Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Holiday Roundup

A Short Stay in Hell by Stephen L. Peck

System Collapse (Murderbot #7) by Martha Wells

Tough Guy (Game Changers #4) by Rachel Reid

Flesh by David Szalay

The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

Last One Out by Jane Harper

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Here’s what I read while I was camping in France. It was very hot. I may have melted a few times. It was way too hot for complicated stuff, so for unrelated reasons: here’s a picture of a hotel that’s for sale in the charming, medieval town of Brancion in the Bourgogne for anyone contemplating a career change. Say hi to the former caretaker’s wife; she was very friendly.  Anyway, here’s what I read.  A Short Stay in Hell (Stephen L. Peck) **** A man, […]

“I loved her.” “Since when has that ever stopped anybody from hurting someone?”

The Dry by Jane Harper

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Bingo: Season. The small town featured is suffering through a season of drought Jane Harper’s The Dry is set in the small Australian town of Kiewarra. The town is in the middle of a terrible drought when the murder of a mother, father, and young son is discovered on their land. Based on the bodies’ conditions and location, it appears the father, Luke Hadler, murdered his wife and son before taking his own life. A prodigal son of sorts, Aaron Falk, a federal agent, returns […]

Crime Yarns of Varied Awesomeness

Be My Enemy by Christopher Brookmyre

Last One Out by Jane Harper

Never Flinch by Steven King

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Way back in 1996, I picked up a book by Christopher Brookmyre based on a staff recommendation in a long-since-closed book store.  I’ve never regretted it, and I’ve gone on to read and reread all his books.  This Christmas, it was Be My Enemy (or Fuck This for a Game of Soldiers). Set at the opening weekend for a teambuilding retreat in the Scottish highlands, the novel unites an eclectic group of advertising execs, PR teams, one crime reporter (familiar from earlier books), and a […]

Autumnal Reading

1979 by Val McDermid

The Survivors by Jane Harper

De Metsiers by Hugo Claus

Normal People by Sally Rooney

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After not having read much for a couple of weeks (work has been hell), I once again found myself in a place with terrible internet connectivity and a pile of books. Worse things have happened, particularly because the books I ended up selecting all turned out to be pretty dang good. 1979 (Val McDermid) **** Allie Burns is a woman in a man’s world. An Oxbridge graduate, she works as a journalist for a small Scottish newspaper. She hopes to make it big but so […]

Bittersweet Nothing

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

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Deep in the Australian outback lives the Bright clan. Older brother Nathan, a divorcee, lives alone on a small ranch; brothers Cameron and Bub share the larger ranch, where they live with their mother Liz, Cameron’s wife Ilse and their two young daughters. Each has their own demons to face but all in all, they make things work in the scorching climate of the Outback. Until one morning, when Cameron’s body is discovered near an old marker; a century-old grave. The man has been stuck […]

Hell Hath No Fury

Force of Nature by Jane Harper

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A group of five men and five women set off on a corporate-sponsored hike through an Australian forest. The men emerge successfully three days later, happy to be done with it, to return to the hotel and its bar, but the women fail to appear. When they do, they are one person short: Alice Russell is missing. Detective Aaron Falk and his partner Carmen set off to investigate because Alice Russell is the whistleblower in their latest case. They soon discover that the women’s stories […]



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