I think the publishers imagine we all have three months off in the summer to read all the books they schedule for summer release. You better start reading those June reads right now because the July list of treasures in my closet is just as formidable.

The ninth Quinn Colson novel, Ace Atkins’ The Shameless should have a warning label, “To Be Continued.” A podcaster investigating a twenty-year-old death in Sheriff Colson’s county stirs up trouble with powerful interests, putting the sheriff directly in the crosshairs of criminals and politicians alike. Powerful, atmospheric story. (Release date is July 9.)

Andrea Bobotis takes readers into the past of Bound, South Carolina, and the past of the Kratt family in The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt. Judith inherited everything from the Kratt family, including a murder no one talked about. But, when Judith’s wayward younger sister returns home after decades, there has to be an inventory of all that belong to them. It’s a new household filled with memories, as Judith pieces together a list of what matters, including that fateful evening in 1929, and a death. (Release date is July 9.)

Tell Me Everything is Cambria Brockman’s debut novel. Hawthorne College is an elite New England college. In her first weeks there, Malin is swept up into a tight-knit circle that will stick together for four years. But, by Senior Day, Malin’s secrets, and those of her friends, are revealed, and Malin’s attempts to maintain her image set in motion a chain of events that will lead to murder. (Release date is July 16.)

It’s that question that pops up now and then. “If your life was going to end tomorrow, what would you do today?” In Melanie Cantor’s Death and Other Happy Endings, Jennifer Cole is told she only has ninety days to live. She also has only one regret. That she never stood up for herself to the three most significant people in her life. She writes letters to her overbearing sister, her cheating ex-husband, and her charming, un-reliable boyfriend, telling them everything she’s ever wanted to say. But, once you start telling the truth, it’s hard to stop. (Release date is July 9.)

Linda Castillo’s latest Kate Burkholder thriller set in Ohio’s Amish country is Shamed. When an Amish grandmother is brutally slain, and one of her granddaughters is kidnapped, the other little one reports that the killer said, “She’s mine.” Police Chief Burkholder uncovers some shocking secrets she never expected within the Amish community before she finds a killer. (Release date is July 16.)

The Helpline is Katherine Collette’s debut novel. Germaine Johnson doesn’t need friends. She’s great with numbers, and has her work and her Sudoku puzzles. But, she’s not so great with people. When she loses her job, and takes a job answering calls on the Senior Citizens Helpline, she finds herself becoming part of a community without boxes and numbers, a community in rebellion. (Release date is July 23.)

Killer in the Carriage House is Sheila Connolly’s second Victorian Village Mystery. Kate Hamilton is still trying to help her Asheboro, Maryland hometown recover. She’s suggested they remodel shops to be as authentic as they can to shops of the nineteenth-century working community. She and historian Joshua Wainwright are looking for historic documents that will help in the restoration. It doesn’t help when a body is discovered in the library just about the time that some of the documents are to be moved there. It’s hard to convince a community reeling from murder that they need to spend money on renovations. (Release date is July 9.)

If you don’t know the writing of Australian author Garry Disher, you should. He’s a winner of the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award. His latest crime novel, Under the Cold Bright Lights, indicates why he won that award. It introduces Alan Auhl, who retired from the police force and five years later comes back to work cold cases. He’s an unusual man who takes in waifs and strays in his large rambling house. And, he’s one man who ensures that there’s justice for waifs and strays. (Release date is July 2.)

Cate Holahan invites readers to share the secrets of three couples in One Little Secret. While their kids are at summer camp, three couples rent a house in the Hamptons. By the end of one night, though, one person is dead, and Detective Sergeant Gabby Watkins must wade through lies and secrets to find a killer. (Release date is July 9.)

Bruce Holsinger’s novel, The Gifted School, is a timely story of today, parenting and privilege. Four young couples separately chose a Colorado town as the place to raise their children, with good schools and safe neighborhoods. Their friendships saw them through parenthood, careers and marriage. However, when an exclusive new school opens as the kids prepare for middle school, the children are pitted against one another for coveted spots in the school, and the parents will go to shocking lengths in the pursuit of prestige and recognition. (Release date is July 2.)

In the novel Home for Erring and Outcast Girls, Julie Kibler introduces readers to two young women and their roots. In the early twentieth century, a progressive home opens in Arlington, Texas. It offers faith, training, and rehabiltion to prostitutes, addicts, unwed mothers, and “ruined” girls, without separating mothers from children. Lizzie Bates and Mattie McBride meet there, and form a friendship that sees them through terrible loss, and diverging paths. A century later, a reclusive university librarian, uncovers the hidden histories of the two troubled women. Their stories lead her to confront her own heartbreaking past, and to reclaim her life. (Release date is July 23.)

The third Roxane Weary mystery, The Stories You Tell by Kristen Lepionka, finds the private investigator trying to help her brother. Andrew calls in the middle of the night, with a garbled message about a woman, and then just asks Roxane to come over. Andrew was once entangled with a young DJ, Addison, who showed up at his place in a panic, made a phone all, and disappeared. The nightclub where she worked is closed down. By the time Addison’s father shows up, Andrew is a suspect in the disappearance of the young woman. But, Roxane is uncovering much more than just a disappearance. (Release date is July 9.)

Amanda Lee Roe’s debut novel, Delayed Rays of a Star, captures a moment, and moves on. At a Berlin party in 1928, the photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captures three very different women together in one frame: up-and coming German actress Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, the world’s first chinese American star, and Leni Riefenstahl, whose work as a director of propaganda art films would first make her famous, then infamous. From this moment, the story lets loose the stories of these women’s lives. (Release date is July 9.)

The Andy Carpenter mysteries have some of the cutest covers I’ve ever seen. In David Rosenfelt’s latest, Bark of Night, lawyer Andy Carpenter is at the vet’s with his golden retriever, Tara, when the vet asks to speak to him privately. There’s Truman a tiny, healthy French bulldog, dropped off days ago with instructions to euthanize him. Everyone thought the man was the owner, but now he can’t be found. Andy’s furious, and ready to whisk Truman day to the Tara Foundation, where they’ll find him a home. But, thanks to Truman’s chip, they learn Truman’s owner, the real owner, not the man who dropped him off, has been murdered. (Release date is July 16.)

Hope Rides Again is the sequel to Andrew Shaffer’s bestselling novel, Hope Never Dies. Joe Biden’s book tour has been successful, and Barack Obama has invited him to Chicago to meet a wealthy benefactor. Before they have any time to catch up, Obama’s Blackberry is stolen. When the primary suspect ends up dead, the police are content. But, Joe and Obama are not. (Release date is July 9.)

The Lager Queen of Minnesota is by J. Ryan Stradal, bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest. It’s a novel about three generations of an American family. A family is split when a father leaves the family farm to Helen, his youngest daughter. The older sister, Edith, struggles to make a living. With the proceeds from the farm, Helen builds one of the most successful breweries in the country. But, one day she’ll need help herself, if it’s not too late. Edith’s granddaughter, Diana, earns a shot at learning the beer business from the ground up. Will this reunited her splintered family? (Release date is July 23.)

I loved Jay Stringer’s action-packed adventure, Marah Chase and the Conqueror’s Tomb. Think Indiana Jones meets James Bond, but the heroes are female. Marah Chase could have been arrested in Israel as a black market treasure hunter, but an MI6 officer named Joanna Mason offers her an opportunity she can’t turn down. Find the tomb of Alexander the Great, “recover an ancient weapons of mass destruction he may have used to conquer the earth, and destroy it before the bad guys can get it.” It’s a fast-paced fun story with non-stop action. (Release date is July 2.)

Here’s my pick of the month – Heather Webber’s Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe. She had me when the publicity letter read, “It’s a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town Southern charm, perfect for fans of Sarah Addison Allen. Set in a small town in Alabama, a young woman returns after the death of her beloved grandmother, who owned the Blackbird Cafe. Anna Kate soon finds herself drawn to the quirky Southern town her mother ran away from years ago, and the mysterious blackbird pie everybody talks about. (Release date is July 16.)

A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope. It’s Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers. “In the tradition of The Stand and Station Eleven comes a gripping saga that weaves an epic tapestry of humanity into an astonishing tale of survival. (Release date is July 2.)

I’ll wrap it up with Carter Wilson’s The Dead Girl in 2A. Jake Buchanan knows the woman sitting next to him on his business flight to Denver – he just can’t figure out how he knows her. He and Clara Stowe have nothing in common except the shared belief that they’ve met before. Then, she admits she’s heading to the Colorado mountains to kill herself, and she disappears as soon as they land. This is the story of what happens to Jake and Clare after they get off the plan, and the manipulative figure who has brought them together decades after they first met. (Release date is July 2.)

Enough to keep you reading all of July? Here are some other treasures you might want to examine.

Dermansky, Marcy – Very Nice (7/2)
Dickson, Allison – The Other Mrs. Miller (7/16)
Doucette, J.L. – On a Quiet Street (7/23)
Dukess, Karen – The Last Book Party (7/9)
Fargo, Layne – Temper (7/2)
Gault, Miciah Bay – Goodnight Stranger (7/30)
Gordinier, Jeff – Hungry (7/9)
Hauser, C.J. – Family of Origin (7/16)
Kelly, Karen – Bethlehem (7/9)
Lonsdale, Kerry – Last Summer (7/9)
Maizes, R.L. – We Love Anderson Cooper (7/23)
Phillips, Helen – The Need (7/9)
Savage, Lila – Say Say Say (7/9)
Stone, Victoria Helen – False Step (7/1)
Vandelly, T. Marie – Theme Music (7/23)
Vonderau, Carl – Murderabilia (7/8)