm of the ridge, the families who show up every year, and the rituals that make a town feel safe. So when seven-year-old Evan Mercer’s small prints end abruptly at a ponderosa and a second, heavier stride continues into the trees, Cade treats the missing-child call like a map: read the runs, trace the diverts, and anticipate the intent.

Mick Montgomery discovers something else: anonymized relays scraping county permit systems in narrow windows before public gatherings. The pattern is quiet, technical, and unnervingly deliberate. As search grids widen and K-9 units follow a path designed to mislead, the investigation becomes a test of whether tradition leaves a town exposed or whether familiarity can be reshaped into defense.

Time collapses into incremented decisions. When a second child vanishes downtown, the crisis morphs from rescue into revelation: someone is teaching others how to exploit ritual. Cade must find the children, stop the experiment, and answer the question the forest asks implicitly can a community change before what it trusts is taken again?