Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“The sun is up, the skies are blue, and murder is in the air.”

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

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A few years ago, it felt like everyone and their neighbor were reading The Thursday Murder Club. I was intrigued but hadn’t pulled the proverbial trigger. But here we are and the time has arrived for me to dig in to the story of a group of friends in a retirement village who investigate cold cases for fun, and the new member they invite into their ranks, and the murder that happens that lets them jump into their first in real time crime solving.    This was just the right book to break a two-month reading slump. It […]

Ravens are Nerds

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

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The Raven Scholar is actually pretty good; I was a little surprised because I sometimes don’t have great luck with the popular best-sellers, even in genre fiction. The characters are mostly what drive things, Neema and Cain are a lot of fun, both individually and together, Sol has some good personality for being a magical being fragment, and a lot of the rest of the supporting cast has enough definition that as an ensemble, they’re interesting to watch. Most everyone has some kind of tragic […]

Her name! Was Victoria!! Sandwich!!!

The Jam Sandwich Detectives by Clare Thompson

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Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Okay, picture Big Little Lies, but less literary and more cozy mystery-esque. A group of moms attend a cake bake-off where everyone has baked a Victoria Sponge, but before many cakes can be tasted and judged, the host (whose name is also Victoria Sandwich!) drops dead. One of our main characters, Rachel, has the blame pinned on her by the other mothers because of some offhand comments she’d […]

Elastic tension lashed their cars together across space, alone on the road, nothing in his head but grief and freedom.

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

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Andrew held the clutch and eased onto the gas, pushing revs while the digital readout reminded him to hold it, wait for the right moment to explode. Sam’s fingers touched the rim of the moon hanging in the sky. A shudder ripped across the bones of Andrew’s forearms, terror and delight and the promise of risk bringing him to life. ― Lee Mandelo, Summer Sons For fuck’s sake Andrew. Is there anything in this scenario that feels heterosexual or well-adjusted to you? ― Lee Mandelo, […]

Disasters indeed!

The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev A.C. Rosen

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I received an advance copy from the publisher via Netgalley for review purposes; this in no way influences my review. I’ve loved Lev AC Rosen’s books for a while now, and seeing he had a new contemporary mystery I knew I needed to get my hands on it. And this does not disappoint! It’s such a delightful, chaotic mess of a book, and I love the main characters so much. Brandon is a gay Jewish man living in New York and working for a hotel […]

Finding out why it’s a bad idea to put your name in blood in a mysterious old book

The Last Soul Among Wolves by Melissa Caruso

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A reunion of old friends, a will and curse, and a locked-room murder mystery that escalates, featuring new-ish mom investigator Kembral Thorne jumping around the levels of reality to solve the mystery, stop the curse, and solve the murder(s), all while avoiding (mostly supernatural) enemies and a giant spectral wolf, and trying to keep things professional with girlfriend who is also on the job. That’s most of the things going on in The Last Soul Among Wolves. Since this is the second volume of the […]



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