Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Life was very different when you walked through it.”

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

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CBR17 Bingo: Green – Behold, the cover! Recently-retired Harold receives a note from his friend Queenie, who he has not seen in twenty years, to inform him that she is dying, and sets out to walk the length of England to go and see her, in the belief that as long as he walks she will not die. This is a pilgrimage across England, but internally it is also a pilgrimage of Harold’s self, in which he comes to terms with the many things that […]

Red on the cover and bloody on the inside

The Night of Baba Yaga: A Novel by Akira Otani

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Cbr17bingo Red Akira Otani’s The Night of Baba Yaga won the 2025 Dagger award for best translated crime novel and it is a doozy! I read it in an afternoon and loved it, but be warned: it is incredibly violent and includes passages describing sexual assault. Shindo is a physically imposing young woman who is extraordinarily talented at fighting. Against her will, she finds herself in the employ of the local Yakuza boss, acting as bodyguard to his daughter. What follows is a tale of […]

Interesting elements but a little disappointing

Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto

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Cbr17bingo “I” Published in Japan in 1961, Inspector Imanishi Investigates opens with the battered, bloodied body of an unidentified 50-year-old man found on the train tracks in Tokyo. Those who had seen him earlier in the evening with another younger man indicated that both men spoke with an unusual Japanese accent. As Inspector Imanishi investigates, more unusual deaths follow amongst the very people he wanted to question. While the coroner rules those deaths natural or simply unfortunate, they seem suspicious to Imanishi. As the months […]

Prime Minister by day, detective by night

Felix Grey and the Descendent by Mario Theodorou

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Felix Grey and the Descendent is a detective novel, the first in what promises to be a series featuring Felix Grey. The story is set in London, 1904, and Felix Grey is the second youngest Prime Minister in history. Felix is a progressive and was quite popular when elected a year or so ago, but increasingly he is facing challenges from both the Conservative Party and trade unions. In the midst of this political turmoil, two prominent lords are kidnapped by a sinister man wearing […]

Strong start, weird finish

Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton

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Guard Your Daughters was Diana Tutton’s first published novel (1953) and became a bestseller. In some ways it reminded me of I Capture the Castle, Pride and Prejudice, and Little Women (the latter two are referenced by the characters). The five beautiful Harvey sisters live in post-war England with their parents in a country house, supporting each other’s creative endeavors and hoping to meet lovely young men to marry. Mr. Harvey is a prolific and successful novelist who spends all day writing; the little attention […]

But where are the crows?

The Puzzle Wood by Rosie Andrews

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(Hello Team, I am posting a review in June!  This is months earlier than I usually do!) I picked this book up on vacation in Edinburgh. The cover has crows on it and it looked good enough. Spoiler – there are no crows in the book at all. Weak sauce. I do not read much mystery at all. The pitch of “governess goes to isolated mansion in woods and things are spoooooooky” seemed like a diverting way to spend much of the flight home.   […]



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