Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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One Bad Detective Novel

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

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I read the first Jackson Brodie novel five years ago, and at the time I was annoyed by how much time Atkinson spent on the personal lives of her characters, and comparatively how little time she spent on the actual cases. Brodie wasn’t a compelling investigator like Poirot, Holmes, Marlowe, or Spade, so all the time detailing his relationship with his ex-wife and daughter felt wasted. In the second Jackson Brodie novel, One Good Turn, Brodie is dealing with his newfound life of luxury after […]

Now This is How You Do It

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson

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Bingo: Wheel. The mystery is wheels within wheels. I have enjoyed a couple of books by Peter Swanson, and Nine Lives is another strong mystery/thriller. Nine strangers are mailed a list with their names on it, alongside eight others. Everyone receives the same list. There is no return address or any other indicator who the sender is. Before you know it, they are murdered one by one. Law enforcement, including an FBI agent who is on the list, can’t figure out what the listees have […]

“I pictured a section in the ladies’ auxiliary church cookbook for Sudden Death Quick Snacks…using ingredients one could keep on the pantry shelf in the event of tragedy.”

“F” is for Fugitive: A Kinsey Millhone Mystery (#6) by Sue Grafton

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Floral Beach, California could barely be called a town: six streets long and three deep, its only notable feature a strip of sand fronting the Pacific. And seventeen years ago Jean Timberlake, promiscuous high schooler, was found strangled on that strip of sand. The people of Floral Beach hadn’t thought of Jean since shortly after her body had been found: Bailey Fowler, the self-confessed killer, had been properly processed and convicted. It didn’t even matter that a year after the conviction,  Fowler walked away from […]

Next stop, The Realm of Spirits

Love, Misha: A Graphic Novel by Askel Aden,

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Either I was asleep, mixed up two books, or slipped into a  parallel universe,  but when I first heard of/read about Love, Misha: A Graphic Novel by Askel Aden, I thought it was about a runaway who had several dangerous situations or was a child in war, but still homeless and finding safety. Instead, it is about a nonbinary teen who is dealing with their estranged mother. (Yeah, I think I was totally asleep.) But that’s okay, because I had the pleasure of having no […]

The Relief of Agatha Christie

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

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Bingo: Middle. Miss Marple is in the middle of the old world and the new. The story explicitly contrasts the old world side of St Mary Mead with the new housing development built in the community. Ah, such a relief to enjoy a soothing Agatha Christie. The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side is a very good Miss Marple book. Taking place in St Mary Mead, the murder capital of the world, Miss Marple is stuck at home with a servant who drives her crazy […]

CBR BINGO: One—R.I.P. Tree

The Killing of a Chestnut Tree (Havelock Harper Mysteries, #1) by Oliver K. Langmead

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. I went to see John Green speak on his tour for Hollywood, Ending last Thursday, and at one point point in his talk, he said there are two types of people as you hit fifty years old: you either turn into a tree person or a bird person. I believe that I am turning into a tree person (I’ve read too much Tolkien, I think). So this is […]



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