The Christmas Keepsake is a full-length holiday mystery set in the charming small town of Falls Church. When a beloved member of the community is found dead at historic Briarwood House, artist Amaris Pantum becomes drawn into a mystery filled with hidden secrets, a missing heirloom, holiday traditions, humor, and unexpected twists. It’s a clean, cozy small-town mystery with plenty of Christmas atmosphere.
Publication Date
December 1, 2026
Book Links
Guest Post
Christmas in Falls Church:
Behind The Christmas Keepsake
There is
something about Christmas that can make even the most familiar places feel
magical.
The glow of Christmas lights, the smell of something baking in the kitchen,
favorite songs playing in the background, ornaments that have been unpacked
year after year—so many little things have the ability to bring back memories
almost instantly.
I think that is one of the reasons we return to Christmas stories.
We know how they make us feel.
And when I began writing The Christmas Keepsake: An Amaris Pantum Mystery, that
feeling was exactly what I wanted to capture.
Writing a Christmas Story That's Both Festive and Emotional
Writing Christmas fiction is interesting because the atmosphere comes with
certain expectations. Readers want the lights, snow, decorations, traditions,
and warmth of the season. I wanted all of those things too—but I didn't want
them to simply decorate the background of the story.
I wanted Christmas to matter.
In The Christmas Keepsake, Falls Church, Pennsylvania, is in the middle of
celebrating the season. There is a Grand Tree Lighting, a Hot Cocoa Crawl, an
Ornament Swap, Santa Breakfast, Christmas gatherings, and other traditions
throughout town.
But underneath the celebrations is a mystery.
That contrast became one of my favorite parts of writing the book.
There can be happiness and laughter during Christmas while people are also
carrying memories, worries, grief, secrets, or things they haven't quite let go
of. Real life doesn't disappear just because Christmas lights go up.
For me, that's where some of the emotion in Christmas fiction comes from.
The season can remind us not only of what we have, but also of people and
moments from our past.
The Comfort of Christmas Nostalgia
I love the nostalgia surrounding Christmas.
Sometimes it only takes one little thing to bring a memory rushing back—a
particular ornament, a recipe, a song, an old photograph, or a tradition your
family has repeated for years.
That's part of what makes keepsakes so special.
An object may not look particularly important to someone else, but to the
person who knows its story, it can be priceless.
That idea became part of the heart of The Christmas Keepsake.
The mystery reaches into Falls Church's history, but the story is also about
memories and the things people choose to preserve. I loved exploring the idea
that something from the past can continue to matter long after its original
story seems to have ended.
Of course, in a mystery, the past doesn't always stay quietly in the past.
What Inspired The Christmas Keepsake
When I created the Amaris Pantum Mysteries, I knew I wanted Falls Church to
feel like more than a backdrop.
It's a small Pennsylvania mountain town with its own businesses, history,
personalities, friendships, traditions—and plenty of secrets.
I wanted readers to eventually recognize the places and people and feel as
though they were returning somewhere familiar whenever they opened another
Amaris Pantum Mystery.
So naturally, I wanted to know what Falls Church looked like at Christmas.
Once I started imagining snowy streets, decorated storefronts, a glowing town
square, Christmas events, and the people of Falls Church gathering together,
the story began to take shape.
Then came the question every mystery writer loves:
What could possibly go wrong?
Quite a bit, apparently.
Amaris Pantum finds herself surrounded by questions involving a historic
keepsake, secrets from the past, and a mystery that begins to disturb the
town's picture-perfect Christmas season.
Amaris isn't a detective, and I intentionally wanted to keep that distinction
in the series. She's an artist and an observer. She notices expressions,
details, people, and places. Detective Veron Flare handles the official
investigation, while Amaris's curiosity and ability to notice things have a
habit of pulling her closer to mysteries than she probably intended.
And then there are the people around her.
The friendships and relationships in Falls Church are just as important to me
as the mysteries themselves. These characters tease each other, disagree, worry
about one another, celebrate together, and occasionally drive each other a
little crazy.
Basically, they're a community.
Creating the Atmosphere of Christmas
One of my favorite things about writing is creating a setting readers can see
in their minds.
With a Christmas story, that means thinking beyond simply saying, "It was
snowing."
What does Main Street look like under Christmas lights?
What's happening inside the little shops?
Who is standing around talking during the tree lighting?
What traditions would this particular town have?
What would make someone want to pull on a warm coat, walk through Falls Church,
and stay awhile?
Those smaller details helped me build Christmas in Falls Church.
I wanted readers to picture the snow and decorated storefronts, feel the warmth
when the characters step inside from the cold, and experience the celebrations
happening around town.
And because it's a mystery, I also had fun playing with the contrast.
Christmas lights can make almost anything look beautiful.
That doesn't necessarily mean everything underneath them is.
My Favorite Part of Christmas Traditions
What I love most about Christmas traditions isn't necessarily the activity
itself. It's the repetition.
We do certain things because we've always done them.
We bring out decorations we've seen dozens of times. We make familiar foods. We
watch favorite movies. We tell the same stories. We gather with people we love.
Those traditions become little markers throughout our lives.
That's something I wanted Falls Church to have too.
Its Christmas events aren't simply there because I needed something festive
happening in the background. They're part of the town's identity. The people of
Falls Church expect these traditions. They remember previous years. They have
opinions about them. They show up because that's what their community does.
Those are the kinds of details that make a fictional place start feeling real
to me.
And I'll admit, by the time I finished writing the book, there were a few Falls
Church Christmas traditions I wished I could attend myself.
What I Hope Readers Take Away From The Christmas Keepsake
First, I hope they have fun trying to solve the mystery.
I love giving readers clues, questions, suspicious moments, and reasons to
wonder whether what they're seeing is really what happened.
But I hope they take away something else too.
At its heart, The Christmas Keepsake is also about history, memories,
relationships, community, and the stories we attach to the things we leave
behind.
Sometimes the smallest object can hold an enormous story.
Sometimes the past isn't as far away as we think.
And sometimes what makes Christmas special isn't the perfectly decorated tree
or the snow outside the window.
It's the people standing beside us.
When readers finish The Christmas Keepsake, I hope they feel as though they've
spent Christmas in Falls Church. I hope they've laughed with the characters,
wondered who they could trust, followed the clues, and maybe wished they could
stay in town just a little longer.
Most of all, I hope the story gives them what I love about Christmas fiction
myself:
A little nostalgia.
A little wonder.
A lot of heart.
And, because this is an Amaris Pantum Mystery, just enough trouble hiding
beneath the twinkle lights.
After all, in Falls Church, even Christmas keepsakes have stories to tell.
Releasing December 1, 2026
I'm an author of fantasy and mystery who creates immersive worlds, small towns filled with secrets, unforgettable characters, and unexpected twists. I am the author of The Dragonstone Chronicles and The Amaris Pantum Mysteries.
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