The Christmas Box Collection: The Christmas Box, Timepiece, and The Letter

"Whatever the reason, I find that with each passing Christmas the story of the Christmas box is told less and needed more. So I record it now for all future generations to accept or dismiss as seems to them good. As for me, I believe." So begins the sentimental tale of romance and family that Richard Paul Evans went to a copy shop and self-published a few years back. Readers decidedly accepted the saga, spending millions of dollars and clamoring for more, so Evans wrote two more heart-rending episodes, Timepiece and The Letter. (The original's megasuccess sparked a TV movie and inspired a parody, Revenge of the Christmas Box.)

At last, all three are collected in one of the most popular holiday-themed tearjerkers since Dickens. Can David Parkin, a hard-working man, learn from a cache of old love letters that there's more to life than work--such as his relationship with his wife, MaryAnne? What becomes of the Parkins' angelic daughter, Andrea? When a bent and bereft old lady is spotted crouching over a snowy grave, and the night watchman tells her the cemetery is closed, what can it mean that she mysteriously disappears, leaving behind one red rose and a letter? Could it have something to do with calamitous family tragedy, with David's mother and the key to healing his hardened heart?

It sure could. Scrooge-like critics did not swoon over Evans's trilogy, but they are quite outnumbered by fans. Evans made millions of readers feel touched, as if by an angel.