“Mummy – Daddy – there’s Santa! He’s hurt!” A young girl travelling home with her family, witnesses a man dressed as Santa Claus lying in an alleyway, his throat slashed. Noel Winters had been doing the rounds, playing Santa. His final engagement was at a private party hours before his murder. Winters had a reputation for heavy drinking and female company, and it had recently cost him his marriage. Local gossip suggests he had plans to be up and down a few chimneys over the festive period. DCI Tyler and DS Mills struggle to narrow down the suspects, including a bitter Santa Claus rivalry. But Chief Superintendent Berkins wants the case wrapped up for Christmas. With the clock ticking, and the season of goodwill fast approaching, Tyler goes out on a limb, focusing his investigation on the new Chief Constable’s golfing buddy. Mills and Berkins sense Tyler’s instincts are misfiring, and neither are prepared to support an improbable theory. Worse still, they fear a personal agenda is clouding his judgement. And when the Chief Constable gets wind of what the maverick detective is suggesting, Mills is convinced Tyler’s day of reckoning has finally arrived.