Here it is January 1st, and we’re talking about February. To me, that means one month closer to winter being over. I hope you have good books to read in January. Now, I’m going to entice you with the February releases.

Laurie Zico Albanese’s novel, Stolen Beauty, is for all of us who appreciated the movie or picture, “Woman in Gold”.  It’s a story of love, war, art, and family. In 1903 Vienna, Adele Block-Bauer met painter Gustav Klimt. She embraced Klimt’s genius, and enjoyed a life that celebrated sex and art. But, anti-Semitism is growing in the city. Almost forty years later, Adel’s niece, Maria, is a newlywed when the Nazis invade Austria. When her husband is arrested and her parents are forced out of their home, Maria must summon the courage that is her aunt’s legacy, in order to survive. (Release date is Feb. 7.)

Trudy Nan Boyce was a police officer in Atlanta for over thirty years. She brings those years of experience to her latest Detective Sarah Alt novel, Old Bones. As a member of the Atlanta Police Department, Sarah investigates a case involving a girl she once arrested. At the same time, she’s caught up in the turmoil in the city of Atlanta after students from Spelman College, a historically black college, were assaulted by rifle fire during a vigil calling for police reform. As the city erupts, Sarah is digging into the past for answers. (Release date is Feb. 21.)

What happened to Felicia Stone? Jorgen Brekke brings back Police Inspector Odd Singsaker in The Fifth Element. Singsaker has been capture, imprisoned on an island off the Northern coast of Norway. He wakes to find himself holding a shotgun. Next to him is a corpse. But what events led him to this point? How did he get here? And, how does it link to the disappearance of his wife, Felicia, a few weeks earlier? (Release date is Feb. 28.)

Kate Shackleton returns in Frances Brody’s A Death in the Dales. The amateur sleuth plans a vacation in the peaceful village of Langcliffe. But, the village has secrets, including murders, and the possible wrong conviction of a man. The search for a missing young man leads Kate to uncover another suspicious death, an illicit affair, and thrusts her into the village’s secrets. (Release date is Feb. 14.)

Alexandra Burt’s The Good Daughter takes a woman back to her troubled mother so she can understand her past, a past spent in a rootless existence traveling the country with her eccentric mother. (Release date is Feb. 7.)

What You Don’t Know is JoAnn Chaney’s debut novel. The final victims of an infamous serial killer may be the people he didn’t kill. There’s the detective who solved the case, now working cold cases. The lead reporter who broke the story now sells makeup at the mall. The wife says she didn’t know a thing. Now, as new murders shake Denver, they have the chance to get their lives back. (Release date is Feb. 7.)

The Crow Trap is an early book in the Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves, now published in the U.S. for the first time. Three women are brought together to work on an environmental survey. When one arrives at the cottage, though, she finds the body of a friend. She doesn’t accept that the woman committed suicide. When a second death occurs, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope arrives to pry into their lives. (Release date is Feb. 21.)

The blurb on the back cover of Mason Cross’ Winterlong says it’s the must-read thriller for fans of Jack Reacher, Alex Cross, and Jason Bourne. It’s been five years since Carter Blake parted ways with top-secret government operation Winterlong. The deal was that he’d remain quiet as to what Winterlong was doing, and in return, they’d leave him alone. But, an old ally is dead, and Blake knows the deal has changed and someone is coming for him. (Release date is Feb. 7.)

The cover of Chris Ewan’s Long Time Lost says it’s a standalone thriller. Nick Miller and his team provide a unique and illegal service. They relocate at-risk individuals across Europe with new identities and new lives. But, when Nick steps in to prevent the attempted murder of witness-in-hiding Kate Sutherland, he puts everything at risk. He and Kate have a common enemy who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it tear’s Nick’s network apart. (Release date is Feb. 7.)

Here’s the debut I’m excited about, Swiss Vendetta by Tracee de Hahn. Swiss-American police detective Agnes Luthi has just transferred to the Violent Crimes unit to try to change her life after her husband’s death. Now, on the eve of the worst blizzard Lausanne, Switzerland has seen in years, she’s called to investigate her first homicide at a chateau. A young woman who was doing inventory at the chateau was stabbed to death. Now, Luthi finds herself trapped in the chateau during the blizzard, out of her depth in her first murder case, and still struggling after the death of her husband. (Release date is Feb. 7.)

Georgia Hunter’s novel, We Were the Lucky Ones, takes readers from the Jewish ghetto in German-occupied Poland to Siberia to Brazil. The book, based on the true story of Hunter’s own family, tells of a family of Polish Jews who are separated at the start of World War II, but are determined to survive and reunite. (Release date is Feb. 14.)

The last book in today’s list is Vic James’ Gilded Cage. The fantasy is set in a modern-day Britain in which aristocrats are magic users, and commoners are condemned to be their servants for a period of ten years. Commoners do have choices, though. They can serve their years when they’re young, and never get over them, or when they’re old, and never survive them. The heroes are a brother and sister who are to serve Britain’s most powerful family, but find the aristocrats more sinister and glamorous than they expected. And, then there’s the villain, who may not exactly be a villain. (Release date is Jan. 14.)

Did any of today’s titles catch your attention? If not, come back tomorrow for the second list of Treasures in My Closet.