Missing in Yuletown Book Release!

PA Cozy Mystery Writers
Apr 28
4 min read

For those of you who are new to this author...

Sarah Ickes has a devoted passion to art, a love for reading and writing, and has an old soul when it comes to television and films. Though she has a degree in Fine Arts, her life is not as simple as a piece of paper. She has worked in retail management, web designing, and marketing to name a few of the realms of her experiences. The pets in her life take precedence, as anyone with animals knows. Her interest in historical America comes vividly to life in her “Murial Robertson Mysteries,” which is what started it all! Currently, she also has the "Vectra Tillerman Adventures" (action/adventure/greek myth/steampunk), the "Cybil Lawson Mysteries" (cozy/light-hearted traditional mystery), “Margaret Everton” (historical/cozy mystery), and her latest release, Missing in Yuletown.

What is this new book about, you ask? Check out the back blurb here:

This year, read a chapter-a-day as your advent for this unique take on the Twelve Days of Christmas. If you like Mayberry, or Christmas mysteries that give you the cozy feels of the season, then this book is for you!

Yuletown is a place where the people enjoy living like it’s the 1950s, and they all look forward to celebrating the Christmas season with their Annual Christkindl Market. But this year, their new sheriff, Bobby Joe Coppersmith, or “B.J.” to his friends, feels the weight on his shoulders when Molly Wagner goes missing on the first of December.

Many of the townsfolk fear that history is repeating itself, sending the sheriff and his golden retriever mix, Beauregard, into action. Will he be able to decipher what happened to his father over two decades ago at the same time, or will his mother and sister have another family member to grieve? And just how many recipes did his twin cousins make in the kitchen?

Full of holiday vibes set in an old-fashioned Christmas card, this mystery not only transports you into a German celebration, but it also contains a suspenseful plot leading up to an unusual conclusion.

Now Onto the Interview...

Missing in Yuletown: A Chapter-A-Day Christmas Advent Mystery

How does this book differ from your others? Or how is it the same?

This novella is in its own category when compared to my other writings, largely due to the fact that this is an advent. There are twelve chapters, much like the Twelve Days of Christmas, and the reader reads a chapter each day until the mystery is complete. Now, if a reader does wish to binge through the story instead, that is quite alright. It is not as though you’re going to have coal in your stocking as punishment on Christmas morning. 😂

There is even a surprise bonus in the back of Missing in Yuletown, as a gift from me to you; a sneak-peak at the first chapter of an upcoming book. Oh, and the chapters are also named to add an extra pinch of charm to his holiday-themed mystery!

What was the inspiration behind this new mystery?

I was looking for a different kind of advent calendar for Christmas, and thought that a literary one would be a novel idea (pun intended). There have been others featuring twenty-four mini-mysteries that are to be read each day of December, and Christmas-themed mysteries with twenty-four chapters in total. But I hadn’t come across one where it was meant to be read one chapter a day with the mystery concluding at the end of the advent.

Since the storyline takes place at Christmas, and I’m from a Pennsylvania Dutch area, a Christkindl Market seemed like the right direction to go as I wanted to lean into a nostalgic feeling for the holidays. I also placed the book in the 1950s in order to tap into the family-feeling of Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show.

Introduce us to two of the side characters that show up in this book.

Beauregard, or “Beau” for short, is my main character’s best friend and he also happens to be a golden retriever mix with a keen sense of trouble. Readers will get to meet him from the very beginning of the story, as he is the one who discovers that this Christmas is going to drudge up the past for his owner, Bobby Joe.

And then there is Archie Becker, Bobby Joe’s right-hand man in the sheriff’s department. He may be older than his boss, but they are close friends and Archie would worry if anything serious were to happen to BJ. He also likes playing cards and perhaps sneaking a few pieces of fried chicken when no one’s looking!