If I didn’t have weekend plans for February, I’d be more than happy to bypass that month. But there are so many interesting looking books coming out in both months. We need February and March books, and reading time. Check out these March releases.

Susan Wittig Albert’s characters face the Great Depression with courage and grace in the seventh in her series, The Darling Dahlias and the Unlucky Clover. The women of the Dahlias Garden Club are involved with their favorite barbershop quartet, the need for money to repair the local telephone system, and the sheriff’s confrontation with a bootlegger. (Release date is March 6.)

In Tessa Arlen’s Death of an Unsung Hero, Lady Montfort and her pragmatic housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson, investigate a murder of a WWI officer with amnesia in 1916 in the English countryside. (Release date is March 11.)

Chris Bohjalian’s The Flight Attendant tells how an entire life can change in one night. Cassandra Bowden often wakes up with a hangover. But, this time, the binge drinker wakes up next to a dead man, in a hotel in Dubai, with no idea what happened. She lies to everyone, until she realizes she doesn’t know if she killed a man, or if someone else did. (Release date is March 13.)

Plum Tea Crazy is Laura Childs’ latest Tea Shop Mystery. When a banker is killed with a Medieval weapon, Theodosia Browning’s investigation stirs up Charleston. (Release date is March 6.)

John Copenhaver’s debut novel, Dodging and Burning, combines mystery and coming-of-age. Fifty-five years after the events that changed their lives, two women look back at the war years, and the mystery of a photo of a beautiful murdered young woman. Three young people join forces for an investigation that brings shocking answers. (Release date is March 6.)

The Echo Killing is Christi Daughterty’s first adult novel. A newly resurfaced murder rocks Savannah, and echoes the long unsolved killing of crime reporter Harper McClain’s mother. Now, she must risk everything to uncover the truth. (Release date is March 13.)

Looking for a novel with an unreliable narrator? Try Alice Feeney’s Sometimes I Lie. “My name isAmber Reynolds. There are three things you should know: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. (Release date is March 13.)

Troubled journalist Lola Wicks heads to Salt Lake City in Gwen Florio’s Under the Shadows. A family tragedy has nearly broken Lola Wicks, and she’s in the grip of a destructive addiction. She agrees to do a puff piece, only to keep her child from being removed. But, her assignment takes a dark turn when the teenager at the center of her story lands in jail facing a murder charge. (Release date is March 8.)

Australian author Candice Fox brings us Crimson Lake, the story of a Sydney detective whose life is ruined when he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s accused of an abduction because he parked his car by a girl who went missing five minutes later. With his career ruined, he flees north to Crimson Lake, where he teams up with an eccentric private investigator, herself a convicted murderer. The whole town distrusts, and is watching the pair. (Release date is March 6.)

Death at the Durbar is the second Maharaja mystery by Arjun Raj Gaind. It’s December, 1911, and George V has traveled to India to celebrate his coronation. But, there’s a problem. A girl has been found hanged in his personal chambers. So, Maharaja Sikander Singh is called to put his skills to work and solve the case. (Release date is March 6.)

In Parnell Hall’s The Purloined Puzzle, amateur sleuth and crossword expert Cora Felton is asked to solve a puzzle, only to find that it’s been stolen – and a murder weapon has been left in its place. And, Cora’s lest favorite ex-husband, Melvin, may have purchased the knife. (Release date is March 13.)

Kent Harrington’s Last Ferry Home is a story of grief, obsession, recovery and passion. After his wife’s death at sea, San Francisco Police Detective Michael O’Higgins has been paralyzed by grief, unable to care for their teenaged daughter, who saw her mother swept away. Almost a year after his wife’s death, O’Higgins takes a ferry ride as part of his therapy, and meets a charming Indian family. On his first day back, he meets the wife and mother of that family when he’s called to a mansion to investigate a homicide. The victim is the husband, and his wife is the obvious suspect. As the world turns against her, Asha Chaundbry turns to O’Higgins for comfort. (Release date is March 13.)

Mary Crampton comes to life when working in her father’s mortuary in a dying Midwestern town in Susan Henderson’s The Flicker of Old Dreams. She’s spent all of her thirty years in Petroleum where some townspeople pretend the town is thriving. But, it’s actually crumbling away, a process that began twenty years earlier when an accident in the grain elevator killed a popular high school athlete. The mill closed and the train no longer stopped there. And, the victim’s younger brother, widely blamed for the tragedy, left town. But, Robert is back, and Mary’s budding friendship with him forces her to consider what life would be like outside Petroleum. (Release date is March 13.)

The Sandman by Lars Kepler is a #1 international best seller. The thriller tells the chilling story of a manipulative serial killer and the two brilliant police inspectors who must try to beat him at his own game. (Release date is March 6.)

In Ariel Lawhon’s latest historical novel, I Was Anastasia, the author “unravels the extraordinary twists and turns in Anna Anderson’s fifty-year battle to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov. Is she the Russian grand duchess, a beloved daughter and revered icon, or is she an imposter, the thief of another woman’s legacy?” (Release date is March 27.)

“Sometimes it’s safer to let things lie” is the message of Clare Mackintosh’s Let Me Lie. Tom and Caroline Johnson chose to end their lives, one seemingly unable to live without the other. Their daughter, Anna, is struggling to come to terms with her parents’ death, unwilling to accept the verdict of suicide. Now, with a young baby herself, she misses her mother, and is determined to find out what really happened. But, as she digs up the past, someone is trying to stop her. (Release date is March 13.)

Brad Parks’ Closer Than You Know features two strong women forced to fight for survival. Melanie Barrick survived foster care, and finally has a loving husband, a steady job, and a beautiful baby boy named Alex. But, one evening when she goes to pick up Alex from childcare, she’s told he was taken by Social Services, and no one will tell her why. The nightmare grows when she arrives home and finds her house has been raided by sheriff’s deputies who find enough cocaine to send her to prison for years. She has to prove her innocence, or lose everything. Meanwhile, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Kaye, who is assigned to Melanie’s case, has her own troubles because she’s dogged by the cold case of a serial rapist, a man who has even victimized her. But, that attacker may be the key to her salvation. (Release date is March 6.)

“The tensions in a tight-knit neighborhood – and a seemingly happy marriage – are exposed by an unexpected act of violence in Anna Quindlen’s latest novel, Alternate Side. (Release date is March 20.)

Kelli Stanley brings back PI Miranda Corbie in City of Sharks. Miranda is getting ready to sail to a blitzkrieged Britain, but she takes on one last case in her beloved San Francisco. Louise Crowley, a blonde secretary was scared. Someone is trying to kill her – shoving her into a streetcar track, sending a box of poisoned chocolates, and hateful, violent letters. Miranda investigates her client, the publishing world of 1940, and stumbles into murder. It’s an exploration of her city, and a discovery of truths in her own life. (Release date is March 20.)

A Funeral in Mantova is David P. Wagner’s latest Rick Montoya Italian mystery. Rick agrees to act as interpreter for a wealthy American attending the funeral of a cousin he never knew. But, the local police as for Rick’s help as well. They’re not so sure the cousin’s death was natural. It’s a luscious mystery rich in food and Italian setting. (Release date is March 6.)

Maddie Koslowski, owner of San Benedetto’s paranormal museum is a charming amateur sleuth in Kirsten Weiss’ Deja Moo. Maddie isn’t a fan of the town’s Christmas Cow, but she answers the call when her mother reports the straw cow has been attacked by flaming arrows. But, it’s more than just arson when Maddie finds a body with an arrow in it. (Release date is March 8.)

Quite a few books to choose from this month. Do any of these jump out at you? How about the ones I’m not summarizing? These are also March releases.

Exhibit Alexandra by Natasha Bell (March 13)
The Coincidence Makers by Yoav Blum (March 6)
All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church (March 6)
This is How It Ends by Eva Dolan (March 13)
Sociable by Rebecca Harrington (March 27)
The Hunger by Alma Katsu (March 6)
The Italian Party by Christina Lynch (March 20)
Tangerine by Christine Mangan (March 27)
Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles (March 13)
The Little Book of Feminist Saints by Julia Pierpont (March 6)
The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman (March 20)
Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao (March 6)
Indecent by Corinne Sullivan (March 6)