I didn’t forget to write the July Treasures in My Closet post! There are only ten books on this list. I’m sure you have others to share. And, one of my favorite books of the year so far is a July release. There are also books by some of my favorite authors.

Let’s start with Bruce Borgos’ Shades of Mercy, the second Sheriff Porter Beck mystery set in the high desert of Nevada. One of Beck’s childhood friends is the latest to succumb to a new wave of particularly strong illegal opioids, another childhood friend—now an enormously successful rancher—is targeted by a military drone, hacked and commandeered by an unknown source. When a teenager hacker, Mercy, disappears, Beck is the only one who seems to care about the missing girl. The U.S. government and the Chinese are after her for another reason. (Release date is July 16.)

To Err is Cumin by Leslie Budewitz is the eighth Spice Shop Mystery centered at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. When Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop, finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner. Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain. I like this series not only for the mysteries, but also for Pepper, her employees, and her friends, as well as the information about spices. (Release date is July 16.)

Ellen Byron kicks off a fun new cozy series with A Very Woodsy Murder. Down-on-her-luck sitcom writer Dee Stern is flipping the script. Twice divorced and wasting her talents on an obnoxious kids’ show, the lifelong Angeleno embraces the urge to jump in her car and keep driving. It’s a road trip with no destination—until she pulls into a mid-century motel filled with cobwebs and retro charm. Nestled in the shadow of a national park, it’s a time capsule of a place that, like her, could use some work. So, in the most impulsive move of her life, Dee teams up with best friend, Jeff Cornetta—who happens to be her first ex-husband—to transform the aging ranch into the Golden Motel-of-the-Mountains, a hiker’s oasis on the edge of the wilderness . . .But Dee and Jeff soon realize there couldn’t be two people more unprepared for the hospitality business. There’s also the panic-inducing reality of prowling bears and a general store as the only shopping spot for miles. Living and working in the middle of nowhere takes some getting used to—especially when a disrespectful guest ends up murdered! Now, with the motel duo topping the suspect list, Dee must steer clear of a meddling park ranger, face her past in show biz, and determine if the killer is a local or tourist. Because as she quickly finds out, there are many things worse than a one-star review. (Release date is July 23.)

Fans of Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder series will be happy to see the police chief return in The Burning. Newlywed Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is awakened by an urgent midnight call summoning her to a suspicious fire in the woods. When she arrives at the scene, she discovers a charred body. According to the coroner, the deceased, an Amish man named Milan Swanz, was chained to a stake and burned alive. It is an appalling and eerily symbolic crime against an upstanding husband and father. Kate knows all too well that the Amish prefer to handle their problems without interference from the outside world, and no one will speak about the murdered man. From what she’s able to piece together, Swanz led a deeply troubled life and had recently been excommunicated. But if that’s the case, why are the Amish so reluctant to talk about him? Are they protecting the memory of one of their own? Or are they afraid of something they dare not share? (Release date is July 9.)

In Lindsey Davis’ Death on the Tiber, first century Rome is plagued by all the evils the have beset major cities since time immemorial: crime, corruption, squalor, and worst of all, tourists. When a barge full of those entitled creatures arrives in Rome, they hit all the touristy hot-spots (the Amphitheatre, the Capitol, the dodgy bars with dubious entertainments) before departing for the next destination – leaving behind one of their party, dead and floating in the Tiber. While the authorities first try to pass her death off as a suicide, it’s quickly proved that the victim strangled to death and her body dumped. When Flavia Albia, a private informer, learns that the victim was in Rome searching for the man who abandoned her, Florius, Albia’s vicious nemesis, Albia is determined to find out the truth behind the murder and finally have her revenge. (Release date is July 23.)

I have two July releases set in the world of theater. The first is M.S. Greene’s There’s No Murder Like Show Murder. Tasha Weaver is most at home in the cozy backstage world of the Eastbrook Playhouse. As the costume shop head at the charming regional theater, she’s used to watching dramatic acts of love and revenge from the shadows. But when Kurt Mozer—the insufferable Broadway reject who stars in their production of Annie Get Your Gun—is shot center stage, the spotlight turns to her. Everyone knows Kurt was difficult to work with, and after he got into a fight with both director Marnie Mason and artistic leader Arthur Winston, he promptly decided to quit the show. In deep financial trouble, the Eastbrook Playhouse depended on a big name like Kurt to keep afloat. With reporters coming in from the Big Apple to Tasha’s little corner of Connecticut, she realizes it’s up to her to save their local theater and keep her community safe. After all, the show must go on…but what do you do when the killer could very well be one of your loved ones? (Release date is July 23.)

It has been a while since I read one of Deborah J. Ledford’s books. If you enjoy mysteries set on reservations by someone who writes what she knows, you might want to try Havoc, the second book to feature Eva “Lightning Dance” Duran, who is now a member of the Taos Pueblo tribal police force. It’s been over a year since the case that almost broke her, but when Eva “Lightning Dance” Duran is called back to duty, she doesn’t hesitate to answer. A bank robbery has left an officer down and a suspect on the run. Law enforcement is in hot pursuit, and residents are on the lookout—but before anyone can catch the criminal, tragedy strikes. A member of the Taos Pueblo tribe has been shot and killed. The culprit? An untraceable 3D printed gun. With the support of fellow tribal cops, Eva breaks the news to the victim’s family and swears to find justice. (Release date is July 30.)

The publisher has an interesting blurb for David Lewis’ A Jewel in the Crown. “James Bond meets Maisie Dobbs in this riveting new historical caper series featuring a gifted young socialist-turned-counterespionage spy on a World War II mission orchestrated by Winston Churchill himself…” 1940: Weeks after the evacuation of Dunkirk, Germany is poised to invade a near-defenseless Britain. To safeguard the Crown Jewels from the Nazis, Winston Churchill devises a daring gamble to have them shipped overseas. The priceless artifacts will be secretly removed from the Tower of London and driven north to Scotland by two operatives posing as a young married couple, to be taken from there to Canada. Caitrin Colline—a Welsh coalminer’s daughter and an ardent socialist—will play the wife of Lord Marlton, Hector Neville-Percy. A less likely couple is at first difficult to imagine. Yet Caitrin’s bold, streetwise confidence and sharp wits complement Hector’s social ease and connections, essential to a second part of their mission: uncovering Nazi sympathizers within the highest ranks of Britain’s aristocracy. Battling enemies within and without, Caitrin wonders if anyone in their circle can be trusted—even her partner. And when unexpected events catapult her into a life-or-death chase across the continent, the morale of a nation and the fate of Europe itself in the balance. (Release date is July 23.)

There’s an interesting amateur sleuth in Scott Lyerly’s theater mystery, The Last Line. Featuring a neurodiverse lead living with Tourette’s syndrome, Ellie Marlowe is ready for a curtain call as her latest production sells out, but when the starring male lead drops dead, and everyone in the cast is a potential suspect or the next victim, she must catch a killer before they pull another show-stopping murder. (Release date is July 23.)

Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club tops my list of books I read for July. Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss, whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; policeman’s daughter Nora, who finds herself entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Beatrice, whose career has come to an end along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare. Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst? (Release date is July 9.)

Two big books are released on July 9, Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club and Linda Castillo’s The Burning. I recommend both of them. What books are you suggesting for July?