Tantalizing Tales — July 2026 — Part Two

Hello, dear readers! This week, we have several exciting books that have only recently published, as well as some terrific books to look forward to!

First up is Bridget Walsh’s absorbing historical mystery novel The Spirit Guide. Spiritualism is all the rage in late 19th century Victorian London. When detecting duo Minnie Ward and Albert Easterbrook are hired to look into several deaths connected to a secretive all-female group called the Spirit Sisterhood, they’ll have to reluctantly (tho admittedly to varying degrees) split up, with Minnie going undercover in the sisterhood’s countryside home.

The longer she stays tho, the more entangled she finds herself in what’s starting to look increasingly like a cult. Minnie doesn’t actually believe in ghosts, but there are definitely things that even she, with her performer’s background and healthy skepticism, can’t quite explain. Can the members of the sisterhood actually commune with the dead? And when Minnie finds herself in mortal danger, will she be able to extricate herself without Albert’s strong physical presence to help her? This third installment of the Variety Palace Mystery series finds Minnie doing hard but necessary emotional work as she figures out who she is and who she ultimately wants to be.

~~~~~~~

Next we have Amanda Connolly’s debut novel The Lure Of Wolves And Whispers. This first book in a romantasy trilogy immerses readers in Irish lore as a young woman risks everything to save her sister’s life.

In order to purchase the forbidden magic needed to save her gravely injured sister, Maeve pledges her life to a strangely alluring rebel leader. Trouble is, now he wants her to enter — and win — a deadly competition to select the next queen of their mist-shrouded Isle of Eireann. If she succeeds, she’ll be bound to a prince who is rumored to be even more brutal than his tyrannical father, even as her heart longs for the ruthless man who put her in this precarious position to begin with.

But it isn’t just her heart in the balance as the Assay progresses. The only commoner in a competition of noble ladies who will do anything to win, Maeve soon finds her very life at risk. With Eireann on the brink of war, Maeve will have to figure out who to trust even as she searches her soul for what she herself is willing to do and sacrifice in order to make it out of this competition alive.

~~~~~~~

A historical mash-up of a different kind lies at the heart of (my fellow Malaysian) Arvind Ethan David’s debut prose novel The Great Game. Military veteran Balvinder Dev Singh is having trouble funding his legal studies in early 1900s London. In order to solve this problem, he’s become the friend and accomplice of notorious gentleman thief A J Raffles, assisting the burglar in identifying marks and subsequently making off with their valuables.

Things take a turn when their next target, an imperialist-minded general, becomes the victim of a grotesque killing in the library of his own Mayfair mansion. It soon becomes clear that someone is setting up Raffles and Bal to take the blame for a series of murders. Scotland Yard is quickly on the case, as is the aging Sherlock Holmes himself.

Even as Bal and Raffles try to clear their names, Bal must contend with the feelings that his new acquaintance, the fiery Irish violinist Maud Adler, is stirring up in him. It isn’t just that he’s attracted to her, or that he feels the need to hide his checkered past from her. Her views on colonialism reignite his own indignation at ongoing injustices, even as he wrestles with the question of what he owes his adopted city of London. And what will he do next when he uncovers a plot to strike at the very heart of the British government itself?

~~~~~~~

For a more contemporary but just as thoughtful mystery debut, check out V A Vazquez’ The Death Row Club, a psychological thriller that asks insightful questions about personality and legacy, as the adult children of convicted serial killers gather to find answers to at least some of the questions that have been tormenting them.

Nicola Fischer’s life falls apart after her dad is arrested for the murder of five women, including her own best friend. Worse, the entire world gets to see the case cracked by Greer Woods, the magnetic host of the hit TV show To Catch A Killer, who wormed her way into Nicola’s life and confidence before seemingly dropping her as soon as the show aired.

Nicola could take this double hit to her self-esteem if it weren’t for the fact that the publicity cost her her job and any semblance of a normal life. So when Greer — herself the daughter of a serial killer — finally breaks her silence to send Nicola a cryptic and unexpected invitation to a secret annual retreat for the adult children of serial killers, Nicola agrees to go. She needs answers and, perhaps more importantly, some sympathy from people who know what she’s been through, as well as an escape for her stifling small town.

And at first, the Death Row Club gives her exactly what she needs. The other club members are weird but welcoming, and Greer seems eager to mend their fractured friendship. But when a mysterious girl arrives, claiming that her father is a killer as well, the club’s fragile balance shatters. By morning, the girl has vanished. By afternoon, one of the club members is dead.

Who could possibly be responsible for all this? As distrust and paranoia rise, the club members have to ask themselves whether one of them has decided to embrace their murderous heritage, and which one of them could be next.

~~~~~~~

Our final selections this week are both fascinating non-fiction works focusing on famous crime writers. First up is legendary comic book author Frank Miller’s autobiographical Push The Wall.

From the publicity materials:

“Miller’s artistic influence is evident in so very much of our popular culture, perhaps most notably with Batman—every film adaptation from the past forty years has been influenced by Miller’s work with the dark knight.

“Simply, Frank Miller has transformed the way comics are told.

“Here, Frank’s mix of autobiographical lessons evokes Patti Smith’s Just Kids as it weaves his struggles as a seventeen-year-old kid fresh from Vermont into a seedy 1970s New York City with his eventual success on reimagining Daredevil and Wolverine. From there to Miller’s rescue and revitalization of Batman, to his time in Hollywood, the Sin City comics and film adaptations he would codirect, and the retelling of the Spartans’ last stand in 300. Miller, by constantly challenging himself as an artist and writer on his terms, built an iconoclastic career.

“With over a dozen illustrations of Miller’s art, Push the Wall is the work of his career—it is a masterclass as it encapsulates his life in sixteen lessons for the aspiring creative reader.”

~~~~~~~

Finally, we have a luxe if compact biography of the Queen Of Crime herself in Nancy West’s Agatha Christie: The Mother of the Cozy Mystery.

As with all the other lovingly curated books in the Pocket Portraits series, this volume provides a comprehensive look at its subject’s life and works, in a pocket-sized volume that’s both beautifully illustrated and designed. Dame Christie’s biography and timeline are interspersed with not only quotes but illuminating passages from her books, as well as the opinions of her peers.

In addition to referencing her sixty-six crime novels, the book also discusses her short stories, plays and pseudonymously written romance novels, with sidebars that explore the lasting impression she’s left on popular culture. This is a great gift volume both for diehard fans and for readers becoming newly acquainted with the depth and brilliance of her work.

~~~~~~~

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!