Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A middling Daisy Dalrymple story, but the characters make it worth reading

The Corpse at the Crystal Palace by Carola Dunn

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This review is specifically for The Corpse at the Crystal Palace but I’m including my thoughts on the Daisy Dalrymple series as a whole. The series takes place in England in the 1920s. The main character is Mrs. Daisy Fletcher (née the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple). Daisy is the youngest daughter of an English aristocrat and is married to Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of the New Scotland Yard. Daisy keeps accidentally finding dead bodies and feels compelled to help Alec with his investigations. She is often […]

The Broken Girls is a creepy page-turner

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

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After the Sun Down Motel, I went in search of Simone St. James’s other books. The Broken Girls had the best reviews, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to read about teenage girls whose families had abandoned them. I’m glad I checked it out! It wasn’t quite as breathtaking as the Sun Down Motel, but it is really good.  2014: Twenty years ago, Fiona’s older sister, Deb, was murdered by her boyfriend and her body dumped on the grounds of a former boarding school named […]

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the quintessential cozy mystery

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is said to be Agatha Christie’s best novel and one of the best murder mysteries ever written. It’s only my second Christie novel, so I can’t really speak to the first point. But it does seem to be the template for most cozy mysteries. It was charming, funny, easy to read, and had quirky characters.  The book is told from the point of view of Dr. Sheppard, a local doctor in the English village of King’s Abbot. Hercule Poirot has […]

Ninth House is great, but it’s not a feel-good read

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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I feel like I should start this review with some trigger warnings. Ninth House contains multiple descriptions of sexual assault, including assault of a child, bullying, and descriptions of drug use and abuse. I think the book handled these subjects as well as can be expected. I generally don’t read books involving rape or child abuse, so I wouldn’t have read Ninth House if I had known beforehand.  Ninth House is about a young woman named Galaxy (Alex) Stern who is admitted to Yale and inducted […]

The Sun Down Motel is a rollercoaster ride of nail-biting terror

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

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The Sun Down Motel hooked me from the start. I loved it that first night of reading. But when I picked it up the second night, I was filled with dread. I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue. I chalked it up to being tired and read on. I’m glad I did because it’s an amazing book. But it is a tense book, absolutely gripping and nerve-wracking. I had a headache yesterday evening from clenching my jaw while reading this. I didn’t even realize I […]



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