Each Treasures in My Closet post means we’re one month closer to the end of 2020. It can’t come soon enough. I hope you find some September books you want to read. How can you not with this list? Some of my favorite authors have books out in September.

For the last five months, most of us have been able to identify with the title of Fredrik Backman’s forthcoming book, Anxious People. It’s another one of his comedic novels, this one about “a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight cantankerous hostages, strangers, who discover they have more in common than they thought.” (Release date is Sept. 8.)

For Whom the Book Tolls is the first Antique Bookshop Mystery by Laura Gail Black. The cozy series debut features Jenna Quinn who flees some unsavory doings in her hometown of Charlotte, and goes to stay with her uncle in Hokes Folly, NC. But, when she finds her uncle murdered in his antique bookstore, Jenna, his primary beneficiary, becomes the prime suspect. (Release date is Sept. 8.)

Allison Brook’s latest Haunted Library Mystery is Checked Out for Murder. When Daphne Marriott strolls into Clover Ridge and informs librarian Carrie Singleton that she’s a psychic, she must not have foretold her own death. Daphne’s a welcome distraction when Carrie’s overbearing mother hits town with her much younger husband who is filming a movie locally. Carrie’s mother want to keep an eye on him. His sultry ex-fiancee is his costar. But, no one was watching when Daphne mingles with the moviemakers and ends up dead. Carrie and Evelyn, the library ghost, investigate, assisted by library cat Smoky Joe. (Release date is Sept. 8.)

Halloween is approaching in Ellen Byron’s Murder in the Bayou Boneyard, Maggie Crozat’s least favorite holiday. She’s drawn up a plan so tourists will stay at local inns, instead of just renting rooms on an app. She even invited a cousin she doesn’t know to come from Canada and give massages. But, that cousin claims to be psychic and wants family property. It isn’t Maggie’s biggest concern at the moment. Tourists have been terrified by appearances by a rougarou, a legendary cross between a werewolf and a vampire. When the rougarou stumbles on stage at a play, and collapses, Maggie’s on the case. (Release date is Sept. 8.)

Susanna Clarke, the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell now brings us Piranesi. I’m going to admit right off the bat, I’ve read the description multiple times, and I have no idea what this book is about. It’s a novel set in Piranesi’s house, a place with infinite rooms, endless corridors, and thousands of statues. There’s a man called The Other who lives there and asks Piranesi for help with research into A Great And Secret Knowledge. If you can figure out what all that’s about, good for you. (Release date is Sept. 15.)

Rejoice! It’s a new Vera Stanhope by Ann Cleeves, The Darkest Evening. Driving home on a snowy night, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sees and car that has skilled off the road and stops to see if she can help. The driver isn’t there, but there is a toddler strapped into the backseat. Vera takes the child, but becomes disoriented in the blizzard, and ends up at Brockburn, the grand house where her father grew up. Inside, there’s a party. But, outside, unbeknownst to the revelers, a woman lies dead in the snow. As the snow traps the group, Vera begins her murder investigation with the suspicion that someone in this close community is a killer. (Release date is Sept. 8.)

I’m a sucker for true stories and essays. When I hit the sentence, “Much as John Berendt did for Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good And Evil…, so Richard Grant does for Natchez in The Deepest South of All, I was hooked. A bestselling travel writer, Grant digs into Natchez, Mississippi, a city of unexpected contradictions. With the greatest concentration of antebellum mansions in the South and prominent white families who dress up for ritual celebrations of the Old South, it’s progressive enough to elect a gay black man for mayor with 91 percent of the vote. (Release date is Sept. 1.)

Every time I discuss Craig Johnson’s new Longmire mystery, Next to Last Stand, I say I don’t know when I enjoyed a chase scene as much as one in this book. When a veteran dies at the Wyoming Home for Soldiers and Sailors, Walt is called to examine a piece of a painting and a shoebox stuffed with money. What’s the connection to a painting called “Custer’s Last Fight” and the story of the Little Big Horn? (Release date is Sept. 22.)

Audrey Keown’s first Ivy Nichols mystery, Murder at Hotel 1911, introduces a hotel clerk prone to panic attacks who turns amateur detective. If you want to spend a night amid the luxury and charm of the early twentieth century, book a room at Hotel 1911. Ivy Nichols is behind the reception desk. The hotel is Ivy’s only link to the family that abandoned her when she was a child. When wealthy, imperious Ms. Swain arrives at the hotel and belittles Ivy, she seeks consolation in the the kitchen of George, the hotel’s chef. She does inform George that Ms. Swain has a deadly allergy to shellfish, but the police suspect the chef when Ms. Swain collapses at dinner and dies. Despite her panic attacks, Ivy is determined to save her friend’s career. (Release date is Sept. 8.)

Taken Too Soon is the latest Quaker Midwife mystery by Edith Maxwell. Rose Carroll, a Quaker midwife, and her beloved fiance, David, are finally celebrating their marriage with family and friends. But, a disturbing telegram disrupts the festivities. The young ward of Rose’s aunt has suffered a mysterious death, and Rose’s help is needed urgently on Cape Cod. The newlyweds reluctantly agree to mix honeymoon plans with a murder investigation. The case exposes family secrets and a community’s bigotry. (Release date is Sept. 8.)

It’s finally time for the wedding in Jenn McKinlay’s latest Library Lover’s Mystery, One for the Books. Library director Lindsey Norris and boat captain Mike (Sully) Sullivan are shocked to realize their small wedding is growing as everyone in town wants to attend. But, when Lindsey and her friends head to Bell Island to make sure they can accommodate everyone, they find a body, the justice of the peace who was supposed to marry them. Both Lindsey and Sully hope to find the killer before their wedding day, so there isn’t a shadow over the nuptials. (Release date is Sept. 1.)

Hanging Falls is the latest Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima. Just before her planned vacation, officer Mattie Cole and her K-9 partner Robo find a body in a river. Although Robo tracks a man who becomes suspect number one, the attempt to identify the victim leads to a religious cult that is new to the community. Mattie’s latest case takes priority over her own attempts to find the story of her missing family. (Release date is Sept. 8.)

Richard Osman’s debut mystery, The Thursday Murder Club, is worth talking about. There’s a great cast of seniors in their seventies and eighties. A small group gets together to study and try to solve cold cases. When a local developer ends up dead, they find a way to become part of the police investigation. I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed a group of investigators so much. (Release date is Sept. 22.)

Laura Pederson leaves physics to those who can explain “A Theory of Everything”, such as Stephen Hawking and Einstein. Instead, she tackles A Theory of Everything Else in her collection of essays. Here’s one topic. “She ponders why thousands are perishing as a result of assault weapons, carbon emissions, forest fires, pesticides, and processed foods, yet lawn darts were banned in the 1980s after two people died.” Who else examines the question of why there are no seeing-eye cats? (Release date is Sept. 1.)

I haven’t read Louise Penny’s All the Devils Are Here yet, but I’m sure I’ll sneak it in before release date. On the first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. W.alking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident. When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife, Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour Eiffel to the bowels of the Paris Archives, deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades. And, because I don’t want to know any more, I’m not reading on to tell you more. (Release date is Sept. 1.)

Tod Goldberg called Brett Riley’s Comanche, “the best western-horror-thriller-ghost story-PI novel ever written”. Two hundred years ago in a tiny Texas town, a notorious desperado, the Piney Woods Kid, died in a hail of bullets, and the town rejoiced. In 2016, when there’s a double murder at the train depot, the police are stymied. Witnesses swear the killer was dressed as an old-time gunfighter, and rumors fly that the Piney Woods Kid is back for revenge against the descendants of the men who slayed him. A team of investigators arrives from New Orleans. Shunned by the locals and haunted by their own pasts, they’re determined to solve the mystery. They follow the evidence, and soon find themselves targeted by a killer. (Release date is Sept. 1.)

The first Bookish Baker Mystery is Murder Most Sweet by Laura Jensen Walker. Teddie St. John lives in Lake Potawatomi, Wisconsin, where she’s a superb baker, a bohemian bon vivant, and a mystery writer, known by everyone in town. So when her dog finds Teddie’s missing silk scarf, tied around the next of Kristi, the dead fiancee of a touring British author, Teddie become a murder suspect. And, when a second murder shocks the community, Teddie stands accused of two murders. (Release date is Sept. 8.)

Don’t Look for Me is Wendy Walker’s latest novel of psychological suspense. “The greatest risk isn’t running away. It’s running out of time. One night, Molly Clarke walked away from her life. She doesn’t want to be found. Or at least, that’s the story. The car abandoned miles from home. The note found at a nearby hotel. The shattered family that couldn’t be put back together. They called it a ‘walk away.’ It happens all the time. Women disappear, desperate to leave their lives behind and start over. But is that what really happened to Molly Clarke?” (Release date is Sept. 15.)

Amory and Milo Ames return in Ashley Weaver’s A Deception at Thornecrest. Their marriage has had its up and downs in the past, but Amory’s faith in her husband has been restored, and Milo has been nothing but thrilled about becoming a father. So when a woman appears on the doorstep of Amory’s country house Thornecrest, claiming to be Milo’s wife, Amory is convinced the woman is mistaken. Then, another unexpected visitor shows up, and secret identities and whirlwind romances seem to be par for the course. (Release date is Sept. 8.)

Andy Weinberger brings back somewhat-retired L.A. private eye Amos Parisman in Reason to Kill. Lonely booking agent Pinky Bleistiff hires Amos to find Risa Barsky, a singer who’s gone missing. But what starts as a simple investigation turns into a complex puzzle when Pinky is murdered and Risa remains nowhere to be found. With suspects dropping dead at every turn, Parisman must act quickly to discover the truth before an innocent person gets sent to prison. (Release date is Sept. 22.)

You might find some books you want to read on this list as well.

Akhtar, Ayad – Homeland Elegies (9/15)
Anderson, Scott – The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War – A Tragedy in 
     Three Acts (9/1)
Buelens, Stephanie – An Inconvenient Woman (9/1)
Bynum, Sarah Shun-Lien – Likes (9/1)
Colin, Beatrice – The Glass House (9/15)
Flanagan, Bill – Fifty in Reverse (9/1)
Gyasi, Yaa – Transcendent Kingdom (9/1)
Hannah, Sophie – The Killings at Kingfisher Hill (9/15)
Jenkins, Jedidiah – Like Streams to the Ocean (9/15)
Kaplan, Jo – It Will Just Be Us (9/8)
Lepore, Jill – If Then (9/15)
Loskutoff, Maxim – Ruthie Fear (9/1)
Novik, Naomi – A Deadly Education (9/29)
Robinson, Marilynne – Jack (9/29)
Warburton, Sarah – Once Two Sisters (9/8)