Tantalizing Tales — May 2026 — Part Three

Hello, dear readers! This week, we open with two fairly recent releases that I’ve only actually received in the past week, before swinging even further backward, then looking forward to some exciting books that are just on the horizon.

First up is Irina McGrath’s Murder At Haddonford Manor, the first in the Charlotte Reinford Mystery series. The heroine after whom the series is named is looking forward to taking up her post as personal assistant to Lady Haddonford. Her visions of a peaceful, pastoral life on the grounds of majestic Haddonford Manor are swiftly shattered, however, by the murder of the manor’s cook. Rachel Offley was almost universally beloved: who could possibly have wanted her dead?

The longer Charlotte stays at the manor, the more suspects she uncovers. Every guest and staff member seems to have their own secrets and hidden agendas, rendering each of them a potential suspect. Charlotte will soon find herself navigating a tangled web of deceit as she races to uncover the killer and restore the tranquility that she’s dreamed of.

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Our next selection is Isabel Booth’s latest thriller, Then He Was Gone, the nail-biting tale of a missing boy and the lengths his parents will go to in order to get him back.

Their boys were only out of their sight for minutes. Attorney Elizabeth English was hiking with her husband Paul and their two sons Henry and Nick in Rocky Mountain National Park. The kids ran ahead to the car as they were nearing the end of their trek, but by the time the parents made it out of the trail, six year-old Henry was gone. Nick says that Henry went to the bathroom, and that a lone truck left the lot soon after.

Had Henry wandered back off into the woods? Or had he been kidnapped by whoever was in the truck? Park ranger Hollis Monroe launches a massive search for the missing boy, even as she teams up with a local detective to investigate the possibility that foul play was involved in his disappearance.

Elizabeth and Paul are frantic, with each passing hour eroding the likelihood of finding Henry alive and well. Their relationship is further strained by the exposure of secrets they’ve each closely guarded, revealed now for the sake of finding Henry. Elizabeth, especially, becomes ferocious in her drive to recover her son. How far will she go in her quest to bring him home?

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Our last recently published book is William Alexander’s Sunward, which I’m still hoping to be able to get into soon. This debut science fiction novel was a 2026 Philip K. Dick Award Finalist, and is very much in the Becky Chambers tradition of found family grappling with machinations beyond their control.

A devastating explosion on Earth’s moon led to interplanetary conflict within our solar system. Instead of following in the political footsteps of her powerful family, Tova Lir chose to become a space captain, specializing in the necessary work of the planetary courier. Without people like her, sending private messages through space would be nearly impossible.

With the encouragement of her friends, she also begins mentoring juvenile Artificial Intelligence robots, essentially acting as their foster parent as she trains them on how to interact with the rest of society. Her latest charge is the self-named Agatha Panza von Sparkles. As they’re returning to Luna from Phoebe Station on what should be an entirely routine run, they encounter a derelict spaceship… and a lurking assassin who soon has them on the run across the solar system. Soon, Tova and Agatha will need the help of all of Tova’s former fosters in order to escape a force hellbent on capturing Tova and erasing her entire family.

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Looking ahead to next week, we have Mary Berman’s Until Death, a biting satire of the wedding-industrial complex that’s also a poignant look at the complicated bonds between mothers and daughters.

The turbulent relationship of Ophelia Cohen’s parents did not incline her to ever want to get married herself. But watching her widowed mother slide further into dementia has made Ophelia realize that she doesn’t want to die alone. Meeting Luke seems like the perfect answer, if only because he’s exactly the man of her (mother’s) dreams.

No amount of wedding research, however, can prepare Ophelia for the nightmare of planning her impending nuptials. Her mother-in-law is Momzilla-ing it up, as Luke’s family insists that the wedding be held in the creepy chapel of their ancient vineyard. Soon, the stress of wedding planning has Ophelia losing track of time. Even so, it shouldn’t feel like she’s missing whole months of her memory, should it?

Getting married is supposed to be saving Ophelia from a lifetime of loneliness. But why does it feel like the more she gives up, the more alone she feels? And what will she ultimately sacrifice in order to ensure that both she and her mother survive her special day?

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Marc-Uwe Kling’s Views was a Der Spiegel bestseller when published in its original German in 2024. Now this techno-crime thriller has been translated by Boris Löbsack for English-reading audiences.

Sixteen year-old Lena Palmer disappears after the video of her violent assault by masked men goes viral. Yashira, a chief inspector in the German version of the FBI, is assigned to her case. The mother of a sixteen year-old herself, Yashira swears to do everything in her power to find Lena and bring her back to safety.

Together with her partner Michael, Yashira investigates all the usual leads and suspects, including Lena’s father, boyfriend and friends. But nothing about this case is proving ordinary. Every time Yashira thinks she’s approaching justice, the truth slips even further away. As public pressure mounts — and a far right movement threatens to take matters into its own hands — Yashira must race to find Lena, even as it feels like she’s chasing a ghost.

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Finally, we have a powerful new book by award-winning journalist James Verini, The Theater: Courage and Survival in the Defining Atrocity of the Ukraine War. His piercing look at one of the worst chapters of the now five year-old war highlights the resilience of the Ukrainian people as the young republic struggles to survive.

Shortly after 10am on March 16 2022, three weeks after the initial Russian invasion, Russian forces bombed the shelter housed in the Donetsk Regional Academic Drama Theater in Mariupol. To this day, the bombing stands as the single worst act of mass civilian killing of this war, an act later ruled a war crime by international investigators.

This book goes beyond the usual accounting of tragedy, as it tells the story of the group of ordinary Ukrainians — workers, teachers and actors — who originally built that shelter, giving refuge and hope to thousands of their countrypeople before it was destroyed. Their audacity, humor and humanity in the midst of the siege of Mariupol, against impossible odds, will inspire, amuse and devastate.

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All of these books are either available or available for pre-order now, so let me know if you’re able to get to them before I do, dear readers! I’d love to hear your opinions, and see if that will spur me to push any of them higher up the mountain range that is my To Be Read pile.

And, as always, you can check out the list of my favorite books in my Bookshop storefront linked below!