Tantalizing Tales — October 2024 — Part One

It’s October already, friends, and we have a mountain of excellent reads to dive into. First up is a book from bestselling author Richard Osman, he of Thursday Murder Club fame! He’s such a hot commodity amongst mystery aficionados that I keep getting beaten by other reviewers to claiming his books over at Criminal Element, which is saying a lot since my review schedule starts filling up almost half a year in advance!

Mr Osman’s latest is the first in a brand new series featuring a father- and daughter-in-law detecting team. Bluntly titled We Solve Murders, this series debut follows Steve and Amy Wheeler as they do exactly that. They certainly have the pedigree for it. Steve is retired from the police force and thoroughly enjoying his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat. He might do the odd bit of investigative work, but his most exciting cases involve insurance fraud and lost dogs, and that’s just the way Steve likes it.

Amy, on the other hand, thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. A private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. Having taken on what was supposed to be an easy job — hunkered down on a remote island, keeping a world-famous author alive — she’s shocked when the first dead body shows up. And then there’s the bag of cash. And suddenly a killer is on the loose with Amy in their sights. In need of help, Amy sends an SOS to the only person she trusts, launching herself and her father-in-law on a breakneck race around the world as they try to stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy.

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Next up, we have the first of our spooky season reads, Johnny Compton’s Devils Kill Devils. Essentially the paranormal version of fighting fire with fire, this sophomore novel asks what you would do when your guardian angel turns out to be anything but.

For all her life, Sarita has been watched over by what she’s always believed to be her guardian angel. She calls him Angelo and, understandably, keeps him a secret. But when Angelo murders someone she loves, Sarita starts to see what’s really been lurking in the shadows surrounding her.

As one woman faces off against the hordes of hell — taking on vampires, devils and angels alike — she’ll have to embrace the evil within her if she hopes to make it out alive, in this bloodthirsty Southern Gothic tale of saving the world, no matter what it takes.

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If that seems a little too gory, check out this middle grade debut from Young Adult novelist H. E. Edgmon instead. In The Flicker, the apocalypse has already happened, after a solar flare scorches the earth and destroys life as we know it.

A year on, step-sisters Millie and Rose are at a crossroads. Their parents are gone and supplies are running dangerously low. The step-sisters have one shot at survival: leave home with their infant half-brother and loyal dog Corncob in search of Millie’s grandma, a Seminole elder. As they navigate the burning land with a group of fellow survivors, they must also dodge The Hive, a villainous group that has spent the last year hoarding supplies and living in luxury. Millie and Rose will have to learn to rely on each other now more than ever, and discover how to build a new life from the ashes around them.

Expertly balancing heartbreak and hope, The Flicker is both a thrilling survival story and a tender exploration of Indigenous ideas of identity and found family. I’m really looking forward to finding the time to dive into this one!

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Wanna go even lighter, while still hanging on to profundity? Then look no further than the latest book in a series described as the spiritual heir to both Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. Catherynne M Valente’s Space Oddity is the sequel that’s garnering even more rave reviews than its predecessor, the Hugo-nominated Space Opera!

The original space opera in question was and is the Metagalactic Grand Prix. Part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant and part concert extravaganza, the MGP might seem like fun and games, a sort of Eurovision gone intergalactic. But as a continuation of the Sentience Wars that nearly tore the galaxy apart, the stakes couldn’t be higher, as the acknowledgment or extinction of an entire race hangs in the balance.

Having competed in the 100th MGP (and earning 10th Place, almost adequate!), Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros successfully rocked their way into having humanity counted amongst the highest and mightiest of species in the galaxy. But as civilizations opposed to the upstarts plot to take down humanity for good, the old crew will have to doubly prepare for MGP 101. It’s not enough to be entertaining: they’ll have to escape the inevitable sabotage as well. At the MGP, alas, everyone cheats. With the very fate of the Earth in danger, will humanity be able to rise and rock again?

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Our next book is far more Earth-bound, with a dark academia murder mystery by debut author Lauren Ling Brown. In Society Of Lies, Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion. It’s been a decade since she graduated, and she’s looking forward to seeing old faces and reminiscing about her time there. This visit is extra special because Maya will also be attending the graduation of her little sister, Naomi.

But what should have been a dream weekend becomes Maya’s worst nightmare when she receives the news that Naomi is dead. The police are calling it an accident, but Maya suspects that there’s more to the story than they’re letting on.

As Maya pieces together what happened in the months leading up to her sister’s death, she begins to realize exactly how much Naomi had hidden from her. Despite Maya’s warnings, Naomi had joined Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus — the same one Maya once belonged to. And if Maya had to guess, Naomi was likely tapped for the secret society within Sterling too.

The more Maya uncovers, the more terrified she becomes that Naomi’s decision to follow in her footsteps might have been what got her little sister killed. Because Maya’s time at Princeton wasn’t as wonderful as she’d always made it seem, and her sister was hardly the first young woman to turn up dead there. Now every clue is leading Maya back to the past . . . and to the secret she’s kept all these years.

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Finally, we have The Bog Wife, the latest novel from World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson award-nominated author Kay Chronister. In this atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the Haddesley siblings of West Virginia must unearth long-buried secrets in order to carve out their future, when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured.

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch. In return, the bog produces a “bog-wife”. Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails — or refuses — to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes that the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

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Let me know if you’re able to get to any of these books before I do, dear readers! I’d love to hear your opinions, and see if that will help 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 this year so far in my Bookshop storefront linked below!