Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A great time was had.

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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A great time was had. People were slain, revenge was had, plots were foiled, and women of a certain age came out of retirement to clear their names and kick some ass. There’s also a cat named Kevin in here, and I just think that’s important. I don’t actually think I have too much to say about this one. There wasn’t much deep about it, it’s just a good book, a thriller but more on the cozy end than not. A cozy thriller! Who knew […]

“Forty years on one of the most elite assassin squads on earth and it finished like this, with a free cruise and a bouncy letter from a girl who signed her letters with hashtags.”

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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In ten words or less: Retired female assassins: promising premise, fumbles in execution. Retired female assassins are staring down the barrel of retirement when they’d rather still be staring down the barrel of a gun. They miss the action, but they’ve earned their rest and a cruise seems like, well, like something to do with plenty of time on their hands. The contract on the hitman trope is popular in books and in movies. However, Raybourn has taken us away from male characters and even […]

Girls Just Wanna Have . . . Fun?

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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Think Charlie’s Angels facing their sunset years.  Far more deadly and ruthless than Farah Fawcett and her pals though, and there is four of them.  And to celebrate their retirement, the Museum (their employer) is sending them on an all-expenses paid cruise.  Hmmm.  Doesn’t really seem like the sort of thing an assassin agency would do. And of course it’s not.  The crew seems oddly muscular, and Kevin can’t be trusted in the least.  Especially since Billie recognizes him as a fellow agent actually named […]

Well, I am not proud of it, but a fellow has to make a living and I was blessed with two assets – a passably handsome face and an exquisitely persuasive tongue.

An Impossible Imposter by Deanna Raybourn

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CBR14BINGO: Font Square (BINGO! Shadow to Font) (I’m not sure what the fonts are, but they grace the cover of every Veronica Speedwell novel along with that unmistakable silhouette cover art situation. I can spot it on a crowded bookshelf a mile away and it always makes me happy.) Somehow I managed not to snatch this up as soon as it came out. Usually, I put myself on the library wait list before the next book in the Veronica Speedwell mystery series is published. Raybourn is a favorite of mine, and […]

Not quite my cup of tea this time around

An Impossible Impostor by Deanna Raybourn

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3.5 stars First of all, this is book 7 in an ongoing series. I would not recommend that a new reader start here. The first book in the series is A Curious Beginning. Now for the official book description, because my memory is like a sieve: London, 1889. Veronica Speedwell and her natural historian beau Stoker are summoned by Sir Hugo Montgomerie, head of Special Branch. He has a personal request on behalf of his goddaughter, Euphemia Hathaway. After years of traveling the world, her […]

You Englishwomen are all the same. So modern with your bicycling machines and pamphlets on voting.

An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn

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Dear Ms Raybourn: You may never stop writing your Veronica Speedwell novels. I will not permit it. Many thanks. Book 6 in the Veronica Speedwell Mystery series, is, as they all are, a damn delight. If you haven’t read them, please do. If you do read them, know that this one does not disappoint. Everyone’s favorite lepidopterist and taxidermist are on a momentary mystery solving and near death experiencing lull. As they work side by side to create an exhibit honoring the late mountain climber Alice Baker-Greene […]



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