Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About Zirza

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I am an English teacher from the Low Countries. Like everyone else I aspire to one day write a Booker Prize Winner, but until then I contend my self with reading stuff and writing about it. I try to keep the bitchiness to a minimum, but sometimes I can't help myself. In my spare time I enjoy complaining about the weather and sleeping. I lack the attention span for good books and the tolerance for bad ones. I am stuck in literary purgatory. Hey, at least it's warm here. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Zirza's Quick Questions interview.)

Zirza's Reviews:

Writing by Numbers

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

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Thirty-six year old Mariana works as a group therapist in London as she mourns the loss of her beloved husband Sebastian, who drowned off the coast of the Greek island of Naxos a year earlier. When her niece Zoë calls her and tells her that her best friend has been found dead, Mariana seizes the chance and travels to Cambridge to offer comfort. But she soon finds herself in the middle of the investigation, and as other girls turn up dead she looks toward a […]

I Hate Sara Linton, Part Infinity

Genesis by Karin Slaughter

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On a dark, quiet night in the Georgian countryside, just outside of Atlanta, an older couple drives in silence, both lost in thought, when suddenly a nude woman runs into their car. Her injuries are horrific and can’t be explained by the car crash alone. But what is she doing alone in the forest at night? And why isn’t she wearing any clothes?  Genesis is the third book in Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series. It’s also where she re-introduces characters from her Grant County series […]

It’s All About The Feeeeemaaaaales

Perfect Crime by Helen Fields

The Donor by Clare Mackintosh

Fractured by Karin Slaughter

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The Perfect Crime (Helen Fields) *** Stephen Berry is having a rough night. Or a rough life, really; he cannot seem to get his bipolar disorder under control and his long-suffering girlfriend has left him. Desperate for some quiet, he intents to jump off a bridge, but a suicide counsellor who happens to be nearby intervenes. Stephen is quietly grateful, but then his body is found dead a few weeks later at the bottom of a tall tower. The cause of death seems like a […]

Holiday Reads: Alsatian Edition

Mortal Causes (Inspector Rebus #6) by Ian Rankin

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

Perfect Silence (DI Callanach #4) by Helen Fields

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Vacationing with young children is hard work, people, even if you’re on a campsite that has not one, but two trampolines (“mum, see what I can do!”). Nevertheless I managed to sneak in a couple of books as I hung about in the (beautiful and very hot) Alsatian countryside, so here goes.  Mortal Causes (Ian Rankin) *** Mortal Causes is Inspector Rebus book no. 6 and though I’ve read the previous five, I had to look that up. I also forgot what it was about […]

Snoozefest

Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham

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A serial killer stalks the streets of London. He approaches women, out alone at night, charms them and plies them with champagne laced with sedatives; when they’re out, he applies a technique to induce a stroke. Most women do not survive, but the ones that do are trapped in a nightmare: their brains are fully functional, but they cannot move. Inspector Tom Thorne is tasked with finding the killer. He has his own idea about who is behind the grisly attacks, but his superiors beg […]

Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me; the present only toucheth thee

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

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On a windy night, at the foot of a set of stairs in a run-down mansion buried deep in the Scottish highlands, the body of a young woman is found. Her name is Janet; she’s dressed in her mother’s black lace ballgown. Outside, in the stormy skies, a jackdaw flies in search of her. He seems to be the only one who misses her.  I had never heard of this 1991 novel, but I’m so glad I did. It’s a small gem; that rare combination […]



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