It’s the first day of August. We’re talking about September releases, and, believe it or not, that includes some Christmas books! Are you ready? The good news is none of them are released before September 28! Actually, there are some Christmas books here that I want to read. If you’re not ready, don’t worry. There are plenty of other September book releases to choose. Don’t forget to tell me what ones I missed, and what books you’re anticipating.

I’ll start with “A Charming Small-Town Paranormal Romantic Comedy”. Witch Please is the first in Ann Aquirre’s Fix-It Witches series. Danica Waterhouse is a fully modern witch. After a messy breakup, Danica makes a pact with her cousin that they’ll keep their hearts protected and have fun, without involving the overly opinionated and meddlesome Waterhouse matriarchs. Titus Winnaker has family troubles of his own. After a tragic loss, all he’s got is his sister, his bakery, and a romantic curse that he’s convinced has left him doomed to be alone. Then, he meets Danica, and their attraction is irresistible. For him, she’s the one. To her, he’s forbidden fruit. Can a modern witch find love with an old-fashioned mundane who refuses to settle for anything less than forever? (Release date is Sept. 7.)

Laura Gail Black kills off a librarian in Murder by The Bookend, the second Antique Bookshop mystery. It’s time for Hokes Folly, North Carolina’s beloved antiquarian bookstore, Twice Upon a Time to throw a bash for its grand reopening. But bookseller Jenna Quinn’s pace of mind is shattered when the local library’s director of antique books turns up dead in the parking lot, killed by a vintage glass bookend. Unfortunately, the only witness is the victim’s dog. The suspect list is voluminous, but Jenna must narrow her list of suspects to one. (Release date is Sept. 7.)

I’ve already read the second Matthew Venn novel by Ann Cleeves, The Heron’s Cry. It’s as atmospheric as the earlier one, The Long Call, and, like her Shetland and Vera series, it’s soon to be a TV series. Detective Matthew Venn and his team investigate a murder at an artists’ colony, but before they can find the killer, there’s another death. This book focuses on the team as much as Venn, and it’s an excellent follow-up to the first book. (Release date is 9/7.)

Luca Crippa & Maurizio Onnis bring us The Auschwitz Photographer: The Forgotten Story of the WWII Prisoner Who Documented Thousands of Lost Souls. In 1939, professional photographer Wilhem Brasse is deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, assigned to work as the camp’s intake photographer and take “identity pictures’ of prisoners as they arrive by the trainload. Behind the camera, Brasse is safe from the terrible fate that so many of his fellow prisoners meet, but over the course of five years, the horrifying scenes his lens capture change Brasse forever. This narrative nonfiction brings Brasses’s story to life as he clicks the shutter button thousands of times before ultimately joining the Resistance, defying the Nazis, and definatly setting down his camera for good. (Release date is Sept. 7.)

I could just introduce Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land by saying he dedicates it, “For the librarians then, now, and in the years to come.” I’ll also share this sort of description. “From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, comes the highly anticipated Cloud Cuckoo Land. Set in Constantinople in the fifteenth century, in a small town in present-day Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr’s third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book.” (Release date is Sept. 28.)

S.M. Goodwin’s second Lightner and Law mystery, Crooked in His Ways, takes readers back to pre-Civl War New York society. Albert Beauchamp disappeared just before Christmas in 1856. When he reappears a year later, he’s in several pieces, packed in salt in a shipping crate in New Orleans. NYC inspectors Jasper LIghtner and his partner, Hieronymus Law are called in to investigate, but the further they dig into the wealthy financier’s background, the dirtier the story gets. On the surface, Beautchamp had a lot of friends. But, each had a good reason to hate him. Following a trail of leads that reaches back to the early 1840s, the detectives uncover a sordid litany of high society scandals that still threatens the city’s moneyed establishment. (Release date is Sept. 7.)

Darci Hannah’s second Beacon Bakeshop mystery, Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off is the first Christmas book in the treasures listing. Tucked away inside an old lighthosue in Beacon Harbor, Michigan, bakeshop cafe owner Lindsey Bakewell is ready to make her first Christmas in town shine bright. She hopes to win the town-wide cookie bake-off. Just as the competition heats up, everything falls apart when the judge is found dead – covered in crumbs from Lindsey’s signature cookie. (Release date is Sept. 28.)

Cora Harrison’s Reverend Mother mysteries, set in Cork, Ireland in the early twentieth century are some of my favorites. I love the history, the setting, and Reverend Mother. She’s on retreat in Murder in an Orchard Cemetery, but this year the bishop has invited five people who are candidates for Alderman to the City Council. Adding a political element destroys the peacefulness of the retreat. But, so does murder. (Release date is Sept. 7.)

Daisy Thorne, amateur sleuth and Ooh La La hair salon owner, returns in the thrid in the series by Louise R. Innes, Death at Holly Lodge. Excitement is high during the Christmas season in Edgemead, England as international pop star, Mimi Levante, the village’s newest resident, begins renovating historic Holly Lodge. But the charming country home’s makeover is cut short by a shocking discovery – the body of a man, dressed as Santa Claus, jammed inside the house’s chimney. The secreted Santa is identified as Gregory Pearce, a local father who vanished on Christmas Eve two years earlier. As the case moves from missing to murder, Daisy and dashing DCI Paul McGuinnes begin combing through the clues of Christmases past. (Release date is Sept. 28.)

In Mrs. Claus and the Halloween Homicide, the second in Liz Ireland’s cozy mystery series starring April Claus, the newlywed wife of Nick Claus, a.k.a. Santa, Halloween comes to the North Pole, and so does murder. For the first time ever, Christmastown is celebrating a strange new tradition, Halloween. But, not everyone is willing to watch their winter wonderland get overrun by carved pumpkins and costume parties. Scary happenings hit Santaland, and they grow more intense until an outspoken elf is found dead outside his cottage. (Release date is Sept. 28.)

Would you want to know the exact moment of your death? In James Kennedy’s debut novel, Dare to Know, you can, but it will cost you. Our narrator is the most talented salesperson at Dare to Know, an enigmatic company that has developed the technology to predict anyone’s death down to the second. Divorced, estranged from his sons, and broke, he’s driven to violate the cardinal rule of the business by forecasting his own death day. The problem: his prediction says he died twenty-three minutes ago. The only person who can confirm its accuracy is Julia, the woman he loved and lost during his rise up the ranks of Dare to Know. As he travels across the country to see her, he’s forced to confront his past, the choices he’s made, and the terrifying truth about the company he works for. (Release date is Sept. 14.)

Here’s one of the Christmas books I’m anticipating, Susan Mallery’s The Christmas Wedding Guest. I’m a sucker for some of Mallery’s stories. The Somerville sisters believe in love, but they’ve lost faith it will happen for them. Reggie hasn’t been home since the end of the world’s shortest engagement. When her parents decide to renew their vows, she buffs up her twinkle to help with the Christmas wedding. Unexpectedly, her first love is back, too, and the spark between them shines as brightly as ever. Then, there’s Dena, pregnant and on her own, on purpose. When a sad-eyed songwriter checks into her inn, unable to write since he lost his wife, he finds inspiration in Dena’s determination to be a mom. As the Christmas wedding draws closer, these two sisters just might unwrap the most treasured gift of all. (Release date is Sept. 28.)

Marked Man is Archer Mayor’s 32nd Joe Gunther mystery. A year ago, when Nathan Lyon died a natural death surrounded by his loving, attentive family, he appeared to be a local philanthropist and millionaire. Now Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team has discovered that almost nothing about the story was true. Nathan Lyon was actually Nick Bianchi from Providence, Rhode Island. His money came from Mafia-tainted sources. And his family now seems to be dying themselves and their deaths are revealed to be murders. While the police do their jobs and Joe travels to Rhode Island to look into the original source of the money, PI Sally Kravitz teams up with reporter Rachel Reiling to uncover the truth behind this tangled web. (Release date is Sept. 28.)

Let’s face it. The publisher and I have totally different views about the plot of Marcy McCreary’s The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon. Their summary talks about the disappearance of a waitress in the Catskills, and the discovery of bones forty years later. Even then, the original investigator thought the family that owned the resort where the waitress worked knew more than they said. However, I’ve read and reviewed the book, and I believe the focus should be on Police Detective Susan Ford, on leave from the police department while there’s an investigation as to whether or not the shooting of a suspect was a wrongful death. And, why Amazon lists this as “Amateur Sleuths” is beyond me. (Release date is Sept. 7.)

As a crime fiction fan, I was interested to see those two names together – William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin. The Dark Remains was an unfinished manuscript by the late McIlvanney. Ian Rankin finished the prequel, the first story featuring DC Jack Laidlaw, a rebel and Glasgow’s “original gritty detective”. Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong kind of people. When his body is found in the wrong area of the city, there can either be war between the groups headed by three crime lords, or Jack Laidlaw can deviate from the standard police investigation, and find the killer. (Release date is Sept. 7.)

There are some romantic comedies that just appeal to me. Take Jean Meltzer’s debut novel, The Matzah Ball. Racheal Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach. But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, she’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy – Jacob Greenberg. (Release date is Sept. 28.)

For many of us, it’s just enough to say, Margaret Mizushima has a new Timber Creek K-9 mystery, Striking Range. Once again, Deputy Mattie Cobb goes looking for the truth to her past, teaming up with cold-case detective Jim Hauck to interview the man who tried to kill Mattie and may have killed her father thirty years earlier. But, soon after the enter the Colorado state prison where they’ll meet him, he’s found dead in his cell. He did leave behind a clue, a map leading to Timber Creek and Redstone Ridge. She and her K-9, Robo, accompany several others on the search in the burned forest surrounding Redstone, but her time there is cut short when she’s called to a campground. A young woman has been found there, dead, and it appears that she recently gave birth. As a deadly storm descends, the police are looking for the missing newborn. And, a deadly killer has descended on the law enforcement community as well. (Release date is Sept. 7.)

In Stuart Neville’s The House of Ashes, Sara Keane’s husband, Damien, uproots them from England and moves them to his native Northern Ireland for a “fresh start” in the wake of her nervous breakdown. Sara, who knows no one in Northern Ireland, is jobless, carless, friendless – all but a prisoner in her own house. When a blood-soaked old woman beats on the door, insisting the house is hers before being bundled back to her care facility, Sara begins to understand the house has a terrible history her husband never intended for her to discover. As the two women form a bond over their shared traumas, Sara finds the strength to stand up to her abuser, and Mary – silent for six decades – is finally ready to tell her story. (Release date is Sept. 7.)

If you loved Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, you’ll want to pick up the sequel, The Man Who Died Twice. The team of Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim return, but there won’t be any peace and quiet at Coopers Chase, their retirement village. An unexpected visitor from Elizabeth’s past shows up, needing her help. He’s been accused of stealing diamonds worth millions from the wrong men, and he’s on the lam. Then, the first body shows up. It won’t be the last one. The Thursday Murder Club is up against a ruthless murderer who doesn’t care if four septuagenarians are killed. (Release date is Sept. 28.)

Richard Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory, now brings us Bewilderment. The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while singlehandedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He’s also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control. With its descriptions of the natural world, its tantalizing vision of life beyond, and its account of a father and son’s ferocious love, it has been called heartrending, intimate and moving. (Release date is Sept. 21.)

The Washington Post called Mary Roach “America’s funniest science writer”. Now, the author of Stiff brings us Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law. It’s an investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet. “What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A grizzly bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree?” “The answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.” (Release date is Sept. 14.)

I don’t actually have a copy of Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle in hand. I have a .PDF, so I’m going to have to share the blurb. “From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, a gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s.” (Release date is Sept. 14.)

I think we got a little serious there with the last few books. Let’s end with a cozy mystery, Kate Young’s second Jane Doe Book Club Mystery, Reading Between the Crimes. “What better time than Halloween to dig into a bracing discussion of a diabolical murder mystery? And what better choice for the Jane Doe Book Club than Agatha Christie’s Crooked House? Lyla Moody and her friends are soon embroiled in a debate over whether the heroine’s actions are particularly believable. But not long after the meeting, sleepy Sweet Mountain, Georgia, is rocked by a murder that uncannily echoes the novel in question. (Release date is Sept. 7.)

Here are the other September book releases.

Akerstrom, Lola Akinmade – In Every Mirror She’s Black (9/7)
Baldwin, James – The Price of the Ticket (9/21)
Ferrie, Chris & Geraint F. Lewis – Where Did the Universe Come From? And Other Cosmic Questions (9/7)
Fitzsimmons, Matthew – Constance (9/1)
Groff, Lauren – Matrix (9/7)
Hodge, Rebecca – Over the Falls (9/7)
Jayatissa, Amanda – My Sweet Girl (9/14)
Jones, Gayl – Palmares (9/14)
Kurian, Vera – Never Saw Me Coming (9/7)
Levine, Laura – Murder Gets a Makeover (9/28)
Melo, Felipe & Juan Cavia – Ballad for Sophie (9/28)
Monroe, Nina – The Children’s Secret (9/7)
Moriarty, Liane – Apples Never Fall (9/14)
Novik, Naomi – The Last Graduate (9/28)
Ozeki, Ruth – The Book of Form and Emptiness (9/21)
Penrose, Andrea – Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens (9/28)
Ritter, Josh – The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All (9/7)
Rooney, Sally – Beautiful World, Where Are You? (9/7)
Ross, Joann – The Inheritance (9/7)
Stanciu, Brett Ann – Unstitched: My Journey to Understand Opioid Addiction and How People and Communities Can Heal (9/14)
Swann, Christopher – A Fire in the Night (9/7)
Toibin, Colm – The Magician (9/7)
Wang, Qian Julie – Beautiful Country (9/7)
Woolard, Jim R. – When the Missouri Ran Red (9/28)