February Treasures in My Closet

Just because everything is packed to move to Indiana doesn't mean there are no book treasures in my closet. Here are some of the February book releases.

Melanie Benjamin's novel, The Aviator's Wife, takes a look at the marriage of one of the twentieth century's most famous couples, Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico was enthralled by the famous Lindbergh. And, he saw her as a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer. In the years that follow their marriage, life brings heartbreak, hardships, and infinite possibilities.

Kate Shackleton returns in Frances Brody's new mystery, A Medal for Murder. Brody's series has been called "A winning combination of both intricate plotting and nostalgic post-WWI English country setting." There's no rest for the wicked when Kate Shackleton picks up her second professional sleuthing case, one that will take her to the refined streets of Harrogate, where Kate stumbles across a body in a doorway.

In Christopher R. Cox' debut mystery, A Good Death, Sebastian Damon, a down-on-his luck Boston PI is hired by an insurance company to travel halfway around the world to Bangkok to investigate the death of a beautiful woman with a talented career who turned up dead in a cheap Bangkok guest house.

Jim Crace takes readers into a seemingly idyllic English village in Harvest. The morning after harvest, a landowner's stables and dovecote have burned. The villagers rush to judgment, blaming outsiders, but their actions, and the presence of an outsider who observes them, threaten the village's entire way of life.

The Water Witch is the sequel to Juliet Dark's The Demon Lover. Half-witch and half-fay Gothics professor Callie McFay is caught between an allegiance to her powerful grandmother and an alliance of witches and her fay friends when her grandmother wants to end the community's liberal magical atmosphere. Callie is going to have to draw on her ever-increasing magical powers to find a solution.

What if? What if Owen Fitzstephen wrote a novel called Hammet Unwritten? What if Dashiell Hammette gave away a worthless momento, an obsidian falcon statuette, and then suffered from writer's block? While he possessed the statuette, he wrote one acclaimed book after another, and then without out, his fortunes changed. It's a dangerous maze that takes Hammett from 1930s San Francisco to glamorous Hollywood of the 1940s, to a federal penitentiary, and finally to a fateful meeting.

Bestselling author Lisa Gardner brings us Touch & Go, a thriller about what lurks behind the facade of a perfect family. Justin and Libby Denbe's life looks perfect. But when they disappear, along with their teenage daughter, they seem to have been abducted. Investigator Tessa Leoni must race against the clock the uncover the family's darkest secrets.

Seventh Street Books is releasing a new line of Carolyn Hart classics, with a new introduction by the author. In The Devereaux Legacy, Leah Devereaux returns to South Carolina after nineteen years. She was presumed dead for all that time, since the day her parents died. Now, someone isn't happy when she tries to uncover the story of her parents' death, and the appearance of a ghost is an omen of death.

The publishers of Roger Hobbs' debut thriller, Ghostman, are excited about the book, comparing his character to Lee Child's Jack Reacher or Robert Crais' Joe Pike. He's a criminal's criminal who goes by the name of Jack. When a former associate calls in a debt, he finds himself involved in a mess, trying to sort out a casino robbery that went horribly wrong. He has forty-eight hours to sort his way through this unwanted job.

Eddie Huang's memoir is Fresh Off the Boat. Huang is one of the food world's brightest and most controversial young stars. His "fresh off the boat" parents settled into suburbia while he was involved in a mad journey through American culture, a journey involving guns, hustling, mayhem, and most of all food. Even before he launched his East Village shop Baohaus, his anchor throughout his journey was food. Now, he tells that story.

Julie Kibler's debut novel, Calling Me Home, is the story of two unlikely friends. Dorrie is a strong-willed, black, single mother, scared to love again. Isabelle is an open-minded octogenarian who has been living with a secret for over sixty years, and is now ready to face the truth.

In Camilla Lackberg's latest crime novel, The Stonecutter, the mysterious drowning of a little girl threatens to tear apart a Swedish fishing village. While local detective Patrick Hedstrom searches for the murderer, he doesn't know that the case will reach into the dark past of the village, spanning generations.

I'll admit I can't take all these books with me, but I'm packing Carla Neggers' latest contemporary romance, That Night on Thistle Lane. Librarian Phoebe O'Dunn uncovers a tiny room in the library, a room filled with reproductions of gowns, and wears one of those gowns to a masquerade in Boston. There, she encounters a masked stranger. The two keep their identities secret, and Phoebe is afraid to reveal hers when she learns who the stranger is. But, they may face a greater mystery.

Crossbones Yard is Kate Rhodes' debut thriller. Alice Quentin is a London psychologist with family baggage who finds herself at the center of a grisly series of murders. After she stumbles upon a dead body at a former graveyard for prostitutes, the police ask her help in building a psychological profile of the killer. But the killer, and the danger to her and the people she cares about, may be closer than she ever imagined.

February brings a number of debut novels, including Tanis Rideout's Above All Things. George Mallory is possibly the last great British explorer. He tried twice, and failed to conquer Mount Everest. But, he promised his wife Ruth he wouldn't try again. The day she reads a telegram addressed to him that says, "Glad to have you aboard again," changes her world. It's a story of obsession, sacrifice, and what people do for love and honor.

Ruta Sepetys' Out of the Easy takes readers back to 1950 and the French Quarter of New Orleans. Seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine has plans to get out, but a mysterious death leaves her entangled in a police investigation that will challenge her.

The Day is Dark, Yrsa Sigurdardottir's latest thriller featuring lawyer and sleuth Thora Gudmundsdottir, is already an international bestseller. When all contact is lost with two Icelanders working on the coast of Greenland, Thora is hired to investigate. But, she discovers this isn't an isolated incident. However, the townspeople believe the area is curse, and no one wants to get involved in the case, one that Thora finds to be bleak and unforgiving.

In her debut novel, Little Known Facts, Christine Sneed tells a story for our celebrity-obsessed age. It's the story of everyone who orbits around Renn Ivins, an icon-level actor. It's a story of the fallout of fame and fortune on family members and those who cannot ignore the presence of the superstar in the midst.

Is there something there that interests you? I hope you find a book or two to excite you in February.