Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A Flavia de Luce word jumble: puppets, weed, a 1950s pregnancy test, and pigeon droppings that save lives

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

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Years ago, when I was going through a reading drought because life was getting in the way, I desperately needed an escape and Alan Bradley’s first Flavia de Luce mystery nudged a little bit of lightness back into my life (I even wrote a review, which is quite out of character for me). Our recent CBR chat about mysteries reminded me how much I enjoyed sinking into Flavia’s wanderings about Bishop’s Lacey, the rural English town she lives in, so I decided it was time […]

Around the World Around the World

Night Prayers by Santiago Gamboa

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Very mixed feelings on Night Prayers. Ultimately, it’s one of the best things I’ve read in 2025. It’s also one of the more frustrating. Gamboa writes in the style of his Latin American contemporaries such as Bolaño and Marquez. And for the most part, he does it well. This is a style I always enjoy sampling, even if it can frustrate me at times with its tangents and magic realism. I quit the book several times in the beginning but was inexorably drawn back to it and […]

I’d like to see the “cozy” come back to this mystery series

What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley

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“I know I’m not the girl I once was, but I’m not really sure yet who I am,” Flavia de Luce bemoans at about the midpoint of What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust. While she’s still quite young (I don’t think she’s progressed past 12 in this latest installment), she does carry the weight of adulthood on her shoulders at times. Technically she’s not alone in the world–she has her dear friend-of-the-family-part-time-servant Dogger, grandmotherly housekeeper Mrs. Mullet, bookish sister Daffy (Feely still being away […]

How the World Works

Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy by Matthew Campbell & Kit Chellel

The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré

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Finished two consecutive books on how the world works. Both are good and devastating in their own respective ways Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy When the cargo ship Dalit hit Baltimore’s Key Bridge last year, I felt it deeply, not just because I’m a Baltimorean but because I’ve worked with seafarers in the past. It’s a hard life: dangerous labor with little pay and almost no labor protections. Away from your family months at a […]

Isle Of Amberly

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

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“Wait, what just happened?” is the best review I read for this book. I most heartily concur with that statement. Successful author Grady Green’s wife disappeared on a rainy night one year ago. Since then his life has unraveled and he’s been unable to write or sleep. His agent takes pity on him with the opportunity of a lifetime, to stay at a quiet cabin on a remote Scottish island to try to get some writing done. He and his trusty dog Columbo head off […]

“I would shiver the whole night through”

Knife River (2024) by Justine Champine

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When it comes to mysteries, I find the plot to be almost the least interesting thing–as long as it’s not too lazy or derivative or actively insulting to the reader, and fits into the vibes of the story. What I do care about, then, are the vibes–if the vibes are there, if the texture of the story is something I can snag myself on, I don’t really worry about clues or reveals (which I’m bad at predicting anyway). The vibes are pretty immaculate in Knife […]



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