Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Completely unlikeable characters ruin a great premise

An Unwanted Stranger by Shari Lapena

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An Unwanted Guest is a closed door mystery involving a group of strangers trapped at a luxury hotel during an ice storm. I may have squeed with excitement when I read that description. Sadly, that was the only time this book delighted me.  Mitchell’s Inn in the Catskills Mountains is a gorgeous hotel, deep in the woods, with no cell phone service or internet. Guests enjoy gourmet meals, unlimited alcohol, and outdoor activities such as cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Three couples, a pair of friends, […]

Damages

Clean Hands by Patrick Hoffman

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Patrick Hoffman’s Every Man A Menace was one of the best things I read last year; a layered, eagle’s eye view of a major drug transaction from street level to boss level. I couldn’t put it down and when I heard he was coming out with one that covered corporate espionage in New York City, I wasn’t going to hesitate getting my hands on a copy of it. Clean Hands doesn’t hit those high notes but it’s pretty good in its own right. While its formatted differently […]

Crime and Criminals

Recoil by Jim Thompson

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I liked this one better when it was Wild Town. The Year of Jim Thompson continues and I’m reminded that an author’s lesser works are considered “lesser” for a reason. While you can occasionally find a diamond in the rough, for the most part, they probably deserve to stay in a lower tier of rankings. This one isn’t nearly as bad as The Alcoholics, it’s just a recycled plot: ex-con leaves prison, finds work with shady folks, hijinks ensue. These hijinks are entertaining and, in true Thompson fashion, […]

Let It Burn…Wanna Let It Burn…

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

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Steph Cha has a hell of a tightrope to walk with this one. A fictional retelling of the murder of Latasha Harlins, she breaks down the impact of it between both families impacted: the black family that mourned her and the Korean family that produced her killer. Writing black characters, specifically in a context such as this, is a tall task for a non-black writer. But Cha is successful. She navigates this with a less-is-more approach, focusing on how grief and racial trauma impact both […]

Loved the mystery and secret societies, current events made the excessive privilege stomach churning

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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As much as I adore the Grishaverse, it was nice to see Bardugo flex her writer muscles in something new.  She certainly starts this book with a vivid sentence that seized me right away. By the time Alex managed to get the blood out of her good wool coat, it was too warm to wear it. Ninth House is gripping murder mystery, set in a version of our world where magic exists and is hoarded by the secret societies of Yale.  Perhaps you’ve heard of […]

…but you’re bringing me down.

New Yorked by Rob Hart

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I need to start with the good because there’s a lot of goodwill built in this book or else I wouldn’t have been able to stomach it for 20 pages. Rob Hart knows New York City. Knows it. Not in a way a smarmy lifer traipsing through endless aristocratic watering holes knows it. But the way a native does. Favorite bars, corner stores, slice stops…he brings it alive in a real way. I could see and feel the city, one I’m missing right now with everything shut […]



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