Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“There is a pay phone by a truck stop near the town of Leonard, Arizona. Sometimes at night it starts to ring.”

Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

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I was first drawn into Emily St. John Mandel’s world back in 2015, when Station Eleven caught my eye after popping up in a few “best of” lists.  It became an immediate favorite, and I know that love is shared here within our CBR community! I’ve read it twice since first picking it up, most recently in March, right as the world started to dip further and further into pandemic horror. I wrote in a previous review that I would not have picked up The Glass Hotel […]

BadFellas

Murder Machine by Gene Mustain & Jerry Capeci

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Kind of wonder what could have been if Martin Scorsese had gotten his hands on this book before Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguy. This is Goodfellas, only if the murder montage was like half the movie. I knew the name Roy DeMeo and that he was the head of perhaps the most murderous crew in Mafia history but I didn’t know exactly what is story was or how it operated. On a bit of a mob kick, I finally picked this one up. It’s a brutal tale and both writers […]

Babylon Brooklyn

A Brotherhood Betrayed: The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc. by Michael Cannell

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Look, I am very simple. I like mob books, especially but not limited to ones set in New York City. If you write a good mob tale, fiction or non-fiction, I’ll devour it and give you your credit. So that’s what I’m here to do with this one. I’ve been curious about the Abe Reles story ever since reading Kevin Baker’s flat, unoriginal The Big Crowd. His ghost seemed to loom over everything mob and politic related in New York for decades. The head of the mob’s […]

Bushwick-ed

The Nightworkers by Brian Selfon

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I was really impressed with large parts of first time writer Brian Selfon’s The Nightworkers. His characterization was of the highest quality. I found myself intrigued with most of the individual plot lines. His descriptions of Bushwick, a neighborhood I’m only somewhat familiar with, made it come to life. I always enjoy a good New York City crime tale set outside of Manhattan, if done right (thinking in this moment of William Boyle and Maggie Estep). And his use of dialogue, no doubt stemming from his days […]

Suspense Is Killing

Hipster Death Rattle by Richie Narvaez

A Touch of Death by Charles Williams

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I finished two different crime novels over the last couple of days, one written by a  novice, the other by a legend, both really good in their own respective ways. Hipster Death Rattle I’ve become more familiar with north Brooklyn the last couple of months and boy, does Richie Narvaez know ever corner and haunt. A delightful skewering of hipster culture set right in the middle of Williamsburg, Gentrification’s Ground Zero, the book is as much a satire as it is a mystery. Some of […]

Thrills and Chills

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

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This is one I was eager to get my hands on given the premise and the reviews. It didn’t disappoint, being one of the best books I read this year and, along with Long Bright River, one of the best new releases of 2020. This book is so many things but at the heart, it’s really a tale of suspense. A lot obviously depends on your perspective (I’m a cishet white guy) but Cole is excellent at blending the existential dread of the Black experience in […]



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