Since I’ve been at my Mom’s for two weeks, and I’m going home tomorrow, I had to put this post together early. So, I certainly may have missed some books that I normally would include in my Treasures in My Closet post. Let me know what December releases I missed, please! If you’d like to go back and look at the November Treasures, you can find it here. https://tinyurl.com/bdddws36

I’m a big fan of Connie Berry’s Kate Hamilton mysteries. A Grave Deception is the sixth in the series. Antiques expert Kate Hamilton dives into the past to solve a fourteenth-century mystery with disturbing similarities to a modern-day murder.
Kate Hamilton and her husband, Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, have settled into married life in Long Barston. When archaeologists excavating the ruins of a nearby plague village discover the miraculously preserved body of a fourteenth-century woman, Kate and her colleague, Ivor Tweedy, are asked to appraise the grave goods, including a valuable pearl. When tests reveal the woman was pregnant and murdered, the owner of the estate on which the body was found, an amateur historian, asks Kate to identify her and, if possible, her killer. Surprised, Kate agrees to try. Meanwhile, tensions within the archaeological team erupt when the body of the lead archaeologist turns up at the dig site with fake pearls in his mouth and stomach. Then a third body is found in the excavations. (Release day is Dec. 9.)

Here’s an unusual title. Everyone in the Group Chat Dies is by L.M. Chilton. Kirby Cornell needs a break from everything:
– Her crumbling apartment in the sleepy town of Crowhurst (famous for its bucolic countryside and a second-rate serial killer from the ’90s).
– Her dead-end job.
– Her sleazy landlord
– Her messy roommates.
– And, most of all, the terrible thing they all did.
Luckily, that hasn’t caught up with her just yet. Until a new message on their old group chat pops up: Everyone in the group chat dies. It’s the first text her ex-roommate Esme has sent for ages, but that’s not the really weird thing.The really weird thing is, Esme died twelve months ago… (Release date is Dec. 9.)

Tracy Clark is bringing Detective Harriet Foster back in Edge! When a tainted drug starts claiming lives across the city, Detective Harriet Foster and her team race to track down the source…before it takes one of their own. Chicago’s finest are scouring the city for a tainted new opioid making the rounds, but they’re coming up empty. With five people already dead―a college kid, a new mother, and three poker players―all they really know is the drug’s name: Edge. Where it’s coming from is still anyone’s guess. Detective Harriet Foster doesn’t have time for guessing games. She needs answers. And when the next overdose hits Homicide where it hurts most, Harri is determined to get what she wants. But keeping her eyes squarely on the prize proves harder than expected. Still reeling from her last case (and the stain of suspicion it left on her career), Harri finds herself at a tipping point. (Release date is Dec. 2.)

Lauren Connolly’s Love in Plane Sight is a change from my usual crime fiction. With her brother’s grumpy best friend—and her longtime nemesis—as Beth’s flight instructor, her pilot lessons could be a plane disaster or their first-class ticket to forever.
Mayday. Mayday. Engine failure. When flying with George Bunsen, the last thing Beth Lundberg wants is to be horny in the cockpit. But when her first ride-along dives toward disaster, the perpetually stoic George is forced to execute a skillful emergency landing, and Beth is horrified to find herself with an adrenaline-fueled crush on the pilot. She’s even more shocked when her brother’s best friend offers her discounted flight lessons—possibly out of guilt for almost killing them. And despite George’s annoying habit of departing any room the moment Beth enters, she really wants to accept. No matter that it’s an egregiously expensive hobby, or that her waitressing wages go right toward her mother’s medical bills, or that she’s already in debt up to her eyebrows. Flying is Beth’s dream, and she could use her private license to earn real money. The more time they spend navigating the sky, the more the turbulence between George and Beth dissipates. But Beth has seen the burning wreckage that comes from mixing business with pleasure—plus, she’s been keeping a secret that, once revealed, will send all her relationships into a tailspin. Can she really take a risk on romance when her pilot career isn’t even off the ground? (Release date is Dec. 16.)

I enjoyed Maxie Dara’s first SCYTHE mystery, A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer. The sequel is A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death. Nora Bird works for S.C.Y.T.H.E., which might seem odd for someone as terrified of death as she is. But ever since her parents died in an accident when she was six, she’s been obsessed with avoiding risk, and what better place to learn how to cheat death than the company that employs the nation’s grim reapers? The work enables Nora to learn all about the myriad ways you can kick the bucket, which is comforting…until one day, a file crosses her desk with a name she recognizes. Her twin brother’s. The twins haven’t spoken in six months, but Charlie is all Nora has left. Completely against her cautious nature, Nora steals the file and flees, racing to her brother’s house. She begs him to trust her that his death is imminent, and they hit the road (with his parrot, Jessica, who has plenty to say) in an attempt to evade both death and S.C.Y.T.H.E., whose sole mission of collecting souls has been disrupted by Charlie’s continued existence. Alas, every time Nora saves him, a new cause of death appears in his file. Someone is determined to take Charlie out, and Nora will have to use everything she’s ever learned about death to discover the culprit. (Release date is Dec. 2.)

I like coming-of-age stories. I’ll try Jennie Godfry’s The List of Suspicious Things. “We’ll make a list. A list of all the people and things we see that are suspicious. And then… we’ll investigate them.”Twelve-year-old Miv is panicking. Life has been complicated since her mom got sick, and now her dad is talking about wanting to move their family away from the town Miv has lived in her whole life—because of the murders. Young women are dying, everyone is afraid, and no one knows who the culprit might be. But as far as Miv is concerned, leaving Yorkshire and her best friend Sharon simply isn’t an option, no matter the dangers lurking round their way; or the strangeness at home that started the day Miv’s mum stopped talking. Perhaps if she could solve the case of the disappearing women, they could stay after all? So, Miv and Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things on their street. People they know. People they don’t. But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighborhood, within their families—and between each other—than they ever thought possible. What if the real mystery Miv needs to solve is the one that lies much closer to home? (Release date is Dec. 30.)

Nils Shapiro is back in Matt Goldman’s Dark Humor. Sammy Sykes is evading the law―and justice. Nils is on a mission to hunt down Sammy Sykes, the drug kingpin responsible for the ambush that led to his wife’s death two years ago. Despite the efforts of local law enforcement and the FBI, Sammy is still on the loose. It’s time for Nils to take the law into his own hands. A trip to see Sammy’s daughter in prison gifts him a lead that’s impossible to ignore. Resuming his life as a private investigator, Nils goes deep undercover. Fueled by revenge and a deep sense of justice, Nils’ pursuit of Sammy takes him all the way from Minnesota to Europe, where his survival skills―and resolve―are put to the ultimate test . . . (Release date is Dec. 2.)

In Arnaldur Indridason’s latest Detective Konrad novel, The Quiet Mother, a woman is found murdered in her Reykjavík home, her apartment ransacked. On her desk lies a note with retired detective Konrad’s phone number. Days earlier, she had begged him to find the child she gave up nearly fifty years ago. But Konrad, reluctant to reopen old wounds, turned her away. Now, haunted by guilt, he vows to uncover the truth―for her and for himself. As Konrad digs into her tragic past, he is drawn into a web of secrets, lies, and betrayal. Each revelation points to a hidden life that connects her death to a decades-old murder―and to shadows from Konrad’s own family history. (Release date is Dec. 9.)

All My Bones is the second in P.J. Nelson’s Old Juniper Bookshop Mystery series. Madeline Brimley recently inherited a bookstore in Enigma, Georgia, is embarking on her second career, after her first one (acting) founders upon the metaphorical rocks. Settling in, Madeline recruits her friend Gloria Coleman, the local Episcopal priest, to help her plant azaleas in the front yard of the old Victorian that houses the bookstore. Turning the soil, however, uncovers the body of one Beatrice Glassie, a troublesome woman who has been missing for the past six months. When her friend Gloria is arrested for the murder, Madeline is determined to prove her innocence and, as she quickly finds out, there aren’t many people in town who hadn’t wanted to kill Bea Glassie at one point or another. And the very expensive and rare first edition of a particular volume of Grimm’s Fairy Tales—ordered by the victim and her sister is somehow tied to the grim death. With the help of her not-quite-boyfriend, a local lawman, and her deceased aunt’s best friend, Madeline plans to set a trap to catch the real murderer—before she becomes the next victim. (Release date is Dec. 2.)

I’m so glad Terry Shames is still writing her Samuel Craddock mysteries. The Curious Poisoning of Jewel Barnes is the twelfth in the series. In fact, this quote is from a review I wrote a couple years ago, and I still feel this way. “The Samuel Craddock series may be the best regional crime series around today” Library Journal Starred Review of Guilt Strikes at Granger’s Store.

Newly single Chief of Police Samuel Craddock hasn’t got time to worry about his own troubles―not with Lily Barnes’ wild accusation and trucks dumping suspicious cargo outside Jarrett Creek late at night.

A family feud with a lethal twist

Lily is sure her twin sister, Jewel, is trying to poison her―but it’s Jewel who’s discovered dead. Did she have a secret that could lead Craddock to her killer?

A dangerously toxic investigation

Craddock’s fears about the cargo are heightened by a series of alarming events. What’s really being dumped, and why does the millionaire oil boss who owns the land want to keep it hidden? As Craddock closes in on the truth―and a murderer―the stakes couldn’t be higher . . . (Release date is Dec. 2.)

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I’m sorry, I missed this book. Margie reminded me. The Snow Lies Deep by Paula Munier. I love the Mercy Carr series. The latest thrilling installment in the bestselling Mercy Carr mystery series Mercy and Troy are looking forward to baby Felicity’s first holiday season, and they’re determined to make it a Christmas to remember. At Northshire’s annual Solstice Soirée, hosted by Northshire’s finest and funded by Mercy’s billionaire pal Feinberg, Amy’s little girl Helena is sitting on Santa Claus’s lap. She’s telling him she’d like a Bitty Baby doll just like little Felicity when the bearded man leaps up, thrusts the toddler at her mother Amy, and staggers away from the festivities. He disappears into the woods. By the time Elvis and Mercy find him, Santa Claus aka the town mayor, is lying on his back, dead. A yule log made of oak sits on his chest, burning bright, a beacon of light on the darkest day of the year. This strange murder is the first of a series of similar Solstice-themed killings targeting the town’s most prominent citizens. Beloved family friend Lillian Jenkins, the grande dame of Northshire, could be next. Mercy and Troy and the dogs must team up with Thrasher and Harrington to capture The Yuletide Killer before he strikes again, this time far closer to home. (Release date is Dec. 2.)

So, which books are you waiting to read? And, what books with December release dates did I miss?