The Letter is the third and final novel in Richard Paul Evans' "Christmas Box Trilogy". It is a love story that belongs specifically to MaryAnne and David Parkin, but the author's intention is to present the novel as the love story that could, and does, belong to everyone, because it's emotions are universal. The Letter explores the difference between love and romance and shows how love endures when romance ends and life starts to intrude on the blissful and more fantastical side of love. Although it can be threatened, dampened and sometimes lessened, Evans demonstrates through the Parkins that real, true love can fight through anything and can endure and even grow throughout life's challenges.
The novel follows David Parkin as he sets out to find out more about his mother. She abandoned him when he was a child and ever since then David has felt a huge sense of abandonment, and has never felt worthy of love, or good enough to receive it when it comes along. In searching for his mother he is also trying g to find something inside himself that will bring closure and enable him to move past these feelings of rejection, and open himself up to the possibility of love before it's too late.
Like the other Christmas Box novels, The Letter shows that the true meaning of Christmas is the sharing of love, and the recognition of love as the greatest gift of all. Written in 1997, The Letter topped the New York Times Besrseller List, just like the previous two Christmas Box novels.
