Sep 19 2025
Genuinely such a slew of terrific titles to look forward to next week! The first is by one of my favorite contemporary mystery authors, Janice Hallett, who so cunningly uses the epistolary format in all its modern forms to such clever, elegant ends. She’s back with her latest novel The Killer Question, that revolves around …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/19/tantalizing-tales-september-2025-part-three/
Sep 18 2025
I have not yet been fortunate enough to get my hands on the first book in this series but that certainly didn’t dampen any of my enjoyment of this charming graphic novel for children, which works perfectly well as a standalone. Sky and her Tyrannosaurus Rex pardner make up the fastest delivery service in the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/18/sky-ty-2-dinomite-by-steve-breen/
Sep 17 2025
Hello, dear readers! Today I’m excited to bring to you a fascinating examination of power and corruption, with an excerpt from the paperback reissue of Ed Simon’s provocative, persuasive and just downright mesmerizing Devil’s Contract: The History Of The Faustian Bargain. To quote the press materials: “From ancient times to the modern world, the idea …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/17/devils-contract-by-ed-simon-excerpt/
Sep 16 2025
Hello, dear readers! With September well underway, we have a slew of thematic titles for you to consider curling up with in cozy corners, starting with a new edition of Yokomizo Seishi’s classic Murder At The Black Cat Cafe, translated into English from the original Japanese by Bryan Karetnyk. Scruffy detective Kindaichi Kosuke is back …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/16/tantalizing-tales-september-2025-part-two/
Sep 12 2025
Hello, dear readers! This is a banner week for excerpts, as today we’re featuring a selection from an upcoming psychological thriller, S L Woeppel’s The Butcher And The Liar. Daisy Bellon is thirty-five years old, and hoping to live the rest of her life free from the shadows of her past. When she was only …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/12/the-butcher-and-the-liar-by-s-l-woeppel/
Sep 11 2025
What a terrific idea, writing a middle grade novel about the career of public relations! Sloan’s favorite computer game, Dungeon Quest, has just hit a weird glitch. Oh well, she figures, time to go to bed anyway… but then she hears her Uncle Curtis speaking urgently from her mom’s home office. She goes to peek …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/11/game-face-becoming-a-pr-detective-by-curtis-sparrer/
Sep 10 2025
Hello, dear readers! As promised in my last Tantalizing Tales column, today we have an excerpt of the recently published examination of the life and works of the famed English poet and artist William Blake, and how relevant the lessons we can learn from those still are today. Philosopher and psychotherapist Mark Vernon’s new book …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/10/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination-by-mark-vernon-excerpt/
Sep 09 2025
So happy to celebrate five years of Street Noise’s dissident graphic novel publishing by featuring a review of this incredibly moving autobiographical tale! I’m not gonna lie, the first four parts of Jim Terry’s deeply personal graphic memoir Come Home, Indio, are tough reading. Jim, or JT as he’s often called, was born to an …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/09/come-home-indio-by-jim-terry/
Sep 08 2025
I have recently remarked on how my reading brain seems to have pivoted away from classic/cozy murder mysteries to punchy short horror stories as a sort of mental palate cleanser between books, likely due to the shift of my literary consumption to a minimum of three mystery novels per week. So Eric LaRocca’s This Skin …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/08/this-skin-was-once-mine-and-other-disturbances-by-eric-larocca/
Sep 05 2025
Happy September, friends! I’m ngl, I enjoyed summer, tho I’m certainly glad that my kids have gone back to school so I can have some peace and quiet around the house again. The difference has been, like the title of our first selection this month, Night & Day (lol, sorry, couldn’t resist.) Acclaimed horror editor …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/05/tantalizing-tales-september-2025-part-one/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire