Ah, December. The month when none of us have enough time to get much reading done. I hope you find time for some of these forthcoming books, though.

The second book in Stefan Ahnhem’s Fabian Risk thriller series, The Ninth Grave, happens six months before the first book. One evening, the Swedish minister of justice disappears on the short walk from the house of Parliament and his car. At the same time, the wife of a famous Danish Tv star if found brutally murdered. Bodies pile up as criminal investigator Fabian Risk and his Danish counterpart race to put the pieces together. (Release date is Dec. 5.)

In Enchantress of Numbers, Jennifer Chiaverini focuses on the life of Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace. She was Lord Byron’s only legitimate child, and the daughter of a mathematician mother. Her mother provided her with a rigorous education grounded in science and math. But, it’s her friendship with the brilliant Charles Babbage that will define her destiny as the world’s first computer programmer. (Release date is Dec. 5.)

“Girlfriend. Prostitute. Addict. Terrorist? Who is K?” Find out in Katherine Fav’s novel, Ultraluminous. (Release date is Dec. 5.)

A Murder for the Books is the first book in Victoria Gilbert’s Blue Ridge Library mystery series. University librarian Amy Webber left the university after making a scene when she caught her boyfriend with another woman. Now, she’s managing a charming public library in a historic mountain town in Virginia. But, when she and her new neighbor find a body in the archives, they also uncover the scandalous past of the town. (Release date is Dec. 12.)

Kristan Higgins latest novel, Now That You Mention It, takes a prodigal daughter back to her Maine hometown where everyone doesn’t welcome her. Nora Stuart took one step forward when she received the Tufts scholarship that put her on the path to becoming a Boston medical specialist. Then she was hit by a car and overheard her boyfriend hit on another doctor when she thought she was dying. The only place to return was home, where her tough islander mother is distant, and her sister is in jail, unable to raise her teenage daughter. Now, Nora has one last chance to mend her broken family. (Release date is Dec. 26.)

Detectives John Penley and Paula Newberry are on the case in James L’Etoile’s Bury the Past. But, someone in Newberry’s past wants to bury her, because when she was in Internal Affairs she helped put crooked cops in prison. Now, one of them is masterminding a scheme to discredit everything Paula has worked on. (Release date is Dec. 12.)

Is Amy Mitchell dead, or did she disappear fifteen years ago? In the third book in the Belfast McGrath mystery series, Bel, Book, and Scandal, author Maggie McConnon finally answers that question. It’s a question that’s been haunting Bel for years. When she sees a newspaper photo of a woman that looks like Amy, she heads north to search for answers. (Release date is Dec. 5.)

In Gail Oust’s latest Spice Shop mystery, Ginger Snapped, Piper Prescott resumes her amateur sleuth duties when her friend, the local police chief, is suspended from his job. After he finds the body of a local realtor on his property, everyone who assumed he was in a relationship with the realtor also assumes he killed her. (Release date is Dec. 12.)

Katherine Hall Page plunks caterer Faith Fairchild into the middle of an Agatha Christie type mystery in The Body in the Casket. Faith is delighted when a retired Broadway producer asks her to cater an entire weekend party. But, it turns out he thinks one of the guests, all part of a failed production, is planning to kill him. He’s hiring Faith for her investigative skills. (Release date is Dec. 5.)

Nancy J. Parra kicks off a new Wine Country mystery series with A Case of Syrah, Syrah. Taylor O’Brian’s plans to lead “Off the Beaten Path” Wine Country Tours comes to an abrupt stop when her first tour ends in murder, and the victim’s husband accuses Taylor of killing her. (Release date is Dec. 12.)

Joanna Schaffhausen’s debut is The Vanishing Season. It introduces Ellery Hathaway, a police officer trying to move on with her life. She was child victim number seventeen in a grisly string of serial killings. But every year she receives a birthday card from an anonymous sender, and another person disappears. Ellery turns to the one person who might be able to help her, Reed Markham, the man who rescued her all those years ago. (Release date is Dec. 5.)

I don’t have a lot of Treasures in My Closet for December, but most of us don’t have a great deal of reading time either. I hope you enjoy the books you choose.