Are you ready for the second collection of January book releases? There are a number of books to select from if you’re interested.

Already published in England, Christobel Kent’s The Crooked House is now released in the U.S. The psychological thriller features the former Esme Grace, now living under a new legal identity after the slaughter of her family in a small village. Now, when she reluctantly returns to visit the village, she uncovers information that puts a new light on her family’s massacre. (Release date is Jan. 12.)

Lawrence H. Levy follows up his first Mary Handley mystery, Second Street Station, with another historical mystery in the series, Brooklyn on Fire. Set in 1890, it finds Mary Handley determined to become an official detective. The appearance of Emily Worsham, convinced her uncle was murdered, becomes Mary’s second case. It’s a case that leads to high society, involves political corruption, and brings figures such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and the Vanderbilt family into the story. (Release date is Jan. 19.)

The Winter Girl is Matt Marinovich’s latest psychological thriller. When a young married couple goes to the Hamptons during the winter to handle Elise’s dying father’s affair, her husband, Scott, becomes fascinated by the empty summer house next door. His fascination becomes obsession, leading to a horrific discovery that spirals out of control into escalating violence and shocking revelations. (Release date is Jan. 19.)

Once a Crooked Man is a quirky crime novel by David McCallum, the beloved actor known for his roles on NCIS and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Cops, criminals, corpses, and plot twists pile up after a New York actor, Harry Murphy, overhears three brothers plotting to tie-up loose ends. The aging Bruschetta brothers have spent their entire lives building their criminal empire. Now, on the verge of retirement, Harry Murphy may make a mess of their plans. It’s a game of cat and mouse. (Release date is Jan. 12.)

Tawni O’Dell’s latest thriller, Angels Burning, is about a small town police chief who’s forced to dig into her own shadowy past as she investigates the murder of a teenage girl. On the surface, Chief Dove Carnahan is a true trailblazer who would do anything to protect the rural Pennsylvanian countryside where she’s lived for all fifty years of her life. But she has a dark and self-destructive streak stemming from a secret she’s kept since she was sixteen. While she’s investigating a murder of the daughter of a notorious dynasty of rednecks and petty criminals, she faces an accusation and threat that forces her to see a parallel between her family and that of the teen. (Release date is Jan. 5.)

Cambodia is the setting in Lawrence Osborne’s suspense novel, Hunters in the Dark. Robert Grieve crosses the border from Thailand after he decides to go missing. On that first night there, a small windfall precipitates a chain of events – a bag of “jinxed” money, a suave American, a trunk full of heroin, a hustler taxi driver, and a rich doctor’s daughter. Robert’s life is changed forever in this game of cat and mouse. (Release date is Jan. 12.)

In City of Thorns, Ben Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. In doing so, he sketches the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there. Over the course of four years, Rawlence became a firsthand witness to life in that desperate place. (Release date is Jan. 5.)

As an aging professor, an anthropologist at the end of his career, pieces together the life and mysterious death of a former student, he unearths a shocking revelation about her final days. And, a labyrinth of misunderstandings, lies, and secrets cast suspicion on everyone in her circle, including the professor. It’s a novel of love, obsession, and revenge, T.R. Richmond’s What She Left. (Release date is Jan. 12.)

Blackout is a standalone by David Rosenfelt. New York state police officer Doug Brock has been after Nicholas Bennett for years. When Bennett kills someone close to Doug, Brock’s life spins out of control, reaching its lowest point when Doug is shot and in critical condition. But, Brock awakens in the hospital with no memory of the case, or even the last several years of his life. Now, he’s racing against the clock to recover his memory before a terror plot can be put into action. (Release date is Jan. 5.)

In The Other Me, Saskia Sarginson shows how sometimes it’s the people we know the best who surprise us the most. It’s a novel that spans from Germany in the 1930s to London to Leeds in 1986, then 1995. In Germany in the 1930s, two brothers are trying to fend for themselves in Nazi Germany. One rallies for the Fuhrer, one holds back. Years later, two young women have to deal with their family history. (Release date is Jan. 12.)

I’m excited about the return of Samuel Craddock in Terry Shames’ The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake. Nonie Blake is back home from a mental institution where she spent the last twenty years, and people in Jarrett Creek are worried. Within a week, Nonie is murdered. Chief Samuel Craddock thinks the only possible suspects are members of her family. Nonie tried to kill her sister when she was fourteen, and was then sent away. But, when Craddock checks with therapists at the mental hospital, he discovers Nonie was released ten years earlier. Now, Craddock has to deal with murder, deception, secrets, and a new deputy. (Release date is Jan. 12.)

Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout brings us My Name is Lucy Barton. While Lucy Barton recovers from what should have been a simple operation, her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken in years, comes to see her. Gossip seems to reconnect them, but below the surface lie the tension that has been part of Lucy’s life. (Release date is Jan. 12.)

After reading See Also Murder, I’m looking forward to Larry D. Sweazy’s A Thousand Falling Crows. This one features Sonny Burton, forced to retire from the Texas Rangers after taking a bullet from Bonnie Parker in a shoot-out. His arm was so damaged it had to be amputated. While Sonny struggles, mentally and physically, with the adjustment, the hospital’s janitor asks him to help find his daughter and bring her home. She got herself mixed up with a couple brothers involved in a string of robberies. While he investigates, he’s also aware of a criminal killing young women, and leaving them in local fields. Can’t wait to read this one! (Release date is Jan. 5.)

The Sound of Gravel is Ruth Wariner’s memoir, her story of her coming-of-age in a polygamist Mormon doomsday cult. The thirty-ninth of her father’s forty-one children, Ruth struggles to define a place for herself within a community of misguided believers. The book is recounted from the innocent and hopeful perspective of a child. (Release date is Jan. 5.)

And, the last of the January releases is a debut novel, The Longest Night by Andria Williams. It’s a detailed portrait of guilt in a town, and an era, clouded with secrets. The family drama is set at the dawn of the 1960s. It’s about the potential breakdown of a marriage, a story of love, trust, and guilt. In 1959, Nat and Paul Collier move to Idaho Falls, a remote military town. When Paul discovers one of the country’s earliest nuclear reactors is compromised, he knows his family and the entire town is in danger. But, he can’t bring himself to tell his wife. At the same time, Nat is having a hard time adjusting to life there. As the secrets and lies build between the couple, they threaten to reach a breaking point. (Release date is Jan. 12.)

Today’s list is a little different from Part 1. Which books interest you in this list?