Treasures & November's Hot Titles

If I only relied on the November Treasures in My Closet for this posting, it would be extremely short.  I only have five books there with November dates.  Thank heavens!  I think there were enough October books to keep me reading for two Octobers!  So, here are the few titles in my closet, along with the hot titles scheduled for November release.

Lillian Stewart Carl takes us to the Isle of Skye in her new Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron mystery, The Blue Hackle.  Alasdair and Jean are planning to marry in the chapel at a friend's decaying estate there.  But, when a guest is murdered, and the police crash the party, they're the ones with the knowledge to untangle the threads of the past, and find a killer.

Henry Chang's Detective Jack Yu books chronicle the criminal underworld of New York's Chinatown.  Now, in Red Jade, a murder involving drugs, snakeheads, and smuggled prostitutes takes Yu across country to another Chinatown, in Seattle.

A Dead Man in Malta is Michael Pearce's seventh book to feature Sandor Seymour, investigator of Special Branch.  In 1913, he's sent to Malta to solve a series of deaths in a Navy hospital.  The author brings to life turn-of-the-century Malta in an historical mystery.

I love the colors of Christmas books, and Robert Dalby's A Piggly Wiggly Christmas is gorgeous.  I hope you've discovered this charming series set in Second Creek, Mississippi.  When an electrical fire devastates the historic town square just before Christmas, it's up to the group of women who call themselves Nitwitts to find the Christmas spirit, and raise the money to rebuild.

I have to admit, the November book I'm most excited about is Dennis Lehane's Moonlight Mile.  It's been too many years since we had a Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro book.  The two investigators found Amanda when she disappeared at age four.  Now, at sixteen, she's disappeared again, and, once more, they're asked to find her.  What kind of consequences will this search have?

Now to the hot book releases for November.   This month, I included a few nonfiction titles, because some of our favorite fiction authors have written nonfiction books.

Hell's Corner is the latest Camel Club novel by David Baldacci.  When an explosion occurs after a Sate Dinner at the White House, it's an obvious terrorist plot aimed at the President and the British Prime Minister.  The Camel Club investigates, hoping to prevent a future catastrophe.

Steve Berry brings us The Emperor's Tomb.  Former government operative Malone discovers his love interest is being held hostage, with a threat to kill her unless Malone brings the object she's asked him to keep safe.  He would do it, if he only knew what that object was.

Many of us will be interested to learn what books shaped Pat Conroy's life.  The author of Prince of Tides brings us My Reading Life, explaining how books have shaped him as a person, as a writer, and changed his life.  He also lists books that influenced him.   (Raise your hand if you're addicted to book lists, as I am.)

I've never heard of a "lifter."  In Jeffery Deaver's Edge, a mysterious boss requires information and has hired a "lifter" to extract it from police detective Kessler.  A federal protection officer known as Corte is given the job of keeping Kessler and his family alive, a job that drives Corte and the "lifter" towards a confrontation.

If you were one of the readers who liked Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck, you might want to read I Remember Nothing (And Other Reflections).  Mixing irreverence, wisdom, and wit, it's a collection of the author's essays, as she approaches seventy.

In Charles Finch's Stranger in Mayfair, Charles Lenox has just returned from his honeymoon, when he's asked to investigate a colleague's footman.  Unsettling facts come to light, before a killer's identity is revealed.

Full Dark, No Stars is Stephen King's latest collection, four horror stories.  Is there anything more than needs to be said?

Bestselling author Debbie Macomber turns to nonfiction with God's Guest List (Welcoming Those Who Influence Our Life).   Macomber claims that everyone in our life, even those with painful or negative influences, have a purpose for being there. 

Christmas Mourning is Margaret Maron's latest Judge Deborah Knott mystery.  She's looking forward to a family Christmas celebration when tragedy strikes.  With the town devastated by a death in a car crash that wasn't an accident, Knott teams up with Sheriff's Deputy Bryant to uncover the truth.

I'm a big fan of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City novels.  Now, he brings us the latest one,  Mary Ann in Autumn.  Twenty years after she left her husband and child in San Francisco for a TV career in New York, Mary Ann had some bad luck, and ended up back in San Francisco.  At fifty-seven, it might be time to take stock of her life, but her past comes back to haunt her.

It's hard to beat Patrick F. McManus for laugh out loud funny mysteries.  The Huckleberry Murders is the latest Sheriff Bo Tully book.  Rumors abound that a missing elderly rancher was murdered, but Sheriff Bo Tully hasn't even discovered a body.  When four bodies turn up in a huckleberry patch, Tully has a big job on his hands.

James Patterson brings back Alex Cross in Cross Fire.  When a corrupt congressman and a lobbyist are murdered, Cross has to put his wedding on hold.  It soon becomes apparent there is a vigilante targeting crooked politicians, and there's a tug of war for jurisdiction between Cross and an FBI agent.  The bigger problem may be the killer stalking Cross.

Put a serial killer dubbed the "Coastline Killer" together with three couples caught in a winter storm along the California, and what do you have?  You have Bill Pronzini's tale of unrelenting terror, The Hidden.

Some of us will try anything Adriana Trigiani writes.  This time, she has a nonfiction book, Don't Sing at the Table, in which she shares the wisdom handed down to her from her grandmothers.

Hollywood Hills is Joseph Wambaugh's latest LAPD novel.  "Hollywood Nate" Weiss is an LAPD veteran, but, even he discovers it's not easy to protect a mansion when two valuable paintings are stolen, not once, but twice.

So, which books are you excited about?  And, what am I missing that you're planning to read in November?  I'd love to hear your picks.