January Treasures in My Closet and Hot Titles

December is so crowded with books and contests that the listing of January's forthcoming books is a day late.  But, I promise an enticing list of January releases, starting with the treasures in my closet.

Frozen Assets marks the launch of a new mystery series by Quentin Bahes.  Set in the small fishing village of Hvalvik, Iceland, it follows Gunna Gunnhildur as she investigates a murder, while a rookie crime beat journalist follows Gunna.

Kim Edwards, author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, brings us The Lake of Dreams, the story of a woman who returns home to upstate New York only to discovery a collection of heirlooms that reveals a new family history.

What librarian would be able to resist Katie Fforde's new romantic comedy, Love Letters?  While helping to organize a literary festival, Laura is sent to Ireland to persuade a reclusive author to come out of hiding.  The blurb calls this, "An irresistible tale of love and literature and the quest for a happy ending." 

In Falling More Slowly, Peter Helton introduces Detective Inspector Liam McLusky, freshly transferred to Bristol after an injury.  He has no time to settle in before catching a case in which explosive devices disguises as everyday objects are being left across Bristol, maiming or killing people.  He has to find out a killer, while also navigating internal politics in his new job.

The Poison Tree is a psychological thriller by Erin Kelly.  This debut alternates between the present and past as it tells the story of a summer in the 1990s when sex, alcohol, and excess turned deadly.

Michael Koryta brings us another supernatural thriller, The Cypress House.  Mix together a man who sees death coming in the a trace of smoke in people's eyes, a hurricane, and relentless suspense.  When Arlen Wagner tries to warn fellow passengers on a train, only one person believes him, and they abandon the train.  Their journey strands them at the Cypress House, an isolated boardinghouse, directly in the path of a hurricane, and something even deadlier.

It's hard to resist a book that includes the quote, "Books are not luxuries.  They are meat and drink for the mind."  Andrew Taylor's The Anatomy of Ghosts takes readers back to England in 1786.  John Holdsworth, a bookseller and novelist, is offered a commission to catalogue an extensive library, but first he must find Lady Anne Oldershaw's son, Frank, committed to a home for the mentally unstable after claiming he saw a ghost.  As Holdsworth investigates, he's drawn deep into the secretive Cambridge community in this suspenseful thriller.

Inspector Ian Rutledge returns in Charles Todd's A Lonely Death.  Three men were murdered in a Sussex village, and Scotland Yard is called in.  All three were soldiers who survived World War I, only to be garroted in a small town two years later.  Before Rutledge can even investigate, a fourth man ends up dead.

Jill Paton Walsh brings back Dorothy L. Sayers' characters, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane in The Attenbury Emeralds.  In 1921, Lord Peter Wimsey recovered the Attenbury Emeralds, launching his detective career.  Thirty years later, Attenbury's grandson asks for help in a new mystery surround the family's emeralds.

If those treasures in my closet haven't enticed you, maybe a few of these other forthcoming books will.  How about the charming cover of Blaize Clement's Cat Sitter Among the Pigeons?  Dixie Hemingway's latest cat sitting job finds her dealing with con artists who aren't afraid to kill.  But, those con artists are movers and shakers in Dixie's town.

Joe Pike and Elvis Cole are drawn into a dangerous case in Robert Crais' The Sentry.  Their investigation reveal two people who fled from Hurricane Katrina aren't who they seem to be, and a vengeful force from their past is catching up with them. 

My review of Lisa Genova's Left Neglected appeared earlier this month, but the book actually comes out in January.  A woman's life is changed forever following an accident that leaves her with a brain injury called Left Neglect.

Following an ambush in Afghanistan, Sean Dillon is charged with discovering if an American or allies were responsible for the massacre in Jack Higgins' The Judas Gate.

The Amlingmeyer boys, "Big Red" and "Old Red," are in Chicago in 1893 to compete with some of the world's most famous detectives at the World's Columbian Exposition.  But the competition has just started when a murder occurs, and the boys investigate in Steve Hockensmith's World's Greatest Sleuth.

In Alice Hoffman's The Red Garden, a mysterious garden where only red plants grow is at the center of lives in the town of Blackwell.  The truth can be found in that garden by those who dare to look.

Unwritten Laws is Greg Iles' new thriller.  Penn Cage's father has been accused of murder, and every time Penn tries to do something to defend him, shocking secrets are revealed, leaving Penn to question whether he really knew his father at all.

In John Lescroart's Damage, the conviction of the Curtlee family heir changed a detective's life forever.  Now, he's been released following a new trial, and tragedies begin to happen to others who were involved in his conviction. 

Brad Meltzer takes readers into hidden history in The Inner Circle.  When an archivist tries to impress a woman, taking her into a secret vault where the President of the U.S. reviews classified documents, they find trouble when they discover a hidden 200-year-old dictionary that once belonged to Washington. 

When an ATF agent, working undercover, stops communicating with everyone except his wife, Charlie Hood wonders if he's gone deeper undercover, or if he's suffered a break with his mission in T. Jefferson Parker's The Border Lords.

Does anyone doubt that James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge will have another bestseller with Tick Tock?  Detective Michael Bennett is called to investigate when a bomb in New York proves to be a deadly warning.

Here's a book that might not be on your radar, but I'm looking forward to it.  Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya's U.S. debut is The Storyteller of Marrakesh.  Each year, Hassan gathers people in the city square to share recollections of a young foreign couple that disappeared years earlier.  Are people sharing in a storytelling ritual or covering up a crime?

Clara and Mr. Tiffany is Susan Vreeland's latest historical novel.  It's the story of Clara Driscoll, head of Louis Comfort Tiffany's women's division, who came up with the idea for the Tiffany lamp, and brought the company financial success. 

Deborah Rodriguez, who brought us Kabul Beauty School, has her first novel, A Cup of Friendship.  Sunny, an American living in Kabul, runs a coffee shop, where she hears so many stories.  But, she gets caught up in the life of a young woman from a remote village who was kidnapped and left pregnant and alone on the city streets. 

So, what did I miss that you're planning to read in January?  What entices you on this list?  It might still be December, but January promises to kick off 2011 with great books.