Prepare yourself. August has innumerable book releases, and I have quite a few of them for the Treasures in My Closet posts. There’s something here for everyone, I hope. Let me know which forthcoming books you find exciting.

I’ll lead off with my personal pick, Linda Fairstein’s Devil’s Bridge. Detective Mike Chapman is spotlighted in this one when he has to investigate the disappearance of Alex Cooper. There are some complications. Coop’s put countless criminals behind bars in her decade of work. There’s been a recent security breach. And, there’s the change in her relationship with Mike, who will do anything to get Coop back. (Release date is Aug. 11.)

This time, Meg Langslow has to save Halloween in Lord of the Wings by Donna Andrews. The mayor of Caerphilly, Virginia is turning the town into Spooky City, USA. When a suspicious fire burns down the Haunted House, Meg agrees to lend her home for the replacement. But, when a real body turns up, Meg has to save the holiday. (Release date is Aug. 4.)

Egypt’s most popular novelist, Alan Al Aswany, brings us The Automobile Club of Egypt. It’s the story of a family caught up in the social unrest in post-World War II Cairo. The Automobile Club is a place of refuge and luxury for its European members, but Egyptians are only servants there. When politics leads to social upheaval, the Egyptians of the Automobile Club have two choices: live safely but without dignity as servants, or fight for their rights and risk everything. (Release date is Aug. 18.)

Susan Barker’s The Incantations weaves Chinese folklore, history, and literary classics into the story of a taxi driver, Driver Wang. While driving in Beijing during the preparations for the 2008 Olympics, the first letter falls into his lap as he flips down his visor. The writer claims to be Driver Wang’s soulmate, someone who continues to send more letters telling stories of their lives, bound together over centuries of betrayal and intrigue. Driver Wang becomes convinced someone is watching him, someone who is getting closer. (Release date is Aug. 18.)

In Paula Brackston’s latest novel, Lamp Black, Wolf Grey, a young artist goes to the Welsh mountains in search of love. Laura Matthews and her husband move to an ancient house in the hills, hoping to inspire her to produce her art, and hoping for the baby they both want. But, Laura discovers a charismatic man who pursues her, a wise old woman who talks in riddles, and a mysterious man from the past, Merlin himself. (Release date is Aug. 4.)

I’ll be honest and say, not having read Brene Brown’s Rising Strong means the summary of the nonfiction book sounds a little unusual. It’s a book about vulnerability. “If we are brave enough, often enough, we will fall.” It’s a book about what it takes to get back up, “and how owning our stories of struggle gives us the power to write daring new endings.” Dr. Brown covered this topic in a 2010 TED talk, “The Power of Vulnerability”, and she now writes about it. (Release date is Aug. 25.)

Dale Brown returns with a military thriller, Iron Wolf. A resurgent Russia inflames sectarian unrest and violence in Ukraine and Poland, setting off a stealth robotic war and escalating an international crisis. When NATO refuses to act in response to Russian actions, the former U.S. president and the Polish president launch Operation Iron Wolf without the knowledge of the Americans or their NATO partners. It’s a battle to determine the fate of Eastern Europe. (Release date is Aug. 25.)

Here’s one of the debuts for August, Ellen Byron’s Plantation Shudders, a Cajun Country mystery. Prodigal daughter Maggie Crozat returns home to her family’s plantation-turned-bed-and-breakfast in Louisiana just in time for the local food festival. And, she’s just in time to become a murder suspect when two guests, a couple, keel over dead within minutes of each other. In order to clear her name and hold the family business together, Maggie investigates, uncovering decades-old secrets. (Release date is Aug. 11.)

Dead Soon Enough by Steph Cha finds Juniper Song, a licensed private detective, handling her most unusual case yet. Rubin Gasparian hires her to follow her cousin,  Lusig,a surrogate carrying Rubina’s baby. Lusig might be endangering the baby as she hunts for her best friend who is missing, a woman involved in the battle to erect an Armenian genocide memorial. Juniper’s search leads her deep into a tight-knit immigrant community and the groups opposed to it. (Release date is Aug. 11.)

Stephanie Clifford’s novel, Everybody Rise, is a story of social climbing and entrenched class distinctions. In 2006 in Manhattan, money and ambition consume the city as a new generation jockeys for social power. Class, especially on the Upper East Side, is still important, and Evelyn Beegan really wants to work her way up the social ladder. In order to pass as upper class, she has to lie about her background. And, it won’t be long until those lies start to give way. (Release date is Aug.  18.)

In Douglas Corleone’s Gone Cold, former US Marshal Simon Fisk searches from the U.S. to the UK and Ireland for his missing daughter. Twelve years after his six-year-old daughter Hailey was abducted, Simon finds an urgent message comparing two images, a computer-generated image of Hailey, and the sketch of a young woman wanted for murder in Ireland. Fisk goes hunting for the people responsible, and hopes to find Hailey. (Release date is Aug. 18.)

I always look forward to Bill Crider’s new Dan Rhodes mysteries. Between the Living and the Dead finds Clearview, Texas Sheriff Dan Rhodes dealing with ghost hunters, runaway bulls, and assorted low-level crimes, including prosecuting people who don’t use their turn signals. It promises to be another fun mystery. (Release date is Aug. 11.)

Jennine Capo Crucet’s debut novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers, is the story of what it means to be an American today. Lizet, the daughter of Cuban immigrants, is accepted into an elite college, although her parents are furious at her decision to leave Miami. And, then her home life in Miami unravels, as her parents divorce and her father sells her childhood home. (Release date is Aug. 4.)

No Virgin Island is C. Michele Dorsey’s mystery debut. Sabrina Salter traded a high-pressure job for life as an inn-keeper on St. John. Then, Sabrina finds a guest dead, murdered, and she was the last person to see him alive. With Sabrina’s checkered history, the police mark Sabrina as the prime suspect, so she has to find the true killer. But, Sabrina’s search catches her up in a net of adultery, kidnapping, identity fraud and murder. (Release date is Aug. 11.)

Philip Mercer, geologist with a taste for international adventure, returns in Jack Du Brul’s The Lightning Stones. Mercer rides an elevator two thousand feet into the earth of a Minnesota mine, just in time to hear automatic gunfire, and find his mentor and an entire research team brutally executed. Mercer’s hunt for revenge and the killers sends him on an international chase, one that involves the rare and powerful crystals, lightning stones, rumored to have been on Amelia Earhart’s plane when it vanished in 1937. (Release date is Aug. 11.)

What a difference a year makes in Lauren Fox’ Days of Awe. One year, Isabel Moore was married, adored by her ten-year-old daughter, and thought she knew everything about her best friend. A year later, her husband has moved out, her daughter is a moody insomniac, and her best friend was killed in a single car accident. All of her relationships changed in that year. Now, who is Isabel Moore? (Release date is Aug. 4.)

You might want to try Eli Gottlieb’s Best Boy if you were a fan of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Todd, an autistic man in his 50s, tells his story. He’s been in his current group home for decades, and he’s pretty happy there. But, then a new menacing staff member arrives, and he finds a new love interest who convinces him to stop taking one of his medications. They both serve to shake him out of his complacency, and set some events in motion that stir up family secrets and memories. (Release date is Aug. 24.)

Joshua Hood’s Clear by Fire is a military thriller about an American hero, Mason Kane, who, in order to clear his name, must take down a highly classified band of solders that has gone murderously rogue. Kane is a proud member of the elite, off-the-books Anvil Program, a group of black ops soldiers who wage war from the shadows. But, Kane refuses to obey his commander when the team is ordered to kill an innocent Afghan family in order to force America’s continued involvement in the Middle East. Hunted by his former comrades, Mason’s mission is to unravel a conspiracy that reaches into the President’s inner circle, and stop the world’s most dangerous soldiers from completing their plan. (Release date is Aug. 18.)

In Alaric Hunt’s Godless Country, Clayton Guthrie and Rachel Vasquez must track a gruesome stalker in New York City. Guthrie is a private fixer for the aristocracy of New York City. His latest job is to protect a Manhattan heiress from a dangerous talker. Hiring a retired bodyguard to protect her, Guthrie teams up with his young operative, Rachel Vasquez, to run a trap operation as they pursue the stalker. (Release date is Aug. 25.)

So, the colors of August appear to be blues and shades of orange and gold. It’s easy to judge the covers; not so easy to judge the books. Are there titles here that appeal to you? If not, check back tomorrow for August Treasures in My Closet, Part 2.