Jan 23 2026

Tantalizing Tales — January 2026 — Part Four

The last roundup column of January features some terrific upcoming thrillers, as well as a few books I wish I’d been able to get to back in 2025.

First up, we have a non-fiction examination of two of my favorite pastimes and one of the places where they intersect. John Curran’s The Murder Game examines the birth of the mystery genre and its explosion in popularity, coinciding with the mainstreaming of light intellectual pastimes like crossword puzzles and deductive board games. He posits that these trends were helped along by the sudden abundance of both leisure time and literacy, with curious minds hungry for stimulation.

Dr Curran believes that the novels of the Golden Age of Detecting (essentially the 1920s and 30s) continue to be as popular as they were a century ago due to the fact that they’re essentially games set up between author and reader. There are unspoken rules best exemplified by the Fair Play movement, where all the clues to a mystery’s solution are laid out in the story such that astute readers should be able to figure out whodunnit alongside the fictional detective. He also examines the many different kind of games at play in the experience of reading, whether between detective and murderer, publisher and book buyer, or between authors themselves. It’s a fascinating study of the genre that provides real insight into the enduring popularity of Golden Age detective fiction and its many successors today.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/23/tantalizing-tales-january-2026-part-four/

Jan 22 2026

Wandering Souls and other stories by Philip Caputo

I tend to read a lot more female authors than male, which apparently puts me in the minority of readers worldwide. It’s especially unusual for me to read “serious” fiction by men, and while there’s a touch of the supernatural in each story collected here, this is still very much the kind of literary writing I actually admire (and regular readers will know how much I despise the vast majority of modern literary fiction churned out by American MFA mills.)

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by my own reaction here given that Philip Caputo won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism back in the 1970s. You know, back in the day when the fourth estate wasn’t primarily owned by the obscenely wealthy, who use it to hoard their fortunes by influencing the populace to not demand our nation’s rightful due via taxation. Ahem. Mr Caputo’s writing in this collection showcases his rightfully lauded journalistic background. It’s clear and strong and entirely devoid of fluff, even as he discusses such ephemeral subjects as guilt and its attendant ghosts. Because there are a lot of ghosts in this book, as troubled men seek to deal with the mistakes of their pasts, whether small or grand.

Vietnam figures heavily in the proceedings, again unsurprisingly given Mr Caputo’s experiences as a combat veteran in the Vietnam War. The title story begins with a former GI learning that he has a chance to help a woman recover the corpse of her brother Paul Salerno, who vanished while on a combat mission. Our unnamed narrator had actually been part of the squad who originally discovered the remains of Paul’s team. The extraordinary circumstances in which the corpses were found meant that our narrator’s company had had to leave them behind, in contradiction of the warrior ethos our narrator holds dear. The guilt of that has lingered over the decades, and comes roaring back to the fore when he learns of the ongoing grief of Paul’s remaining family.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/22/wandering-souls-and-other-stories-by-philip-caputo/

Jan 21 2026

Pig Wife by Abbey Luck

w an art assist by Ruka Bravo.

This was my first 5-star read of books published in 2026, and you’d best believe that I didn’t think it would be when I first went into it. Abbey Luck has done something exceptional here, writing of horrors both everyday and extraordinary with humor and hope, and without ever descending into gratuitousness. Her artwork, which is heavily influenced by alternative comix luminaries like R Crumb and Art Spiegelman, perfectly walks that line between the glorious and the grotesque, as a young girl comes of age under the most distressing of circumstances.

Mary Martinez hates that her mother Vee left Mary’s musician father and married wealthy Roger Harlow instead. Now they’re on the way to his recently deceased Aunt Pearl’s house, ostensibly to settle her estate but really to look for her will. Aunt Pearl was not a well woman mentally, and lived alone in a town that hated her. Admittedly, the town of Eden had pretty good reason to: in a fit of pique, she closed down the gold mines that were their livelihood, consigning over half the town to poverty even as she kept to herself in her remote farmhouse.

This house, as Mary’s family discovers, is basically a sty. Mary hates every minute of being there, even before she gets into a series of fights with Vee and Roger. After a particularly vicious argument, she runs out into the storm that’s descended over Eden and soon finds herself trapped in one of the gold mines. Worse: she’s not alone.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/21/pig-wife-by-abbey-luck/

Jan 20 2026

Upcoming Speculative Fiction by Beloved Authors!

The next few months are giving us a lot to look forward to, book-wise! Authors we already know and love are coming out with new works in new worlds, offering that delightful combination of known quality in form with exciting novelty in content. Nightshade and Oak by Molly O’Neill coming in February, Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher coming in March, What We are Seeking by Cameron Reed coming in April, and Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Barry coming in June are all engaging and satisfying books that solidify their authors’ places in my list of faves.

the cover of Nightshade and Oak by Molly O'Neill shows the two protagonists arranged like the figures on a playing card behind the title Nightshade and Oak by Molly O’Neill will hit the shelves (or your ereader; you do you) on February 3rd, published by Orbit. Molly O’Neill’s previous book, Greenteeth first caught my attention because it was likened to T. Kingfisher’s work, and I certainly see the connection. Both authors have protagonists and supporting characters who lead with kindness, and try to do the right thing by each other in imperfect circumstances.

In Nightshade and Oak, a goddess of death is accidentally turned mortal, and she and the witch who is responsible end up questing together to try to save the witch’s sister and restore the goddess’s status. As they share situation after situation, and explore realm after realm, they develop a romance, but I do caution the reader (this is maybe a spoiler but I’m going for it) that this is not capital R Romance as a genre and thus one should not automatically assume a Happily Ever After for the couple.

I recommend Nightshade and Oak if you enjoy Arthurian legends but think they could use some more explicit sapphic elements.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/20/upcoming-speculative-fiction-by-beloved-authors/

Jan 18 2026

A Plague of Angels by P.F. Chisholm

Shortly after the end of the events in A Surfeit of Guns, Sir Robert Carey receives a letter from his father, commanding him to come to London post-haste. More than filial piety is at stake, for Lord Hunsdon, as Henry Carey is called throughout the novel, is also Lord Chamberlain to the Queen herself. Sir Robert, along with Land Sergeant Dodd, Robert’s faithful but disreputable servant Barnabus, and Barnabus’ nephew Simon make good time from Carlisle on the Scottish border down to London, sleeping little and changing horses at post stops along the route, though it often leaves them on low-quality mounts. Their last stage to London had been slowed by Carey’s horse throwing a shoe, and it is late afternoon before they approach from the northwest. “You could always tell when you were near a town from the bodies hanging on the gibbets by the main road, thought Sergeant Dodd. London was no different from anywhere else they had passed on their interminable way south.” (p. 9)

A Plague of Angels by P.F. Chisholm

The delay turns out to be fortuitous. The very next turn in the road is deeply cut on both sides and is sharp enough that it was impossible to see around. Dodd has his suspicions and dismounts to send his mare running into the curve ahead of the party.

As she galloped up the road through the Cut, whinnying and shaking her head, Dodd heard the unmistakeable whip-chunk! of a crossbow being fired.
“Och,” he said to himself as he instantly changed direction and sprinted softly up the narrow path he had spotted on the right side of the Cut. “Ah might have guessed.” (p. 10)

A well-laid ambush.

Dodd had been storing up an awful lot of rage on the journey south from Carlisle. He gave an inarticulate roar at the sight [of another crossbowman], hopped like a goat down the high crumbling earthbank and cut down on the man with his sword.
The footpad had hear something coming, turned just in time to see his death, dropped the crossbow and reflexively put up his hands to defend himself. He took Dodd’s swordblade straight down through his armbone and the middle of his face. Dodd slashed sideways to finish the job, then turned at another man who was lungeing out of a bramble bush waving the biggest sword Dodd had ever seen in his life, a great long monster of a thing that the robber was wielding two-handed, his face purple with effort. (pp. 10–11)

The rest of the party catches up, and Sir Robert shoots another robber with a wheellock pistol (called a “dag” throughout the book) while Barnabas uses a throwing knife to kill the man with the gigantic sword, who had temporarily gained the upper hand when some of the road’s bank gave way beneath Dodd. After those losses, the other robbers take to their heels and flee the scene. But was it just the usual hazard of highway robbery, or did someone know they were coming?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/18/a-plague-of-angels-by-p-f-chisholm/

Jan 16 2026

Tantalizing Tales — January 2026 — Part Three

Hello, dear readers! This week, we have three books to look forward to and three other books I want to make sure you didn’t miss out on from the Big 25 (that’s 2025 for this of you still not up to date with the lingo.)

Publishing this Tuesday is the latest from Ashley Elston, whose debut adult novel First Lie Wins absolutely blew me away. Her follow-up, Anatomy Of An Alibi promises to be just as twisty, as two women find themselves uneasily sharing one alibi for a homicide.

From the outside, Camille Bayliss would appear to have a picture perfect life. Born into wealth, she’s now married to hotshot lawyer Ben. Camille, however, is convinced that Ben has been hiding secrets from her for years. Trouble is, he also tracks her every move, so she can’t investigate him as closely as she wants to.

Aubrey Price’s life changed forever one terrible night ten years ago. She’s convinced that Ben Bayliss knows things about that night that would help her lay her demons to rest. When she meets Camille, both women realize that they can assist each other in getting exactly what they need from Ben.

For twelve hours, Aubrey will take Camille’s place, living Camille’s glittering life while Camille spies on her own husband. But when Ben is found dead the next morning, both women will need an airtight alibi to escape going down for his murder. Can they trust each other enough to make it through this ordeal with their freedom?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/16/tantalizing-tales-january-2026-part-three/

Jan 15 2026

The Bizarre Bazaar: Down A Dark Path by Daniel Nayeri & Lesley Vamos

This is a positive review, I promise, I just need to get something (not necessarily negative) about the publishing industry off my chest first.

The titling of kids’ series books, and especially kids’ graphic novels, continues to confuse me. Should we call it first by the series’ name and number as we do with most graphic novels and popular kids’ series, with the actual title usually an afterthought? Or do we go by the book title as with adult prose, with the series name usually an afterthought? I know these are all mostly marketing concerns but every time I have to review one of these volumes, my brain snags on the issue and then I have to write several dozen words on the subject, lol (and it’s not like I’m entirely separate from the marketing machine any more either, so it is a subject of genuine concern to my livelihood.)

What makes it especially odd in the case of this title is that Down A Dark Path is actually the second book in a series that started with Mirror Town. You don’t have to have read the latter to enjoy DaDP, tho I do feel that there’s a clear allusion in the text here that I would have been better prepared for had I read the series debut. That said, I really liked this volume, and very much hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of these fun, creepy and frankly quite gorgeous hardcover books! Seriously, unwrap the dust jacket to see the painted covers: they are a treat!

Anyway, the framing device of the series involves a store called The Bizarre Bazaar that pops up in random towns. It’s run by Babs and Bruno, a rather acerbic pair who seem to have more fun warning customers away from buying their wares than actually selling anything. Babs is probably a fairy and Bruno is probably a djinn: both have definitely been stuck with the store and their partnership for obscure reasons that they don’t really like to talk about (tho Babs does blab about Bruno’s background in this volume.)

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/15/the-bizarre-bazaar-down-a-dark-path-by-daniel-nayeri-lesley-vamos/

Jan 14 2026

Eternal Summer by Franziska Gansler

translated from the original German by Imogen Taylor.

Iris runs the only hotel left open in Bad Heim, a once-thriving (and fictional) spa town that now lives under constant threat of the forest fires that burn just beyond the river. Every summer seems to stretch for longer and longer, as the heat waves allow the wildfires to burn without hope of relief for the beleaguered residents.

When a mother and child walk into the hotel, Iris is surprised. The only outsiders who’ve come to Bad Heim in ages are the climate change activists who’ve set up camp on the outskirts of the forest. Still, she’s happy to rent them a room, even as she senses that not everything is as it seems with Dorota and her daughter Ilya.

The more time Iris spends with them tho, the more drawn to them she feels. But when a strange man starts calling around asking for help locating his mentally unstable wife and innocent daughter, Iris will have to decide whether she can trust her own judgment, even as the fires burn closer and closer to destroying everything she owns.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/14/eternal-summer-by-franziska-gansler/

Jan 13 2026

Ghost Town by James R Gregory (EXCERPT)

Hello, readers! Today we have a charming excerpt for you from a historical novel. While James R Gregory’s Ghost Town is billed as a psychological thriller, at its heart, it’s a story about leadership, love and connection, as ambition clashes with isolation to potentially devastating result.

In the late 1800s, the small town of Sulphur Creek is experiencing a coal mining boom. Sammy Murphy was born into solitude, and is more familiar with shadowy tunnels than open streets, and with hiding secrets than with making friends. But as he begins to engage with the inescapable pulse of industry, he searches for the kind of meaningful connection all people desire.

Barry Bacon is the kind of ambitious industrialist who considers Andrew Carnegie a peer, however tenuously that belief is rooted in reality. His plans for the future stretch far beyond Sulfur Creek, but will his arrogance prove his downfall?

As Sammy falls in love and finds an unexpected awakening, Barry must fight to save his empire from collapse. Both men learn important lessons about the kinds of truth that transcend time, against the backdrop of the United States of America’s industrial ascent. Based on historical events like the Johnstown flood, this book serves as a reminder of the human cost of unchecked ambition.

Read on for a perhaps surprisingly gallant look at Sammy’s courtship of the woman he loves:

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/13/ghost-town-by-james-r-gregory-excerpt/

Jan 12 2026

Trans History by Alex L Combs & Andrew Eakett

subtitled From Ancient Times To The Present Day. Because no, being trans is not a new thing, and it’s important that we not pretend that it is.

Y’all, I’m tired. Twelve days into the new year and I’m at the point where I can never know what new horrors to expect from this administration and the assholes who support them. I chase down news via BlueSky, one of the few social media sites that doesn’t discourage linking out to actual, credible sources (and that isn’t flooded with misinformation, yet and knock on wood.) I’ve built a reliable, manageable feed since moving there in late 2024, but lately it feels like a physical task just to open the app and catch up on the day’s events. I used to spend maybe twenty non-continuous minutes a day there, more if Arsenal was playing. That amount has increased significantly since January 3rd.

But I can’t not check in, because I don’t have the luxury right now of not paying close attention to the news. My country and the promises it stands for, the good things we do and the progress that we’ve made and continue to make, are in danger from the fascists in power. They’ve done so many awful and outright reprehensible things designed to make normal, decent people feel exponentially more powerless and scared than we did before. Instead of being able to just live my life, do my job, enjoy my hobbies and cherish my loved ones, I now have to do all of that IN SPITE of the ramped up climate of terror around me. It’s exhausting. I’m exhausted, and I’ll bet that, if you’re reading this, you are, too.

Which is why it’s so important to me to make sure I read books like this and talk about them, because the values of truth and diversity and inclusiveness are needed even more now than ever. Right-wing commentators will lie to you about trans people, they’ll lie to you about colonization, they’ll lie to you about the law, they’ll justify any cruelty to others, all to keep themselves feeling secure and in control. It’s more important then ever that we shore ourselves up with the truth, and the strength that that gives us to stand up for who we are and to push back against the people who want us dead because of how we look or who we consensually love.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/12/trans-history-by-alex-l-combs-andrew-eakett/