Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A jury that made the wrong call. OR DID THEY.

The Holdout by Graham Moore

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I must have read this entire book in about four or five hours. I was expecting to spend about three days with it, because my reading has slowed down ever since lockdown/quarantine/whatever started. I can still read, but for less stretches of time, and at a slower pace than normal. Several books I’ve just absolutely crawled through. But not this one! This one broke through for some reason, and I did not want to put it down. (ETA: This was written back in late April […]

Even better on re-read.

Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad, #4) by Tana French

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This is one of my favorites from this series, and I’m kicking myself for not writing this review immediately upon finishing it for the second time, because I got something different out of it this time than I did on my first read. But I don’t remember what that was! The only notes I left myself consisted of the temporary review I left over on Goodreads, which read, “This one whomped me good.” So helpful. Maybe it was something about Scorcher and his black and […]

Solve your longing for travel and a mystery

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

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I picked this up from my library just before everything shut down. Having read the book, I instantly regretted having gotten just the first in the series.  This book is a little slow to get started, but once you are in it, it is everything you want in a police detective mystery. Bonus that it takes place in Venice, Italy, so while no one can physically visit right now, this book will take you there in your mind. Police Commissario Guido Brunetti finds himself investigating […]

I’m glad I don’t have kids because this book would have given me nightmares

The Whisper Man by Alex North

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Tom Kennedy and his young son, Jake, arrive home one day to find Tom’s wife dead at the bottom of the stairs. Tom is trying his best to be a good father, but he feels like it doesn’t come naturally to him, and he and Jake don’t have the connection Jake had with his mother. After months of Jake refusing to go up and down the stairs, Tom buys a new house in the nearby village of Featherbank.  But moving isn’t the easy solution they […]

A good book but not what I expected or wanted

Final Girls by Riley Sager

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Quinn Carpenter is the only survivor of the Pine Cottage massacre. She has no memory of the massacre, but she knows a knife-wielding maniac murdered her closest friends and stabbed her three times. She only survived because she ran into a police officer while the killer was chasing her.  Shortly after the incident, another Final Girl, Lisa, reached out to Quinn to teach her how to handle the aftermath. Lisa wanted her and Quinn to meet Sam, another Final Girl. She thought they could support […]

A Wonderful Classic Children’s Mystery

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin is a favorite of my grown up daughter.  She has probably read it a half dozen times over the past 15 or so years.  After she recently reread it, I decided to reread it also.  Well, the surprise was on me – I don’t think I had ever read it before. The book, published in 1978 and the Newbery winner that year, is a clever mystery that unfolds as the tenants of a building are invited to the reading […]



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