Let’s celebrate spring with a collection of May book releases. Check out these Treasures in My Closet. Don’t forget to check the list at the bottom of the post! Let us know what May titles you’re looking forward to reading! And, the funny gap in the post? Josh was sitting on my laptop. And, because I’m not organized this month, there’s going to be special section near the end of books I read on NetGalley for review. But, I want to share them with you!

Rogue Justice is Stacey Abrams’ latest thriller. Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene is back, trying to get her feet on solid ground after unraveling an international conspiracy in While Justice Sleeps. But as the sparks of Congressional hearings and political skirmishes swirl around her, Avery is approached at a legal conference by Preston Davies, an unassuming young man and fellow law clerk to a federal judge in Idaho. Davies believes his boss, Judge Francesca Whitner, was being blackmailed in the days before she died. Desperate to understand what happened, he gives Avery a file, a burner phone, and a fearful warning that there are highly dangerous people involved. Another shocking murder leads Avery to a list of names – all federal judges – and, alarmingly, all judges on the FISA Court (the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court), also known as America’s “secret court.” (Release date is May 23.)

I really like Kelley Armstrong’s Rip through Time series. The Poisoner’s Ring is the second in the series, but you don’t have to have read the first to pick up this one. Edinburgh, 1869: Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is adjusting to her new life in Victorian Scotland. Her employers know she’s not housemaid Catriona Mitchell—even though Mallory is in Catriona’s body—and Mallory is now officially an undertaker’s assistant. Dr. Duncan Gray moonlights as a medical examiner, and their latest case hits close to home. Men are dropping dead from a powerful poison, and all signs point to the grieving widows… the latest of which is Gray’s oldest sister. (Release date is May 23.)

The premise of Mikki Brammer’s novel, The Collected Regrets of Clover, fascinates me. What’s the point of giving someone a beautiful death if you can’t give yourself a beautiful life? From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit, Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process. Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a trip across the country to uncover a forgotten love story––and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it. (Release date is May 9.)

Cindy Dees introduces Helen Warwick in Second Shot. Retirement isn’t easy for a former CIA assassin. For fifty-five-year-old Helen Warwick, it may be impossible. Even Helen’s family doesn’t know the true nature of the work she’s done for decades—the secret black ops, the sanctioned executions. But her plan to spend time reconnecting with her grown children has just been blown up—along with her son’s house—by hired killers. Why is she being targeted now—and by whom? Years of eliminating the nation’s enemies one sniper bullet at a time have earned Helen powerful adversaries. Then there are mysterious new foes, including a psychopath dubbed The DaVinci Killer, who wages a twisted war with a rival serial killer to turn murder into art. And when he sets his sights on Helen, she may very well become his next exhibit. From homegrown spies to Russian mafia hitmen, Helen’s ghosts don’t just haunt—they kill. (Release date is May 23.)

Viviana Valentine Goes Up the River is Emily J. Edwards’ latest Girl Friday mystery. 1950, New York. Viviana Valentine–Girl Friday turned partner to New York’s top investigator, Tommy Fortuna–is drawn into a sordid new case when Buster Beacon, a wealthy man of science, beckons them to a party at his mansion north of the city. There, Buster entertains blue-blooded friends as well as investors keen to make a dollar on the many advancements made in his home laboratory, but he’s been hearing strange noises in the night coming from his expansive estate, and he doesn’t know who to trust. Once Viviana and Tommy arrive, the party is snowed in. And suddenly, there is a dead body and nowhere to hide. Who killed the disguised federal agent in their midst? And how have details from the top-secret lab become public? Once chomping at the bit to be brought into this mysterious life, Viviana wonders if she’s ready for the risks that come with the territory—risks that rise treacherously high as the killer targets the next victim. (Release date is May 2.)

Carley Fortune’s Every Summer Affair has been quite popular. Her latest novel is Meet Me at the Lake. Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in the city. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t. At thirty-two, Fern’s life doesn’t look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern’s back home, running her mother’s lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend’s the manager, and Fern doesn’t know where to begin. She needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern’s going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern’s not sure she wants to know what it is. (Release date is May 2.)

Stephen Greco’s Such Good Friends is subtitled “A Novel of Truman Capote & Lee Radziwill”. On a Thursday morning in May 1961, a well-mannered twenty-one-year-old named Marlene enters the Fifth Avenue apartment of Lee Radziwill to interview for the position of housekeeper and cook. The stylish wife of London-based Prince Stanislaw Radziwill, Princess Lee is intelligent and creative, with ambitions beyond simply jet-setting. But to the public, she is always First Lady Jackie Kennedy’s little sister. As Marlene becomes a trusted presence in the Radziwill household, she observes the dazzling array of famous figures who flit in and out of Lee’s intimate circle, including Gloria Vanderbilt, Rudolf Nureyev, Jackie and the President, Ari Onassis, Gore Vidal, Andy Warhol, and, most regularly, celebrated author Truman Capote. At the height of his fame following the success of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman has granted Lee place of honor in his flock of glamorous socialite “swans.” Their closeness stems from an unexpected kinship. Both know too well the feeling of being second-best. Seeing his shadow in the woman he refers to as his most unconventional swan, Truman uses his influence and talent to try and make Lee a star. (Release date is May 23.)

There’s an interesting premise to Jaime Lynn Hendricks’ I Didn’t Do It. We’ll see if she handles it differently than others have in the past. The social media aspect will be different. Murderpalooza, the premier thriller writers conference, is meant to be an exciting celebration of the genre and its preeminent writers. But when bestselling author and industry favorite Kristin Bailey is found dead in her hotel room, four rival authors―a midlister, an egomaniac, a has-been, and a newbie―also get targeted by an anonymous social media account and wonder if they’re next. (Release date is May 23.)

Retired detective Konrad takes a case in Arnaldur Indridason’s The Girl by the Bridge. An elderly couple are worried about their granddaughter. They know she’s been smuggling drugs, and now she’s gone missing. Looking for help, they turn to Konrad, a former policeman whose reputation precedes him. Always absent-minded, he constantly ruminates on the fate of his father, who was stabbed to death decades ago. But digging into the past reveals much more than anyone set out to discover, and a little girl who drowned in the Reykjavik city pond unexpectedly captures everyone’s attention. A brilliant, chilling tale of broken dreams and children who have nowhere to turn. (Release date is May 2.)

I really enjoyed Christina Lauren’s The Unhoneymooners. I’ll certainly try The True Love Experiment. Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script. Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached. Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie? Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too. (Release date is May 16.)

Drowning by T.J. Newman was the subject of entertainment headlines earlier this week. According to Deadline, “In one of the wildest book rights auctions the town has seen in some time, Warner Bros. production co-heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy tonight landed screen rights to the upcoming T.J. Newman novel Drowning: The Rescue Of Flight 1421. Studio paid $1.5 million against $3 million, and there were five seven-figure bids on the table.” Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors—but it’s too late. The plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside. More than two hundred feet below the surface, engineer Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter Shannon are waist-deep in water and fighting for their lives. Their only chance at survival is an elite rescue team on the surface led by professional diver Chris Kent—Shannon’s mother and Will’s soon-to-be ex-wife—who must work together with Will to find a way to save their daughter and rescue the passengers from the sealed airplane, which is now teetering on the edge of an undersea cliff. There’s not much time. There’s even less air. (Release date is May 30.)

If you enjoy big family stories, you might want to try Crystal Smith Paul’s Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions. A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could―and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty. The truth behind Kitty’s ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them. (Release date is May 2.)

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As I mentioned, I wasn’t very organized when I started this. Usually, I have more than just two nights to work on Treasures in My Closet. So, here are the books I already read for May. I had e-galleys of them. But, you might want to place them on hold at your public library. They’re not in alphabetical order. They’re in order as to when I have my book reviews scheduled.

I just enjoy Lorenzo Carcaterra’s low-key mysteries. The new one is Nonna Maria and the Case of the Stolen Necklace. Nonna Maria has a lot on her plate—and it’s not just fresh pasta. Two crimes have rocked the sun-drenched island of Ischia, and once again, the island’s denizens have called upon the espresso-brewing, sage-counsel-giving sleuth. A wealthy woman alleges that a valuable necklace has been stolen from her hotel room. The necklace, she claims, has been in her family for decades. She blames one of the young women working on the cleaning crew as the most likely suspect—a young woman who turns out to be Nonna Maria’s goddaughter. She takes the heat, but privately she proclaims her innocence. Nearby, the body of a woman is found on a curved road near the borough of Barano. The woman is not known to anyone on the island. She has no purse, no identification. The one potential suspect is a young friend of Nonna Maria’s who drove by the area that very night and thinks that he might have hit something—a pothole, or an animal, or maybe the woman in question. (Release date is May 2.)

It’s been quite a while since I read one of Amanda Quick’s paranormal historical mysteries, and The Bride Wore White is worth reading. Being Madame Ariadne, Psychic Dream Consultant, wasn’t Prudence Ryland’s ideal gig, but it paid well which was reason enough to do the work—until she realizes that her latest client intends to kill her. But Prudence, a master at reinvention, finds a new job and home as far away as possible and is finally able to relax—which turns out to be a big mistake. Letting her guard down means being kidnapped and drugged and waking up in a bloodstained wedding dress in the honeymoon suite next to a dead man. With the press outside the hotel, waiting with their cameras and police sirens in the distance, it’s obvious she’s being framed for the man’s murder. Prudence knows who is responsible, but will anyone believe her? It doesn’t seem likely that rumored crime boss Luther Pell or his associate, Jack Wingate, believe her seemingly outrageous claims of being a target of a ruthless vendetta. In fact, Prudence is convinced that the mysterious Mr. Wingate believes her to be a fraud at best, and at worst: a murderer. And Jack Wingate does seem to be someone intimately familiar with violence, if going by his scarred face and grim expression. So no one is more shocked than Prudence when Jack says he’ll help her. (Release date is May 2.)

Krista Davis’ latest mystery is The Diva Delivers on a Promise. Sophie Winston is busy handling the first ever convention of the Association of Ghost Kitchens—restaurants that do delivery only—but she’s taking a little time out for a lunch meeting organized by A Healthy Meal. The group is dedicated to providing meals for children in need, and as a bonus, it’ll give Sophie the perfect opportunity to ogle the lavish Old Town home of socialite Geraldine Stansfield. Gerrie’s dining room is impeccably furnished, the table laden with gleaming crystal and prized china. If it weren’t for the dead man lying on the floor, everything would be perfect . . . (Release date is May 23.)

I liked Bridget Walsh’s debut historical mystery, The Tumbling Girl, that I’ve already interviewed her for a post close to release date. 1876, Victorian London. Minnie Ward, a feisty scriptwriter for the Variety Palace Music Hall, is devastated when her best friend is found brutally murdered. She enlists the help of private detective Albert Easterbrook to help her find justice. Together they navigate London, from its high-class clubs to its murky underbelly. But as the bodies pile up, they must rely on one another if they’re going to track down the killer – and make it out alive . . . (Release date is May 23.)

It took me a little while to get into Alison Goodman’s The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies, and then I was caught up in the fun story. Lady Augusta Colebrook, “Gus,” is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents itself: to rescue their friend’s goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband. The sisters set out to Caroline’s country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots and injures the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past who was charged with murder and exiled to Australia twenty years ago. What follows is a high adventure full of danger, clever improvisation, heart-racing near misses, and a little help from a revived and rather charming Lord Evan. (Release date is May 30.)

Katherine Hall Page did such an excellent job taking us back through the pandemic in the latest Faith Fairchild mystery, The Body in the Web. Faith Fairchild joins the rest of the world in lockdown mode when reality flips in March 2020. As the pandemic spreads, Faith and her family readjust to life together in Aleford, Massachusetts. Her husband, Tom, continues his sermons from Zoom; their children, Ben, who’s in college, and Amy, a high school senior, are doing remote learning at home .Faith is happy to have her family under the same roof and grateful for her resilient community, friends, and neighbors in Aleford. Town halls remain lively and well-attended, despite residents joining from their living rooms. It is at one of these town halls that scandal breaks out. In the midst of a Zoom meeting, damaging images suddenly flash upon everyone’s screens. Claudia, local art teacher and Faith’s dear friend, is immediately recognized as the woman who has been targeted. (Release date is May 30.)

Check out these May releases, too.

Birchall, Katy – The Last Word (5/2)
Blackgoose, Moniquill – To Shape a Dragon’s Breath (5/9)
Brideau, Lisa – Adrift (5/9)
Coco, Nancy – Give Fudge a Chance (5/23)
Duncan, Emmeline – Flat White Fatality ((5/23)
Even If the Sky is Falling – ed. by Taj McCoy (5/30)
Flower, Amanda – Blueberry Blunder (5/23)
Gagnon, Michelle – Killing Me (5/16)
Hackett, Nicole – The Perfect Ones (5/2)
Hamilton, Jessica – Don’t You Dare (5/16)
Harkaway, Nick – Titanium Noir (5/16)
Holland, Sam – The Twenty (5/2)
Hollis, Lee – Poppy Harmon and the Shooting Star (5/23)
Irby, Samantha – Quietly Hostile (5/16)
Jackson, Buzzy – To Die Beautiful (5/2)
Jackson, Sarah K. – Not Alone (5/2)
Larsen, Samantha – A Novel Disguise (5/16)
Lee, Thomas D. – Perilous Times (5/23)
Legrand, Claire – A Crown of Ivy and Glass (5/9)
Liljestrand, Jens – Even if Everything Ends (5/9)
Murphy, Nora – The New Mother (5/30)
Paolini, Christopher – Fractal Noise (5/16)
Sanders, Angela M. – Witch Upon a Star (5/23)
Sengeh, David Moinina – Radical Inclusion (5/2)
Sloan, Holly Goldberg – Pieces of Blue (5/9)
Smith, Karen Rose – Murder with Earl Grey Tea (5/23)
Turner, Guinevere – When the World Didn’t End (5/23)
Walters, Vanessa – The Nigerwife (5/2)
Wells, Martha – Witch King (5/30)
Wolfgang-Smith, Olivia – Glassworks (5/16)
Yarros, Rebecca – Fourth Wing (5/2)