The winter publishing season is moving at full speed with new books by such best-selling writers as J. D. Robb, Kristin Hannah, Amy Bloom, Gregg Hurwitz, Jojo Moyes, Chloe Benjamin, Robert Harris, James Lee Burke, Bernard Cornwell, and Denis Johnson.  And these are just some of the new books out in January and February. 

               

J. D. Robb better known as Nora Roberts adds another mystery to her “In Death” series starring Lt. Eve Dallas of the New York Police Department.  Set in the 2060s, this latest, “Dark in Death,” starts with an ice pick murder of a young actress in a movie theater watching a classic film, “Psycho.”  Quickly, Dallas discovers that this scenario was the subject of the second volume in a series of mysteries.  And then, she learns there is a previous murder that follows the plot of the first book in the series.  As she reads the third book in the series, she works to develop a portrait of a killer determined to rewrite the plots to make the villain the hero.  All the “In Death” books are fast-paced, full of action and adventure, and quality characters such as Dallas, her billionaire husband, Roark, and her assistant, Peabody.

               

Kristin Hannah, the author of “The Nightingale,” details a troubled family trying to solve their problems by settling in the Alaskan frontier, but the starkness and dangers just follow them there in “The Great Alone.”  Amy Bloom’s “White Houses,” focuses on the “friendship” of Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok.

               

Greg Hurwitz continues his Orphan X series with “Hellbent” in which his hero tries to turn over a new leaf only to find his dangerous past as a government assassin may be all that stands between him and those he cares for while James Lee Burke returns to his classic mystery character in “Robicheaux.” Robert Harris writes about “Munich,” Bernard Cornwell looks at the life of Shakespeare in “Fools and Mortals,” and “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden” collects some of the short stories of Denis Johnson.

 

JoJo Moyes continues the adventures of Louisa Clark from “Me Before You” in “Still Me” while

 

Chloe Benjamin in “The Immortalists” ponders a simple question: “If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?”

               

So, while the weather can’t decide from day to day what season it is, readers at least have some certainty in the stacks of great prospects to enjoy.