Do you believe we’re already talking about books to be released in January 2019? Time goes so fast. I hope there’s something in this list that intrigues you. If not, are you waiting for a different January release?

Peter Caine is a cutthroat Manhattan defense attorney in A.F. Brady’s Once A Liar. He is a cold, heartless man with no remorse when he fights to acquit murderers, pedophiles and rapists. Then, his former lover, daughter of the Manhattan DA, is murdered. Peter is fighting for his life and freedom when the DA embarks on a witch hunt to ensure Caine is found guilty of the murder. (Release date is Jan. 29.)

I love the premise of Mike Chen’s debut novel, Here and Now and Then. Kin Stewart is an ordinary family man, working in IT, trying to keep his marriage alive and struggling to connect with his teenage daughter, Miranda. But, Kin was once a time-traveling secret agent from 2142. He’s been stranded in San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, and he’s made a life for himself. But, eighteen years too late the rescue team shows up to return Kin to 2142 where he’s only been gone weeks, not years, and where another family awaits him. When he tries to stay connected to both lives, his efforts threaten to destroy the agency, history, and his daughter’s very existence. (Release date is Jan. 29.)

Bones Behind the Wheel is E.J. Copperman’s tenth Haunted Guesthouse mystery. Innkeeper Alison Kerby relies on one of the ghosts that haunts her New Jersey guesthouse, Paul Harrison, to investigate when a work crew digs up a car from 1977 on her beach. The biggest problem is the skeleton found in the car. (Release date is Jan. 8.)

Lyndsay Faye, the author of Jane Steele, now brings us The Paragon Hotel. In 1921, “Nobody” Alice James arrives in Portland, Oregon with a gun wound. When she befriends a black Pullman porter, he leads her to the Paragon Hotel It’s the only all-black hotel in the city, and the lodgers seem terrified of a white woman on the premises. She discovers the Ku Klux Klan has arrived in Portland, and only Alice and her new “family” of Paragon residents are willing to search for a missing mulatto child. (Release date is Jan. 8.)

In The Guilt We Carry by Samuel W. Gailey, fifteen-year-old Alice runs away from home because she’s unable to bear the guilt of negligence that led to the death of her younger brother. She lives on the streets and drowns her guilt in alcohol. But, when she finds a dead drug dealer and a duffel bag full of cash, she sees it as the chance for a new start. But, the drug dealer’s supplier wants his money back, and sends people to get the money back. Alice’s day of reckoning is coming. (Release date is Jan. 8.)

David R. Gillham’s novel Annelies asks the question, “What if Anne Frank survived the Holocaust?” The story honors Anne Frank’s legacy while taking her to 1945 when she’s sixteen-year-old, living with her father, and struggling to overcome the brutality of her memories while building a new life. (Release date is Jan. 15.)

Sarah Graves has successfully spun off her Home Repair is Homicide series into the Death by Chocolate mysteries. In Eastport, Maine, Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and her best friend, Ellie, have opened a bake shop, The Chocolate Moose. In the second book in the series, Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake, the duo are planning to bake a wedding cake. When the bride’s bitter ex-boyfriend is found dead, murdered with a poisoned chocolate malted milkshake that the bakers had just started making, it’s the groom-to-be who is jailed as the prime suspect. The wedding is cancelled, and the fate of the bake shop is up in the air. Now, Jake and Ellie are determined to find a poisoner. (Release date is Jan. 29.)

In Chris Hammer’s debut crime novel, Scrublands, a journalist goes to a dying Australian town on the  one-year anniversary of a tragedy. He’s looking for answers, but they’re not the ones he thought he’d find. Why did an Anglican priest turn on some of the men in the local area? Some people can the priest a saint; others say he was a sinner. There are rumors of pedophilia, while women deny it. Journalist Martin Scarsden’s writes stories about the drought-ravaged town, but he may be wrong. (Release date is Jan. 8.)

I’ll say right up front, I don’t read psychological thrillers. But, some of you might be interested in the latest novel by the authors of The Wife Between Us, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. In An Anonymous Girl, Jessica Farris signs up for a psychological study, assuming she’ll answer questions, collect her money, and leave. But, the questions from the mysterious Dr. Shields seem to target Jessica. It’s a story of doubt, passion, and how much you can trust someone. (Release date is Jan. 8.)

Out of the Dark is the new Orphan X novel by Gregg Hurwitz. “When darkness closes in, he’s your last, best hope. Years ago he went rogue from the Orphan Program to fight for the helpless. Now, Evan Smoak finds himself the target of the most powerful man on earth. His only choice is to go on the offensive, even as he’s being hunted by the one man whose skills match his own. (Release date is Jan. 29.)

Darynda Jones’ final Grim Reaper book is Summoned to Thirteenth Grave. Charley Davidson, Grim Reaper, has been kicked off the earthy plane for eternity. But, someone’s looking out for her, and she’s allowed to return after just a hundred years in exile. She missed people in her life, but still has questions. What happened to her mother? How did she really die? Who killed her? (Release date is Jan. 15.)

Dead as a Door Knocker is Diane Kelly’s first House-Flipper mystery. Whitney Whitaker loves to find houses in Nashville, fix them up, and flip them. Whitney jumps on the opportunity to buy a crumbling property, with her eye on a quick flip. But, Sawdust, Whitney’s cat, has an eye on the dead body in the flower bed. (Release date is Jan. 29.)

R.J. Lee’s cozy mystery debut is Grand Slam Murders. In Rosalie, Mississippi, reporter WendyWinchester gets a shot at the big time when four of the town’s most infamous society matrons fall dead on their bridge table. With a card or two up her sleeve, the ambitious young reporter hopes to deal herself a better hand as an investigative reporter. (Release date is Jan. 29.)

The summary of Lynda Cohen Loigman’s The Wartime Sisters says, “In the vein of The Nightingale and The Lilac Girls comes a novel of World War II brought to life through the eyes of two extraordinary sisters on a quest for independence, love, and second changes.” (And, if you’re a fan of historical novels, watch the covers in 2019. Librarians have noticed that they feature two women walking aways.) (Release date is Jan. 22.)

I’m going to mention a memoir that I haven’t yet read. I have the feeling that Sarah McColl’s Joy Enough is going to break my heart. While her marriage fell apart, McColl returned to the family farmhouse to take care of her mother who had been diagnosed with cancer. (Release date is Jan. 15.)

The Widows by Jess Montgomery is “set in 1920s rural Ohio, with the evocative backdrop of moonshine, coal mining, and women’s suffrage. The Widows is inspired by the true history of Ohio’s first female sheriff: Lily Ross is made acting sheriff when her husband Daniel is killed in the line of duty. She is told by the men of the town that it was a tragic accident, but believes they are hiding something. Then another woman from her husband’s past – the hardscrabble coal miner’s widow Marvena – appears on the day of his funeral. Thrown together, the two women form an uneasy alliance to investigate what they believe is the murder of the man they both loved.” (Release date is Jan. 8.)

In The Alchemist’s Illusion by Gigi Pandian, centuries-old alchemist Zoe Faust discovers a painting of her old mentor. Before she can investigate, a widow accuses Zoe of murdering her artist husband. Zoe can easily deny that, and she’s more concerned that her mentor is imprisoned in that painting. (Release date is Jan. 8.)

The summary of Emma Rous’ The Au Pair reminds me of Daphne du Maurier’s books. Seraphine Mayes and her twin Brother were born in the middle of summer at their family’s estate on the Norfolk cast. Within hours of their birth, their mother threw herself from the cliffs, the au pair fled, and the villagers spread rumors. Now, as an adult, Seraphine mourns her father’s recent death. While going through his belongs, she finds a family picture. It was taken on the day the twins were born, “and in the photo, their mother, surrounded by her husband and their older son, is beautifully dressed, smiling serenely, and holding just one baby. Who is the child and what really happened that day? One person knows the truth, if only Seraphine can find her.” (Release date is Jan. 8.)

Terry Shames’ Samuel Craddock books are some of my favorite mysteries. In A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary, Police Chief Craddock’s friend, Loretta Singletary goes missing. He’s not too worried until some of her friends say she was meeting men she found on an online dating site. Then, a woman from a neighboring town is found dead, and she was using the same online dating service. (I’m not sure about release date on this one, because it’s been postponed.)

It’s so much fun to submit our DNA and find out where we came from, isn’t it? Dani Shapiro did that on a whim, and then learned that her father was not her biological father. Everything she knew about her life crumbled around her. Inheritance is Shapiro’s nonfiction book about secrets within families, and her own search to unlock the story of her own identity. (Release date is Jan. 15.)

Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Age of Miracles, now brings us The Dreamers. It’s a novel about a California college town transformed by a strange illness that locks victims in a perpetual sleep and triggers extraordinary, life-altering dreams. (Release date is Jan. 15.)

The latest Downward Dog mystery is Tracy Weber’s Murder Likes It Hot. Newly married yoga instructor Kate Davidson has too many problems. She’s trying to conceive a child, keep her yoga studio afloat with a new studio across the street, and start a yoga program for homeless youth at a local resource center. When a center employee is found dead, Kate sets aside her own problems to dig up clues in the world of teenage homelessness. (Release date is Jan. 8.)

Other January Releases – These are treasures as well, however I can’t summarize everything. Maybe there’s a book on this list that will appeal to you.

Adam, Claire – Golden Child (Jan. 29)
Adams, Taylor – No Exit (Jan. 15)
Arden, Katherine – The Winter of the Witch (Jan. 8)
Cander, Chris – The Weight of a Piano (Jan. 22)
Freeburn, Christina – Not a Creature Was Stirring (Jan. 22)
Gerstley, Ashley Feinstein – The 30-Day Money Cleanse (Jan. 1)
Glynn, Alan – Receptor (Jan. 8)
Knox, Joseph – The Smiling Man (Jan. 15)
Kochai, Jamil Jan – 99 Nights in Logar (Jan. 8)
Lodge, Gytha – She Lies in Wait (Jan. 8)
Macintosh, Sophie – The Water Cure (Jan. 8)
McGuire, Seanan – In an Absent Dream (Jan. 8)
Moss, Sarah – Ghost Wall (Jan. 8)
Ohaney, Joann – As Long As We Both Shall Live (Jan. 15)
Parr, Nancy J. – Seven Deadly Zins (Jan. 8)
Scribner, Keith – Old Newgate Road (Jan. 8)
Sims, Laura – Looker (Jan. 8)
Slimani, Leila – Adele (Jan. 15)
Sthers, Amanda – Holy Lands (Jan. 22)