A Moment With…Tucker May

Published November 29, 2025 | By Laura

I’m excited to be welcoming Tucker May to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for Death of a Billionaire.

Ever dream of killing your boss? Alan Benning knows how you feel.

The problem: his billionaire boss actually winds up murdered. And the whole world thinks he did it.

When globetrotting tech billionaire Barron Fisk is found dead on the floor of his swanky Silicon Valley office, all evidence points to Alan.

Alan must venture into the glitzy, treacherous world of tech billionaires to clear his name by sorting through a long list of suspects with motive aplenty. If he can’t find the real culprit, Alan’s going down. The clock is ticking.

Who killed Barron Fisk? The truth will shock— and change— the entire world.

Fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series, Carl Hiaasen’s tales of high-stakes hijinx, or Ruth Ware’s page-turning mysteries will love Death of a Billionaire.

It’s over to Tucker as he talks to us about Silly Mysteries from World History.

Hi there! My name is Tucker May and I’m the author of the comedic murder mystery novel Death of a Billionaire. It’s a lighthearted, fun read with a truly puzzling mystery at the center. I take a lot of inspiration for stories from real-world events, so I thought it would be enjoyable to take a look at some mysterious events from history that remain unsolved, but are a bit goofy or off-the-wall. Let’s dive in!

A Whole Lot of Holes

Off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada lies the diminutive Oak Island, which has been rumored since the late 1700s to be the home of buried treasure.

Legend has it that a young man in 1795 stumbled upon a mysterious pit filled with gravel. He recruited others to help him dig and they uncovered layer after layer of various protective materials until at last they unearthed a wooden chest. Unfortunately, the pit then flooded and couldn’t be drained. The treasure was lost.

Since then, hordes of treasure hunters have been drawn to the island, including figures as famous as movie star John Wayne and future US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. No one has ever found the treasure, and so many boreholes now dot the island that the location of the original pit has been completely lost.

Many believe the original story was actually a newspaper prank due to its resemblance to a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, but the mania it caused was very real.

Ransom Demands in Japan Target Candy Companies

In 1984 in Japan, a mysterious kidnapping ring ambushed and abducted the CEO of a major sweets corporation best known for their globally famous Pocky chocolate-coated pretzel sticks.

The criminals demanded a hefty ransom in exchange for the executive’s return, but while the company was still considering how to handle the situation, the CEO escaped. The would-be extortionists then proceeded to send letters to that and other food goods companies threatening to poison their products on shelves nationwide.

Nobody has ever been caught for these acts, though the focus on a candy manufacturer puts Japan’s crankiest dentists high on the suspect list.

Unreadable Medieval Manuscript Puzzles Dorks for Centuries

Emperor Rudolph II of Germany, the Holy Roman Emperor, was a big fan of the occult. Some time in the 1580s, he came into possession of one of the most mysterious books the world has ever seen. Today it is known as the Voynich Manuscript, named after the bookseller who rediscovered it in 1912.

The book is a work of art, beautifully printed and featuring elaborate illustrations of plant life. The problem: the text is written in a language that nobody’s ever seen before. Modern analytical techniques have found that the unfamiliar letters occur in relative frequencies that suggest it’s a real language, and not just randomized gibberish.

Could it be written in a known language, but in code? If so, the greatest codebreakers from multiple centuries have failed to crack it. Based on the sheer amount of text in the book, the code should be breakable! But the book retains its secrets.

The book’s enigmatic nature paired with its historical association with Rudolph II’s court, which was filled with self-styled alchemists, magicians and natural philosophers, has led to many incredible theories and conspiracies about the Voynich Manuscript. Is it a book of magic spells? Is it a book that visiting aliens wrote about earth and then left behind? If it’s a fraud, it’s the most elaborate Medieval prank ever played.

Thanks for reading! I hope these intriguing bits of unsolved history have piqued your curiosity for a mystery with a tidy ending. If so, pick up your copy of Death of a Billionaire now!

About Tucker May –

Tucker May was raised in southern Missouri. He attended Northwestern University where he was trained in acting and playwriting. He now lives in Pasadena, California with his wife Barbara and their cat Principal Spittle.