“The Vault of Knowledge and Treats” is a little different this month. Because I’m getting it ready a little early, there might be books that arrive that I need to add. To do that, I’ll just put them on the extended list because it’s not easy to go back and insert cover art. And, the list itself might not be as long as the extended list. My list with artwork tends to be popular fiction and nonfiction that appeals to the audience that regularly reads the blog. The extended list includes literary fiction. You may read it, but I seldom do, so those titles usually end up on the list below.

Shall we talk about the January book releases, the Treasures in My Closet?

There are exceptions to everything I say. Gina Apostol’s Bibliolepsy is more literary than I read, but I put this Philippine National Book Award winner on the list because the summary reminds me of the terrible times of censorship libraries and schools are dealing with right now, especially in Texas. The book is about an obsessive, overpowering love of books. Set in the mid-eighties, two decades into the brutal rule of Ferdinand Marcos, the economy is in deep recession, and civil unrest is growing by the day. But Primi Peregino has her own priorities tracking down books and pursuing romantic connections with their authors. For Primi, the revolution means writers are gathering more often, and with greater urgency, so every poetry reading she attends presents a veritable “Justice League” of authors for her to choose among. As the Marcos dictatorship stands poised to topple, Primi remains true to her fantasy: that she, “a vagabond from history, a runaway from time,” can be saved by sex, love, and books. (Release date is Jan. 4.)

We live in frightening times, when every book reminds me of what could happen. Margaret Atwood started the fear for women with The Handmaid’s Tale. Here’s Jessamine Chan with The School for Good Mothers. Frida Lin is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. She’s recently separated from her husband, who won’t give up his mistress. She’s struggling with the demands of a working single mother, but her daughter, Harriet, is the love of her life. Until Frida has a bad day, a day that ends life as she knows it. The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida, and she’s stripped of custody. She must attend a year-long program at a school meant to remake her into “a good mother” to earn her parental rights back. But, it’s immediately apparent to Frida that women are set up to fail. (Release date is Jan. 4.)

Mike Chen blends space opera with family drama in Light Years from Home. “Every family has issues. Most can’t blame them on extraterrestrials.” Evie Shao and her sister, Kass, aren’t on speaking terms. Fifteen years earlier on a family camping trip, their father and brother vanished. Their father turned up days later, dehydrated and confused – and convinced he’d been abducted by aliens. Their brother, Jakob, remained missing. Kass suspected her twin brother ran off, and she became the rock of the family. Evie traded academics to pursue alien conspiracy theories, always looking for Jakob. When Evie’s UFO network uncovers a new event, she goes to investigate, and discovers Jakob is back. He’s different- older, stranger, and talking of an intergalactic war. If the family is going to come together to help Jakob, Kass and Evie are going to have to fix their issues. Because the FBI is after Jakob, and if their brother is telling the truth, possibly an entire space armada as well. (Release date is Jan. 25.)

Love at First Spite is Anna E. Collins’ debut novel, a romantic comedy. Interior designer Dani Porter buys the vacant lot next to her ex-fiance’s house, the house they were supposed to live in together before he cheated on her with their realtor. So, Dani plans to build a vacation rental wht will mess with his view and piece of mind. Her plan becomes complicated when Dani is forced to team up with Wyatt Montego, the haughty architect at her firm, and the only person available to draw up blueprints. As they spend time together, Dani glimpses more to the man, and as she gets closer to her goal, the more she wonders if winning revenge against one man could mean losing something sweeter. (Release date is Jan. 4.)

It’s amazing how much Gemma Doyle has changed for the better in Vicki Delany’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mysteries. A Three Book Problem sends Gemma and Jayne Watson, owner of Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room, to the rented Suffolk Gardens House. Wealthy philanthropist and prominent Sherlockian David Masterson has rented the house for a traditional English country house weekend. Jayne and Gemma are catering the event, but in between, Gemma begins to wonder why most of the guests seem to know nothing about Holmes, and many don’t like each other or the host. When, as is traditional for a country house weekend, it ends in murder, Gemma is left with a three book problem. (Release date is Jan. 11.)

The twenty-fifth Serge Storms caper by Tim Dorsey, Mermaid Confidential, sends the lovable killer and his sidekick, Coleman, to the Florida Keys where they’re going to try condo living. But, this is Serge, and he’s going to try to assist fellow residents while ending up in the middle of a gang war. I already read the madcap adventure. After living in Florida for eighteen years, and reading this novel, I can certainly agree with Carl Hiaasen. The actual facts about Florida and the Keys are stranger than the fiction. (Release date is Jan. 25.)

Crimes and Covers is Amanda Flower’s fifth Magical Bookshop mystery. Christmas is coming to the Western New York village of Cascade Springs, and so is the long-awaited wedding of Charming Books proprietor Violet Waverly and police chief David Rainwater. But the reception becomes memorable for all the wrong reasons when a woman’s dead body floats by on the frigid Niagara River. Violet recognizes the deceased as a mysterious woman who visited Charming Books two days before the wedding, toting a rare first edition of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Knowing how valuable it was, Violet insisted on an appraisal before she’d consider buying it. The woman stormed out of the shop. Now she’s dead, and a messge scrawled in pen upon her palm reads, “They stole my book.” (Release date is Jan. 11.)

Survovor’s Guilt is Robyn Gigl’s second legal thriller featuring a ripped-from-the-headlines plot and a protagonist who, like the author herself, is a transgender attorney. The complexities of gender, power, and public perception arise as a new case draws Erin McCabe into the dark world of sex trafficking. The death of millionaire businessman Charles Parsons seems like a straightforward suicide, until computer techs pick up a voice recording that incriminates Parsons’ adoptive daughter, Ann, who confesses and pleads guilty. A mysterious meeting with one of the investigating detectives leads Erin and her law partner, Duane, to start their own investigation, and convince Ann to withdraw her guilty plea. but Ann knows more than she’s sharing, even if it means a life sentence. Who is she protecting, and why? (Release date is Jan. 25.)

Heather Gudenkauf’s latest thriller is Overnight Guest. True crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace. As the storm worsens, Wylie is trapped inside the house. Then she discovers a small child in the snow just outside. After bringing the child inside for warmth and safety, she begins to search for answers. It soon becomes clear that the farmhouse isn’t as isolated as she thought, and someone is willing to do anything to find them. (Release date is Jan. 25.)

Janice Hallett’s debut novel, The Appeal, is the one I’m hoping to read in January. It’s already been a hit in the UK, but that isn’t why I’m interested. It’s an epistolary novel, and I’m always willing to try them, plus, it’s a debut. The novel opens with two young lawyers combing through documents – messages, emails, texts – from an amateur theatrical group whose leaders, the Haywoods, also own the local country club. When the Haywoods’ young granddaughter becomes sick, the community rallies around them to raise funds for an experimental treatment. But not everyone is sure of the treatment’s efficacy. As the lawyers read the emails and chat via WhatsApp, it becomes clear that something isn’t right about their findings: one person is dead, one person in jail, and one person is unsure they’ve apprehended the real killer. (Release date is Jan. 14.)

I’m a fan of Victoria Houston’s Lew Ferris mysteries. Wolf Hollow brings tragedy to police chief Lew Ferris’ life, as well as to others in the tiny northwoods Wisconsin town of Loon Lake.There are rumors that a precious vein of nickel and copper is buried on the property of wealthy Grace McDonough, and the drilling is about to begin. But not if environmentalist Pete Ferris can help it.. Honestly? I’ve read the back summary of this book, and I’m not going to repeat it. There are too many spoilers about murders. When I read the book, I”m going to ignore the back flap, and just remember that Houston’s mysteries are complicated stories that deal with the environment and local connections. She isn’t an author who shies away from tough storylines. (Release date is Jan. 11.)

A number of people are waiting for Eva Jurczyk’s debut novel, The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. What do you do when you’re a quiet academic librarian on sabbatical and your supervisor has a stroke? Of course, you go to work, only to find out there are several rare manuscripts missing from the collection, and missing from the Director’s safe. Liesl Weiss plans to sound the alarm and inform the police, but the university doesn’t want the publicity, and shuts her down. Now, she’ll have to quietly investigate with the aid of several staff members who don’t really trust her. After all, she’s a woman. (Release date is Jan. 25.)

Crime writer Laura Lippman’s Seasonal Work is a collection of a dozen stories, including a never-before-published novella. It’s a suspenseful collection of stories featuring fierce women, including “Seasonal Work” in which Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan keeps a watchful eye on a criminally resourceful single father. There are stories of deception, murder, dangerous games, and love gone wrong. (Release date is Jan. 4.)

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Lutz brings us The Accomplice, a novel that asks: “How well do you know the one person who truly knows you? Owen Mann is charming, privileged, and chronically dissatisfied. Luna Grey is secretive, cautious, and pragmatic. Despite their differences, they form a bond the moment they meet in college – a bond that remains even after an unexplained death rocks their social circle. Years later, they are still best friends. Then Luna makes a chilling discovery involving Owne, forcing her to reckon with a secret she’s spent her whole life burying…all while others keep asking the same questions: What binds Owen and Luna so tightly? Why weren’t they ever a couple? And why do people around them keep turning up dead? (Release date is Jan. 25.)

If you’re a fan of historical mysteries, and you haven’t read Mary Miley’s Mystic’s Accomplice mysteries, you’re missing out. The second one, Spirits and Smoke, is even better than the first. Set in 1924 in Chicago, it features Prohibition, gangsters, and spiritualism. Young widow Maddie Pastore is making a living investigating for her landlady who claims to be a medium. When one prospective client wants to talk with his deceased brother, Maddie learns from an obituary and will that the dead man only had two sisters. And, then she begins to suspect the dead man, a bank teller, was murdered. (Release date is Jan. 4.)

I love the cover of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Good Son, a story of family, redemption and a mother’s love. What do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognizable to you? For Thea, the answer is both simple and agonizing; you keep loving him somehow. Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the murder of his girlfriend, Belinda, a crime he has no memory of committing. Three years later, he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on. Belinda’s mother, once Thea’s good friend, galvanizes the community to rally against him. Neighbors, employers, even some members of Thea’s own family turn away. Meanwhile, Thea struggles to understand her only son and begins to suspect darker forces are at play. If there is so much she never knew about Stefan, what other hidden secrets has she yet to uncover – especially the shocking truth about the night Belinda died. (Release date is Jan. 18.)

I’m picking Nita Prose’s The Maid as one of the debuts of the month, and maybe the year. Molly Gray is an unforgettable character, a charmingly eccentric hotel maid, efficient and impeccable at her job. She does have a hard time understanding social cues, and always relied on her grandmother to tell her what she missed. But, her grandmother has died, and Molly thinks she’s on her own. When a guest turns up dead in one of her suites, she must navigate a dangerous web of deceit and lies to solve a disturbing mystery. It’s then that she discovers she isn’t as alone as she thought. If you read this one, you’ll treasure Molly. (Release date is Jan. 4.)

Here’s a debut I’m looking forward to reading, Shauna Robinson’s Must Love Books, although I might be a little older than the target audience since Nora Hughes, the overworked, underpaid editorial assistant at Parsons Press is a twenty-something. She thought that was her Dream Job, but after five years of lunch orders and finicky authors, she’s come to the conclusion that Dream Jobs do not exist. With her life spiraling and the Parsons staff sinking, Nora gets hit with even worse news. Parsons is cutting her already unlivable salary. Unable to afford her rent and without even the novels she once loved as a comfort, Nora decides to moonlight for a rival publisher to make ends meet…and maybe poach some Parsons’ authors along the way. But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling Parsons author no one can afford to lose is thrown into the mix, Nora has to decide where her loyalties lie. Her new Dream Job, ever-optimistic Andrew, or…herself and her future. (Release date is Jan. 18.)

I don’t know why I haven’t yet read Laura John Rowland’s Victorian mysteries since it’s one of my favorite time periods for novels. Garden of Sins is the sixth in the series. In November 1890, crime scene photographer Sarah Bain Barrett and her husband, detective Sergeant Barrett, are on a train that crashes. While rescuing other passengers, they find a woman who’s been strangled to death.The search for answers becomes one of the most challenging cases they’ve ever faced. At the same time, they investigate, Sarah awaits the verdict of her father’s trial for heinous crimes committed two decades earlier. (Release date is Jan. 11.)

Lost & Found is Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Kathryn Schulz’s memoir. Eighteen months before Schulz’s father died, she met the woman she would marry. In this book, she weaves the story of those relationships into an exploration of the role that loss and discovery play in our lives. The book is part memoir, part guidebook to living in a world that is simultaneously full of wonder and joy and wretchedness and suffering – a world that always demands both our gratitude and our grief. It’s an account of love in all its many forms. (Release date is Jan. 11.)

Extended List – These titles are also January releases.

Andreades, Daphne Palasi – Brown Girls (1/4)
Blackburn, Lizzie Damilola – Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? (1/18)
Evison, Jonathan – Small World (1/11)
Faulkner, Katherine – Greenwich Park (1/25)
Hall, Traci – Murder at a Scottish Social (1/25)
Hutton, Callie – The Mystery of Albert E. Finch (1/11)
Lipstein, Andrew – Last Resort (1/18)
Potts, Jean – The Footsteps on the Stairs/The Troublemaker (1/23)
Scott, Laura – Tailing Trouble (1/11)
Starrett, Vincent – Murder on “B” Deck (1/4)
Wang, Weike – Joan is Okay (1/18)
Williams, Caroline – Move: How the New Science of Body Movement Can Set Your Mind Free (1/4)
Yanagihara, Hanya – To Paradise (1/11)
Young, Erin – The Fields (1/25)