Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the Yay for YA Discussion About YA Books Now  

A ghost story-thriller combo

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

by 2 Comments

Set in a creepy hotel where no one wants to be, not even the owners, a young woman sets out to find out what happened to her aunt, who disappeared 30-odd years before. The point of view switches between the young woman in the current day and her aunt in the early 80s. This back and forth allows the reader to see the two main characters experience similar phenomena in parallel; we also get to see a few secondary characters in  both the past and […]

A guide on how to cram every known stereotype in one single book

by Leave a Comment

When my bookclub chose a thriller taking place in Russia for the month of June, I was ecstatic. I am a big fan of crime procedurals and I love Saint Petersburg, so I was sold – until I realized it was actually written by a Brit. Now, I’m not saying people cannot write books in whichever culture they’d wish to, I was just apprehensive because when you tackle something like this, you better do a superb job of it – otherwise it will feel like […]

Was it the husband?

by Leave a Comment

The Dry is a competent and engaging mystery thriller that’s set in a small farming community in Australia. It’s one of those books where the setting is as much of a character as the human characters, as the oppressive heat and dust provoke malevolent despair in the residents, which in turn breeds violence. The climate was also quite evocative for me as the reader, especially being here in California, where we have experienced a bit of drought ourselves. Goodreads summary: “After getting a note demanding […]

Good book, if somewhat unbelievable at times

by Leave a Comment

So my new book club picked this book out of a hat, and I’m really happy about it right now. This is the third crime thriller I have read this year, and while I didn’t find this one quite as good as Career of Evil, it is definitely bringing up the average score of the genre. So this book is about a series of almost accidental deaths, which newly reinstated DI Robyn Carter starts to connect while working on a missing persons case she picked up while still […]

How did I not know of this series before now?

by 8 Comments

So this just happened. Again I feel like I need to start this review with a disclaimer: I am the worst book geek there ever was. I say that because I mainly just read when I’m living abroad. I don’t know why, but the fact of the matter is that from 2010 till 2015 I was reading perhaps less than 6 books a year. It was only last year that I moved back to Europe, and suddenly I’m joining bookclubs and reading 35 books in […]

Deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens goes to Italy

by Leave a Comment

Miami bookie Harry Arno has lived a relatively good life. As a mid level man in Jimmie Cap’s criminal operation he’s managed to skim a sizable bank account’s worth of excess off the top and is now planning to retire from the game with his lovely 25 years younger girlfriend, Joyce. Unfortunately, Harry put off his retirement a little too long and is now the unwitting pawn in an FBI sting targeting Jimmie Cap. The feds set up Harry for a bogus theft, and now […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo