Tantalizing Tales — May 2026 — Part Five

Hello, readers, and welcome to the last Tantalizing Tale of May! It’s been a very low energy day for me today, but I’ve got a big weekend planned, so hopefully it’ll all work out (cue Sampha’s Indecision because iykyk!)

Our first pick for upcoming reads this week is Lee Goldberg’s Murder By Design, the intriguing debut of the Edison Bixby series. Our hero is a former LAPD detective turned insurance investigator, with a stellar record in both professions. Edison is handsome, rich and, after a traumatic brain injury, impulsively rude.

Wally Nash is the struggling actor (and narrator of this tongue-in-cheek novel) hired to keep Edison in check as they investigate insurance claims together. As Wally is inclined towards method work, he hopes that tagging along with Edison will give him enough material to help land his big Hollywood break.

Their first case together involves the falling death of a woman at the mall. Video evidence corroborates what dozens of witnesses saw: Caroline Crowley took a deadly misstep that led to her plunging down a staircase to her doom. But Edison is convinced that her death was not only intentional but meticulously designed, with the features of the mall itself used as the murder weapon. Soon it’s a race against time as Edison and Wally have to expose and catch a killer cunning enough to manipulate his surroundings into becoming literal death traps for the people on his hit list.

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Iconic detective Kindaichi Kosuke is back in Yokomizo Seishi’s She Walks At Night, translated from the original Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood. Summoned to the enclosed countryside estate of the aristocratic Furugami family, Kosuke will have to untangle a diabolical murder in this chilling masterpiece of Japanese Gothic noir.

De facto patriarch Sengoku Tetsunoshin may not be a Furugami by birth but he reigns over his family with the kind of ruthlessness that has driven his own son Naoki to drink. Living with them are Tetsunoshin’s icy mistress Lady Oryu and her beautiful, willful daughter Yachiyo, who’s betrothed to a painter who bears an uncanny resemblance to Morie, the actual Furugami heir.

Into this precariously balanced web of secrets and intrigue comes mystery writer Yashiro Torata, an old university chum who’s been invited to the estate to serve as an anchor of sanity for the beleaguered Naoki, as well as to help solve a minor mystery. Yachiyo has recently been the recipient of a series of cryptic letters culminating in a warning not to walk at night. Her sleepwalking has long been a (minor) family secret, and she’s just as eager as Naoki is to have Torata come visit and help them figure out who could be behind the creepy missives.

Tragedy strikes soon after Torata’s arrival tho, as the decapitated body of Yachiyo’s fiance is found on the estate grounds. The police are baffled but know that they have a secret weapon, as they call in everyone’s favorite scruffy detective. Can Kosuke figure out whodunnit before the killer strikes again?

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R N Swann’s fast-paced YA thriller In Case I Go Missing follows the enthralling tale of another maverick detective, whose disappearance thrusts her own sidekick into the investigative hot seat.

Seventeen year-old Sarah Vincenty has built a reputation for solving crimes and dispensing justice in her small South Dakota town. Fenny Allen has been her sidekick ever since they solved the mystery of the missing library books way back in elementary school. Together with her other best friend Sam, the trio have formed a little quasi-vigilante group that has earned both respect and disdain, if not worse.

When Sarah suddenly vanishes, Fenny tries not to worry… until she finds a folder labeled “In Case I Go Missing”. Soon, she discovers that Sarah was working on her biggest case yet. The police think Sarah’s just another teenage runaway, but Fenny is convinced that her best friend is in danger. As she and Sam investigate, they begin to uncover the dark, decades-old mystery of their town’s past… and encounter people who will do anything to stop them from getting to the truth. Will they be able to save Sarah before it’s too late, for any of them?

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Looking back to 2025, we have three awesome genre titles that I’ve been trying to cram into my review schedule but want to cover, if only briefly, before hopefully finding time for them sooner than later. The first is David Wondrich and Dean Kotz’s fascinating and informative The Comic Book History Of The Cocktail.

Subtitled Five Centuries Of Mixing Drinks And Carrying On, this graphic history of the cocktail features over 30 drinks recipes. Mr Wondrich is a drinks historian, Daily Beast columnist and award-winning author who is widely considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on cocktails, as well as a driving force behind the early twenty-first century renaissance of mixology. In this book, he teams up with comics artist Dean Kotz to trace and illustrate the evolution of the mixed drink. To quote the publicity materials, “From the ancient days of wassail and hypocras (mixed drinks based on wine and beer), they narrate a tumultuous and vibrant history that stretches through the Age of Exploration, the boozier parts of the Enlightenment and America’s hurly-burly nineteenth century, to the Disco years, the Cosmo years, and the modern Cocktail Revolution.”

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For another take on drinks that’s at once nerdier and more expansive, you have to check out Jef Aldrich & Jon Taylor’s Dungeonmeister: A Drink Master’s Guide — The Expanded Edition. I super enjoyed incorporating their earlier Deck Of Many Drinks into my ongoing Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and am so looking forward to trying out this book too.

From the publicity materials:

“Calling all adventurers! The Düngeonmeister series is back with an updated and expanded edition of the bestselling RPG-themed cocktail book that started it all, now with even more game night drink recipes. This revamped collection is brimming with even more fantastical RPG-inspired drink recipes guaranteed to add some extra magic to your next game night.

“Uncover brand-new recipes and fan-favorite classics, all inspired by the creativity and excitement of tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Featuring RPG-inspired drink names, playful nods to tabletop game tropes, and step-by-step drink instructions, this book makes crafting cocktails as thrilling as a critical hit.

“Enhance your game night hosting with a new chapter of alcohol-free drinks, perfect for anyone who loves flavorful mocktails without sacrificing the adventure—all the fun, no constitution checks required!

“Whether you’re a seasoned Dungeons & Dragons player, a mixology fan, or a lover of fantasy worlds, this RPG-themed cocktail book is a must-have guide for your next game night or party. Cheers to rolling dice and raising glasses!”

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And finally we have a book I was very excited to back on Kickstarter, Jonathan Green’s Shakespeare v Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come. With illustrations by Heraldo Mussolini, this is another ACE Gamebook that allows you, as Shakespeare, to select your own path while navigating strange dreams of eldritch horror.

The year is 1613. William Shakespeare is England’s most renowned playwright, and has been commissioned to work on a new piece by the Earl of Gloucester. Titled Love’s Labour’s Won, it is nearly finished, or so he believes as he falls asleep at the Globe one evening. What happens next is an epic journey through both his works and the dark mythos of HP Lovecraft, as you the reader play your way through his various choices in pursuit of sanity and survival.

I loved Mr Green’s prior gamebook with Hauke Kock, Dracula: Curse Of The Vampire. It was both clever and entertaining, with well thought-out rules and tons of homages to vampire and monster lore: I’m definitely expecting something of similar calibre here. I’m also looking forward to backing his latest project, again with Mr Mussolini, 100 Aker Wood, a dark reimagining of Winnie The Pooh with a Pet Sematary by Stephen King twist. There are only a few days left on the Kickstarter campaign, so grab your copy while you still can!

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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!