Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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 […]

Throughout Generations

A Long Line of Dead Men by Lawrence Block

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It took me twelve books total to realize how much I love the Matthew Scudder series. But I do. I’m so glad I re-discovered this in the last few months. The early books were just simple whodunnits, no more no less. Competently written yet not necessarily worth the time and effort to invest in the whole series. Yet my thirst for gritty New York tales is almost impossible to slake, so I kept coming back to these. Slowly but surely, Block continued to improve as […]

All the Memories

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

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This one got recommended to me by a lit critic. She asked for folks to submit what we liked to read to her via Twitter and she replied with suggestions. When I said mysteries, she came up with this one, along with Tana French (who I love) and “Robert Galbraith” (who I do not love). I figured she got this based on it being part of the contemporary female-written English thriller/mystery that doubles as a character study but what the heck. It was free on […]

A Voice of My Generation

The Stories You Tell by Kristen Lepionka

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There’s not much left to say about Kristen Lepionka’s Roxane Weary series that I didn’t already say in my last two reviews. Lepionka is a talented writer who foregoes the frills of many a bestselling mystery book in favor of telling a good tale. In other words: there’s minimal fluff to pad the story. I appreciate that. While I like these books a lot, what makes them difficult to recommend is the voice of the narrator. Roxane Weary is not inherently lovable. She’s a person […]

In the Dark grabbed me and never let go

In the Dark by Loreth Anne White

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I actually read this back in January but have had trouble organizing my thoughts in order to review it. The problem is that it is so spellbinding that I absolutely blew through it. Afterward, I was left feeling like I had walked home during a windstorm – tired but invigorated. But a lot of the details were fuzzy because I read it so fast.  In the Dark is the story of eight strangers who have been invited on an all-expenses paid vacation at a luxurious […]

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Lost Light by Michael Connelly

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For my part, I like picking around the edges of the Harry Bosch catalogue, either when I need a Los Angeles tale or a mind-numbing read. I don’t usually go for airport paperback fare but Michael Connelly has always felt like a cut above. I don’t mean that to condescend anyone who enjoys the James Pattersons and Jeffrey Deavers of the world. But for me, Connelly has always felt slightly above their level, with just enough sophistication to feel refined yet not too much to […]



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