I have a dozen books to talk about today, January releases. I hope you find a couple you want to read. Let me know what I might have missed.

Wes Browne’s They All Fall the Same is a violent novel set in Kentucky. Cannabis kingpin Burl Spoon has reigned over the Jackson County area for three decades, building a powerful backwoods empire. But behind a well-run organization, his personal life is crumbling–his daughter can’t stay clean; his son has hated him since coming out; and after enduring years of infidelity, his wife is straying too. The only person not on his payroll who still adores him is his six-year-old granddaughter, Chelsea. When his daughter overdoses on heroin laced with fentanyl and one of his employees is murdered, Burl’s retaliation against Clovis Begley, the patriarch of the heroin-dealing family involved in both deaths, is inevitable. As Burl’s plan spirals into a firestorm of vengeance that threatens the safety of his granddaughter, his drive for revenge conflicts with his longing for redemption. (Release date is Jan. 7.)

Ava Burke’s cozy mystery, Haunting and Homicide, takes readers to New Orleans. Tallulah “Lou” Thatcher has a gift: she can see dead people. But in New Orleans, Louisiana, this is not a drawback. On the contrary, her ability to see ghosts helps her host viral ghost tours through the historic Garden District. When rival tour guide Adam Brandt–who accused her of faking her encounters to undercut his business–is found murdered, Lou is the only one who can see him . . . his ghost, that is. It’s no secret Adam and Lou were feuding and with the absence of a suspect, she’s the only one with a clear motive. After detective Dylan Finch, Lou’s longtime crush, reveals the murder weapon was a ceremonial dagger from Lou’s shop, she’s officially declared the prime suspect. Determined to prove her innocence, Lou starts investigating right away. (Release date is Jan. 21.)

James Byrne’s Dez Limerick series is one of my favorite thriller series. Chain Reaction is the third one. Desmond Aloysius Limerick (“Dez” to his friends and close personal enemies) is a man with a shadowy past, certain useful hard-won skills, and, if one digs deep enough, a reputation as a good man to have at your back. He was trained as a “gatekeeper”—he can open any door, keep it open as long as necessary, and control who does—and does not—go through. Now retired from his previous life, Dez still tries to keep his skills up to date. Knocking around the country, picking up the occasional gig as a guitarist, Dez is contacted by a friend in urgent need of his musical skills. At his behest, Dez flies to the East Coast to a gig at the brand new massive complex, the Liberty Center. But he’s barely landed before he finds himself in the midst of a terrorist attack, a group has taken over the whole center and thousands of hostage lives are in danger. With the semi-willing help of a talented thief, Dez takes on the impossible task of outfighting and outwitting a literal army. But that’s just the beginning, as Dez learns he was actually lured there under false pretenses, by someone who knows more about Dez, his past and his skills than any living person should. (Release date is Jan. 28.)

The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime is the tenth book in Vicki Delany’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series. Gemma Doyle and her friends have packed their bags and headed to London for her sister Pippa’s wedding. Waiting for her in the hotel lobby is none other than Gemma’s ex-husband, Paul Erikson. Paul has a rare book he wants her to see—calling it “the real deal”—so Gemma agrees to meet him at their old shop, Trafalgar Fine Books, the following day. But when Gemma arrives, accompanied by Grant, a rare book dealer, they find Paul dead in his office. Paul had been down on his luck, but Gemma never expected this. Had he borrowed money from people he shouldn’t have? And where is the valuable book he was so anxious for Gemma to see? It’s nowhere to be found in the shop. Because of their previous relationship, Gemma feels she owes something to Paul and vows to find his killer. (Release date is Jan. 14.)

While I liked Kemper Donovan’s first Ghostwriter mystery, Loose Lips was more fun. Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. So goes the adage, but sometimes, even a first-rate ghostwriter and successful mystery author needs to make a buck. Even if that means setting foot on a cruise ship, something she vowed she’d never do. To top it off, the “Get Lit Cruise” is being organized by Payton Garrett, a very popular, bestselling author—and the ghostwriter’s long-time frenemy from back in their MFA days. Over the years, Payton has reinvented herself. She gained a wife while ditching her journalist husband—who is also on board. And she’s acquired a rabid following who eagerly snapped up the invitations sent to a select few of her newsletter subscribers. The guests, all female, will receive personalized instruction from experts in five different writing genres, while basking in Payton’s reflected glow. Between mentoring guests, flirting with Payton’s ex, and taking bets on how long before someone performs a reenactment of Titanic’s “I’m flying!” scene (answer: not long enough), there’s plenty to keep a ghostwriter occupied. But there’s one activity nobody expected: solving a murder. (Release date is Jan. 21.)

The second Walk Through England mystery by Nicholas George is A Lethal Walk in Lakeland. Chase has two compelling reasons for returning to England—a group walk along the famed Coast to Coast trail in the picturesque Lake District, and a chance to further his relationship with Mike, the handsome Devonshire doctor he met on his last trip. The walkers, including Chase’s dear friend and fellow Anglophile Billie Mondreau, assemble at a Whitehaven hotel and begin their adventure with the traditional “baptism of the boots” in St. Bee’s Bay. But they’ve barely begun traveling eastward with their genial guide than the group dynamics turns unexpectedly rocky. The problem is the Uptons—a wealthy family who have arrived from Texas, and whose squabbling antics continually overshadow the bucolic surroundings. Brock Upton, tall and commanding, is traveling with his pint-sized wife and his three siblings, along with a family friend. Every member of the party cites a different reason for joining the tour, and Chase’s instincts tell him they’re all lying. Brock’s heart condition hinders their progress through the Lake District’s hills and dales. But that proves the least of their problems when one of the Uptons is fatally poisoned. Years of secrets and grudges emerge, along with a decades-old family mystery. (Release date is Jan. 21.)

Victoria Gilbert launches a new cozy series with Schooled in Murder. Jennifer “Jen” Dalton is an author and educator at Clarion University in Virginia. She loves her job, but some of her petty coworkers look down on her for writing genre fiction. As members of the English department, they wish to encourage students to pursue higher literary aspirations. When a humiliating confrontation between an uppity professor and one of Jen’s students, Mia, escalates, no one thinks much of it. Until his dead body is found along with evidence incriminating Mia. Jen knows Mia couldn’t have killed him, but Mia’s suspicious disappearance might as well be a proclamation of guilt. With the sleuthing skills Jen has acquired writing murder mysteries, she’s determined to solve the case and clear Mia’s name. (Release date is Jan. 7.)

The Lost House by Melissa Larson takes a young woman into her family’s past. Forty years ago, a young woman and her infant daughter were found buried in the cold Icelandic snow, lying together as peacefully as though sleeping. Except the mother’s throat had been slashed and the infant drowned. The case was never solved. There were no arrests, no conviction. Just a suspicion turned into a certainty: the husband did it. When he took his son and fled halfway across the world to California, it was proof enough of his guilt. Now, nearly half a century later and a year after his death, his granddaughter, Agnes, is ready to clear her grandfather’s name once and for all. Still recovering from his death and a devastating injury, Agnes wants nothing more than an excuse to escape the shambles of her once-stable life—which is why she so readily accepts true crime expert Nora Carver’s invitation to be interviewed for her popular podcast. Agnes packs a bag and hops on a last-minute flight to the remote town of Bifröst, Iceland, where Nora is staying, where Agnes’s father grew up, and where, supposedly, her grandfather slaughtered his wife and infant daughter. Is it merely coincidence that a local girl goes missing the very same weekend Agnes arrives? Suddenly, Agnes and Nora’s investigation is turned upside down, and everyone in the small Icelandic town is once again a suspect. Seeking to unearth old and new truths alike, Agnes finds herself drawn into a web of secrets that threaten the redemption she is hell-bent on delivering, and even her life—discovering how far a person will go to protect their family, their safety, and their secrets. (Release date is Jan. 14.)

The Naming of the Birds is the next installment in Parai O’Donnell’s series that began with The House on Vesper Sands. Something is troubling Inspector Henry Cutter. Sergeant Gideon Bliss is accustomed to his ill-tempered outbursts, but lately the inspector has grown silent and withdrawn. Then, the murders begin. The first to die is the elderly Sir Aneurin Considine, a decorated but obscure civil servant who long ago retired to tend his orchids. If the motive for his killing is a mystery, the manner of his death is more bewildering still. The victims that follow suffer similar fates, their deaths gruesome but immaculately orchestrated. The murderer comes and goes like a ghost, leaving only carefully considered traces. As the hunt for this implacable adversary mounts, the inspector’s gloom deepens, and to Sergeant Bliss, his methods seem as mystifying as the crimes themselves. Why is he digging through dusty archives while the murderer stalks further victims? And as hints of past wrongdoing emerge—and with them the faint promise of a motive—why does Cutter seem haunted by some long-ago failing of his own? To find the answers, the meek and hapless sergeant must step out of the inspector’s shadow. Aided by Octavia Hillingdon, a steely and resourceful journalist, Bliss will uncover truths that test his deepest beliefs. (Release date is Jan. 7.)

Kevin Wade’s debut crime novel is Johnny Careless. Police Chief Jeep Mullane has been bounced back home to Long Island’s North Shore by a heartbreaking case that both earned him his NYPD detective’s shield and burned him out of the Job. Now heading up a small local police department, he finds himself navigating the same geography he did growing up there as the son of an NYPD cop. Jeep is a “have-not” among the glittering “haves,” a sharp-witted, down-to-earth man in a territory defined and ruled by multigenerational wealth and power and the daunting tribal codes and customs that come with it. When the corpse of Jeep’s childhood friend Johnny Chambliss—born into privilege and known as “Johnny Careless” for his reckless, golden-boy antics—surfaces in the Bayville waters, past collides with present, and Jeep is pulled into a treacherous web. He is challenged by Johnny’s wealthy and secretive family and his beautiful, enigmatic ex-wife as he untangles a knotted mystery fraught with theft, corrupt local moguls, and decades-old secrets, all while grappling with his own deep-seated grief for his lost pal. (Release date is Jan. 28.)

I loved Andrew Welsh-Higgins’ The Mailman so much that I lent it to my brother-in-law. And, I’m going to the release event in January, so I even bought a copy of the book for the event. Mercury Carter is a deliveryman and he takes his job very seriously. When a parcel is under his care, he will stop at nothing to deliver it directly to its intended recipient. Not even, as in the current case, when he finds a crew of violent men at the indicated address that threaten his life and take the woman who lives there hostage. That’s because Carter has special skills from his former life as a federal agent with the postal inspection service, skills that make him particularly useful for delivering items in circumstances as dangerous as these. After Carter dispatches the goons sent to kill him, he enters a home besieged by criminals―but the leader of the gang escapes with attorney Rachel Stanfield before the mailman can complete his assignment. With Rachel’s husband Glenn in tow, Carter takes off in pursuit of the kidnapper and his quarry, hunting them across Indiana, up to Chicago, and into small-town Illinois. Along the way, he slowly picks off members of the crew and uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy and a powerful crime syndicate, all in service of his main objective: to hand the package over to Rachel. Carter has never missed a delivery and isn’t about to start now. (Release date is Jan. 28.)

Rebellious Grace is Jeri Westerson’s third King’s Fool mystery. 1536, London. The gruesome murder of a servant in the king’s palace, his throat savagely cut, has brought fear to the court of Henry VIII. When the man’s body is then dug up from the churchyard and disembowelled two weeks later, Will Somers, the king’s jester, is horrified. What terrible mischief is now afoot under the king’s roof? With Henry VIII distracted by The Pilgrimage of Grace, the religious revolt led by Robert Aske in protest at the king turning his back on the Catholic faith, Will becomes reluctant inquisitor once again. As he attempts to unmask a murderous knave, Will uncovers a chilling link between one of Queen Jane Seymour’s precious jewels, the rebellion and the dead man. Is a shocking act of treachery behind a grotesque killing? (Release date is Jan. 7.)

Are there books here to tempt you? Or, do have some on a January list that will tempt us? Let us know!