I may be wrong, but it looks like March is going to give us a breather. I don’t have as many March book releases here, so it might be a catch-up month for some of us. We can hope!

Murder at the Porte de Versailles is Cara Black’s twentieth Aimee Leduc Investigation mystery. Aimee and friends are celebrating her daughter’s third birthday just months after 9/11 when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory. A friend and guest had returned to the lab to pick up his birthday present, and now he’s a suspect. Aimee doesn’t believe Boris is responsible, so she sets up her own investigation, and gets drawn into a case for the French secret service. While she juggles cases, she also worries about her personal life and whether she should move to Brittany with her daughter’s father. (Release date is March 1.)

Detective Louise Rick and her friend, journalist Camilla Lind, return in Sara Blaedel’s A Harmless Lie. Rick is on a beach in Thailand when her father calls, reporting that her beloved brother Mikkel attempted suicide. His wife, Trine, walked out earlier in the week. Although the local police suspect Mikkel has something to do with Trine’s disappearance, Louise begins to suspect his wife didn’t mean to leave her husband and children. As Lind writes a follow-up to the discovery of a school girl’s body in a cave, there are links to other women who died recently. And, Trine was connected to all of them. (Release date is March 22.)

Gu Byeong-mo’s international bestseller, The Old Woman with the Knife, is now translated into English by Chi-Young Kim. At sixty-five Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog to keep her company. There are expectations for people her age – that she’ll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin. For four decades she has killed her targets with ruthless efficiency. But now, nearing the end of her career, she has just slipped up. An injury leads her to an unexpected connection with a doctor and his family. But emotions, for an assassin, are a dangerous proposition. As Hornclaw’s world closes in, this final chapter in her career may also mark her own bloody end. (Release date is March 8.)

Wilde, the lead character from Harlan Coben’s The Boy from the Woods, returns in The Match. He’s finally taken a DNA test to find his family, and he does find his father. But, that discovery only leads to more questions. There had been one other connection, a second cousin. But, that link disappears as quickly as it appears, and the stranger seemed to need help. Of course, Wilde is going to put himself in danger to help a stranger, who might or might not be related. (Release date is (March 15.)

It had to have been over six months ago that I read Eli Cranor’s debut novel, Don’t Know Tough. He vividly captures the small-town atmosphere where high school football is everything. In Denton, Arkansas, Billy Lowe, a talented running back carries the hopes of the community on his shoulders. But, he’s from a troubled background, living in a trailer park where he’s abused by his mother’s boyfriend. Billy takes his anger out on the field, but when his savagery becomes too much, it now rests on the shoulders of his coach, Trent Powers. Powers just moved from California with his family, and his wife, daughter of a coach, sees this as his last chance to have a winning team. Trent’s a born-again Christian who wants to save Billy. But, then Billy becomes a murder suspect. (Release date is March 8.)

In Death by Chocolate Chip Cupcake, the fifth Death by Chocolate Mystery by Sarah Graves, Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and Ellie White, owners of the Chocolate Moose Bakery, are hired to cater a retired film star’s party. Ingrid Merryfield’s new home, Cliff House, has a reputation as Eastport, Maine’s most haunted house. Miss Merryfield isn’t concerned, and some of her guests even try to summon a spirit during the party. What arrives instead is a freak autumn storm that downs an ancient tree, trapping everyone on the property and setting the stage for a killer’s planned spree. (Release date is March 29.)

Edwin Hill was just nominated for an Agatha Award for Watch Her. Now, in The Secrets We Share, he introduces two very different sisters haunted by the crimes of their father murdered nearly twenty years earlier. Natalie Cavanaugh is a Boston cop. Her younger sister, Glenn, is tailor-made for the spotlight, and she’s spent years cultivating her brand through her baking blog and publication of her new book. But, her fans have no idea that their father’s body was discovered in the woods behind their house twenty years earlier. Now, Glenn is receiving messages hinting that she’s being watched. For two decades, Natalie believed their father was killed by a neighbor. Now, she’s wondering if the sisters are keeping secrets. (Release date is March 29.)

Wayne Johnson’s The Red Canoe is the story of two troubled people, both with reasons for their pain. Buck, government name Michael Fineday, Ojibwe name Miskwa’ doden (Red Deer) has just been served divorce papers by his wife Naomi, who is fed up with his savior complex and the danger it often attracts to their door, and is on the brink of suicide. It’s his skills as a boatbuilder that brings a teen girl to his door. Lucy sees the latest boat he’s working on. Lucy, Ojibwe name Gage’ bineh, (Everlasting Bird), lives in a trailer alone with her father, a local policeman struggling with PTSD from the Iraq war, compounded by the loss of Lucy’s mother. She’s also mostly alone. Just barely fifteen, since her mother’s death she’s been systematically molested and raped by her father’s colleagues on the force without his knowledge. Buck recognizes a girl who needs help. Remember his savior complex? (Release date is March 15.)

I’m looking forward to Susan Mallery’s The Summer Getaway. Robyn Caldwell needs a plan for her future because her divorce settlement is about to run out and she can’t afford her mortgage. She nurtured her family and neglected herself. But, her family and friends are going through chaotic times in their life. So, when her great-aunt invites her to Santa Barbara for the summer, Robyn hops on the first plane. But, it’s hard to run away when you’re the heart of the family. One by one, everyone she left behind follows her across the country. But, Robyn is finally learning to take chances, thanks to her aunt. Now, she just needs the courage to take a chance on herself. (Release date is March 15.)

In Agatha Award-winning author ERica Neubauer’s third wanderlust-inspiring historical mystery, Danger on the Atlantic, young American widow Jane Wunderly finds there are worse fates than adventuring aboard a transatlantic liner with the only man who could change her mind about romance. Voyaging from Southampton to New York in 1926, self-reliant Jane is determined to prove herself a worthy investigator on the ship – even awkwardly going undercover as the fashionable wife of her magnetic partner, Mr. Redvers. Few details are known about the rumored German spy the duo has been tasked with identifying among fellow passengers. However, new troubles unfold when a wealthy newlywed announces the sudden disappearance of her husband at sea. (Release date is March 29.)

Gigi Pandian’s first Secret Staircase Mystery is Under Lock & Skeleton Key. After a disastrous accident derails Tempest Raj’s career, and life, she heads back to her childhood home in California to comfort herself with her grandfather’s Indian home-cooked meals. Though she resists, every day brings her closer to the inevitable: working for her father’s company. Secret Staircase Construction specializes in bringing the magic of childhood to all by transforming clients’ homes with sliding bookcases, intricate locks, backyard treehouses, and hidden reading nooks. When Tempest visits her dad’s latest renovation project, her former stage double is discovered dead inside a wall that’s supposedly been sealed for more than a century. Fearing she was the intended victim, it’s up to Tempest to solve this seemingly impossible crime. (Release date is March 15.)

Joyce St. Anthony also kicks off a new series with Front Page Murder, “A Hometown News Mystery”. The World War II-era historical mystery introduces Irene Ingram, who is now editor in chief of her father’s newspaper, the Progress Herald. That doesn’t sit well with the men in the newsroom. But proving her journalistic bona fides is the least of Irene’s worries when crime reporter, Moe Bauer, on the heels of a hot tip, turns up dead. An accident? That’s what Police Chief Walt Turner thinks, and Irene is inclined to agree until she finds the note Moe discreetly left on her desk. He was on to a big story, he wrote. The robbery she’d assigned him to cover at Markowicz Hardware turned out to be something far more devious. A Jewish store owner in a small, provincial town, Sam Markowicz received a terrifying message from a stranger. Moe suspected that Sam is being threatened not only for who he is…but for what he knows. (Release date is March 8.)

Rebecca Searle’s One Italian Summer has been on my must-read list since Kaye Wilkinson Barley first mentioned it. It’s a story of the powerful bond between mother and daughter, set on the Amalfi Coast. When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone. But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue. (Release date is March 1.)

I have to admit I’m a little leery of Kate Spencer’s rom-com In a New York Minute. The meet-cute sounds uncomfortable, Franny Doyle meets a man at the subway when he rescues her. The subway doors ripped her favorite dress to ruins, and now she’s flashed her underwear to half of lower Manhattan. He provides his suit jacket. Then the two become a social media sensation. So far, I”m not excited, and the characters sound too young. But, I’ve read that this is a love letter to New York City. So, we’ll see. (Release date is March 15.)

I may have mentioned Frederick Weisel’s The Day He Left last month. Publication is now March 1 for this second novel featuring LA’s Violent Crimes Investigation Team. Annie has fallen out of the habit of listening to her husband. She and Paul have been married for a long time; it’s easy to nod as he drones on, responding to his voice while completely ignoring every word he says. That becomes a problem, of course, when Paul disappears and the police have questions. Was Paul having issues at work? Is there any reason to think he might harm himself? Annie doesn’t know. But someone does. (Release date is March 1.)

You might be interested in some of these books as well. And, I’d love to know what books you’re anticipating, ones that aren’t in my piles of treasures.

Other March releases

Banwo, Ayanna Lloyd – When We Were Birds (3/15)
Bennett, Claire-Louise – Checkout 19 (3/1)
Bulawayo, Noviolet – Glory (3/8)
Chou, Elaine Hsieh – Disorientation (3/22)
Gehrman, Jody – The Summer We Buried (3/8)
Gots, Jason – Humanity Is Trying (3/1)
Grande, Reyna – A Ballad of Love and Glory (3/15)
Gregorio, Katharine – The Double Life of Katharine Clark (3/15)
Hitchens, Dolores – Strip for Murder (3/25)
Kauffman, Rebecca – Chorus (3/1)
Landweber, Michael – The Damage Done (3/8)
McCoy, Taj – Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell (3/22)
North, Ryan – How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain (3/15)
O’Rourke, Meghan – The Invisible Kingdom (3/1)
Osunde, Eloghosa – Vagabonds! (3/15)
Pellegrino, Danny – How Do I Un-remember This? (3/8)
Polley, Sarah – Run Towards the Danger (3/1)
Smith, Jennifer – The Unsinkable Greta James (3/1)
Sutanto, Jesse Q. – Four Aunties and a Wedding (3/29)
Walsh, Rosie – The Love of My Life (3/1)
Ward, Annie – The Lying Club (3/22)
Ward, Catriona – Sundial (3/1)