November isn’t a big publishing month, or, at least my Treasures in My Closet piles don’t reflect a big publishing month. However, there are treasures, including one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Elizabeth Berg takes readers back to Mason, Missouri in The Confession Club. What started as a monthly supper club takes an unexpected turn, and suddenly becomes a weekly meeting of women, a safe place where they can confess their misdeeds, insecurities and regrets. Two women, new to the club, discover it’s just what they need. One has feelings for a troubled man. The other has a problem too big to solve by herself. (Release date is Nov. 19.)

Zen and the Art of Murder by Oliver Bottini is a Black Forest Investigation. Louise Boni, the maverick inspector in Germany’s Black Forest police squad, drinks too much. She’s haunted by mistakes she’s made and people she’s lost. A call draws her into the most bizarre case of her career. A badly beaten Japanese monk is roaming the snowy Freiburg region, and he seems to be fleeing an unseen danger. (Release date is Nov. 13.)

Here’s the token nonfiction title I want to read this month, The Cartiers: The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire by Francesca Cartier Brickell. A great-granddaughter tells the captivating story of the family behind Cartier, and the three brothers who turned their grandfather’s humble Parisian jewelry store into a global luxury icon. (Release date is Nov. 26.)

The fifth Mystery Bookshop mystery by V.M. Burns is Bookmarked for Murder. Samantha Washington, owner of a Michigan mystery bookshop is returning from Chicago on a chartered bus with Nana Jo and her friends from Shady Acres Retirement Village. After an unscheduled stop, a passenger is found dead in his seat. The ladies immediately shift into investigative mode to learn who provided the deadly detour. (Release date is Nov. 26.)

Donis Casey spins off her Alafair Tucker series with The Wrong Girl, The Adventures of  Bianca Dangerous. Blanche Tucker orgs to escape her boring life in tiny Boynton, Oklahoma. When dashing Graham Peyton roars into town, posing as a film producer, he convinces the ambitious but naive teenager to run away with him to a glamorous life in Hollywood. Instead, he uses her cruelly. But, she takes charge of her life, and makes it to Hollywood. Six years later, Blanche has transformed into the celebrated Bianca LaBelle, the reclusive star of a series of adventure films. Then Peyton’s remains are discovered on a Santa Monica beach. The Wrong Girl follows the 1920s daring exploits of a girl who chases her dreams, while showing how risky it can be. (Release date is Nov. 11.)

Well, we’ll see. Avanti Centrae’s latest thriller, VanOps: The Lost Power, is called “Da Vinci Code meets Tomb Raider.” In 1057, the first King of Spain wrestles Alexander the Great’s priceless Egyptian weapon from invaders, but finds it holds a terrifying and mysterious power. Centuries later, gunshots in Napa lead Maddy Marshall and her twin brother to a dying man and a dead woman. Now, the two are on the run, on a quest to recover Alexander’s ancient weapon, with a sniper on their trail. (Release date is  Nov. 9.)

Cutting Edge is a collection of new stories of mystery and crime, written by women, and edited by Joyce Carol Oates. Authors of the stories include Margaret Atwood, S.J. Rozan, Edwidge Danticat, Steph Cha, and Oates. (Release date is Nov. 5.)

As I said, Allen Eskens’ Nothing More Dangerous is one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s a coming-of-age story set  in Missouri in 1976. Body Sanden is fifteen when Ms. Lida Poe goes missing. He’s trying to survive his freshman year in high school, but his run-ins with a group of racist seniors means he has to look over his shoulder constantly. When he befriends a new neighbor, the black son of a local plant’s new manager, he finds his summer will be adventurous, and dangerous. (Release date is Nov. 12.)

Murder, She Wrote: A Time for Murder by Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land is the fiftieth book in the series. Jessica always believes in helping budding journalists, but her latest interview leads her back to her very first murder investigation. She was a substitute English teacher at a high school. An overheard angry conversation leads to her role in the case. Now, all these years later, that case, and the retirement of a teacher, leads to additional murders. (Release date is Nov. 26.)

Lawrence Block edited From Sea to Stormy Sea: 17 Stories Inspired by Great American Paintings. The anthology is a stronger collection than many, with stories by Jan Burke, Brendan DuBois, Sara Paretsky, and others. Colored pictures of the inspiring paintings will be a bonus for readers of the final version, because I read an ARC with black-and-white copies. (Release date is Nov. 19.)

In the third 42nd Street Library mystery, Murder Off the Page, Con Lehane’s librarian sleuth Raymond Ambler reluctantly becomes involved in a murder investigation, thanks to bartender Brian McNulty. However, a second murder upends Ambler’s world. The second victim is a lady friend of McNulty, and the primary suspect is McNulty himself. (Release date is Nov. 19.)

In Loretta Marion’s latest Haunted Bluffs mystery, Storm of Secrets, a powerful storm descends upon Cape Cod’s What Rock at the peak of tourist season – and the weekend Cassandra Mitchell’s and David Benjamin’s wedding is set to take place at the Bluffs. In the wake of the storm’s destruction, a three-year-old goes missing, and the body of a small-time drug dealer is found in a restaurant dumpster. Now, the police are faced with a murder, a missing child, and the aftermath of one of the worst storms in recent memory. (Release date is Nov. 12.)

Tell Me No Lies is the second in Shelley Noble’s Lady Dunbridge mystery series. Lady Dunbridge
was not about to let a little thing like the death of her husband ruin her social life. She’s in New York City, ready to take the dazzling world of Gilded Age Manhattan by storm. When an early-morning visitor arrives, begging for her help, she finds herself dealing with a crisis involving the untimely death of an heir. (Release date is Nov. 5.)

Although the annotated list is small, there are always other titles I have as well.

Allen, Jane – I Lost My Girlish Laughter (11/5)
Furuness, Bryan – Do Not Go On (11/15)
Jacobs, Lisa – The Worst Kind of Want (11/5)
Kalich, Robert – David Lazar (11/21)
Lichtenstein, Alice – The Crime of Being (11/17)
Pressfield, Steven – 36 Righteous Men (11/5)