Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Holiday Reads: Alsatian Edition

Mortal Causes (Inspector Rebus #6) by Ian Rankin

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

Perfect Silence (DI Callanach #4) by Helen Fields

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Vacationing with young children is hard work, people, even if you’re on a campsite that has not one, but two trampolines (“mum, see what I can do!”). Nevertheless I managed to sneak in a couple of books as I hung about in the (beautiful and very hot) Alsatian countryside, so here goes.  Mortal Causes (Ian Rankin) *** Mortal Causes is Inspector Rebus book no. 6 and though I’ve read the previous five, I had to look that up. I also forgot what it was about […]

Elvis in Edinburgh

The Black Book by Ian Rankin

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Inspector John Rebus is having a tough time. His girlfriend, with whom he has recently moved in, has thrown him out, leaving him stranded in his own flat which is now full of students as well as his brother, who has recently been released from prison. To make matters worse, his underling is found in an alley behind an Elvis-themed eatery with a headwound and no idea how he got there. Rebus investigates but is soon thwarted both by his superiors and by a devious […]

Eat the Rich.

Strip Jack by Ian Rankin

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On a balmy summer night in Edinburgh, the filth razes an illicit brothel in a well-to-do area. Johns and working girls alike are piled into the back of a police car to be given a fine and a stern talking to, with one exception. One of the men coming out of the building is MP Gregor Jack. He is well-liked by his constituents and respected by his peers, but the press are waiting outside and he is proverbially, if not literally, caught with his pants […]

Waif Goodbye

Tooth and Nail (Inspector Rebus #3) by Ian Rankin

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London, early 1990s. Women are being attacked on the streets; their throats are slit, they’re stabbed in an unfortunate place and a bite mark is left on their stomachs. The first attack happens on Wolf street and thus the press, with their neverending creativity, dub him the Wolfman. Inspector John Rebus – lapsed Christian, alcoholic in denial, still straddling the line between ‘difficult person’ and ‘asshole’ – is called down to aid the investigation, but by whom? And why?  This is a curiously chaotic novel […]

Peekaboo

Hide and Seek (Inspector Rebus #2) by Ian Rankin

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Somewhere deep in the slums of Edinburgh the body of a man is found. All evidence points towards an overdoses, except for one: the man’s body is elaborately staged, with the lower half of his body wrapped in plastic and his arms spread out as if he’s been crucified. A pentagram has been drawn on the wall and candles have been staged around the victim. Inspector John Rebus has been called in to investigate the murder, but finds the whole thing perplexing. Who staged the […]

It’s Set in Scotland. Of Course it’s Bleak.

Knots and Crosses (Inspecor Rebus #1) by Ian Rankin

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Edinburgh, 1986. A number of young girls disappear. They’re abducted seemingly randomly, strangled and their corpses abandoned. All of Edinburgh’s police force is on top of it and so is John Rebus, a chain smoking, hard drinking former marine who now works as a burnt-out office drone for Edinburgh’s constabulary. It’s not that he doesn’t care, but the work he does is monotonous and neverending, and he’s far away from the action – at least, he thinks so. But someone keeps sending him letters, letters […]



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