Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Sidewalks of New York

Manhattan Nocturne by Colin Harrison

by Leave a Comment

Note: This book has been re-published under the title “Manhattan Night”. It was renamed because a movie by that name based on the book came out, so the publisher re-issued it with the movie title. Since I hate when publishers do this, I’ve chosen to review it under the original name. The Amazon link directs to the page with the updated name and appropriate info.  Colin Harrison is a writer I’ve been meaning to try for awhile. I started The Havana Room and was enjoying it but stopped for […]

Get a New Line of Work?

Bitter Falls (Stillhouse Lake Book #4) by Rachel Caine

by Leave a Comment

I am a sucker for a series with a strong, capable woman.  Add the fact that she’s a mom on a mission? I’m alway sold.  I’m easy…always have been.  To catch you up, the Stillhouse Lake series is about a woman, Gina Royal, who comes home to find out that her husband was a serial killer and that he had been killing people under her nose for years (in a sound proof hobby room in the garage).  People did not believe that she wasn’t aiding […]

An old favorite

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

I read all of Agatha Christie’s books in the years of elementary through high school. Hercule Poirot heavily influenced my idea of what a Frenchman should be, and I read all of his lines in my head through the filter of my French teacher in 5th grade (Miss Marple sounds like my grandmother, but stuffier, in my head). I haven’t picked up one of her mysteries for at least twenty years but my daughter has recently started to be interested in mysteries so I was […]

Two Duds

The Wounded and the Slain by David Goodis

Doctor Lovebeads by Gary Reilly

by Leave a Comment

How much does it suck when you read two books concurrent with one another by authors you normally like…and they turn out to be complete duds? I took time to write this review after finishing both books to wonder if it was just me. Nope. Both were not good and very close to bad. The Wounded and the Slain There are good ideas in this David Goodis noir tale: ideas about marriage, accountability, colonialism, loss, sense of place and justice. But they’re buried underneath Goodis’ […]

A Serviceable Mystery

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

by 4 Comments

I love a good mystery. I can tear through an absorbing mystery in a day, but I slow down for certain mysteries because of the depth of the characters.  While Case Histories moves at a decent clip, the characters are sketched with more mannerisms and exposition than depth. To her credit, though, author Kate Atkinson is quite good at portraying the many forms of grief and loss. While I did not find this mystery very satisfying in the end, I do appreciate the effort that went in […]

Entertaining enough, but disappointing

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

by 2 Comments

 Warning: While I try to avoid any outright spoilers, you might want to skip this review if you are planning on reading this novel. Summary: I found Moriarty entertaining enough, but compared to the fabulous House of Silk, it’s downright disappointing. Kind of like how Cars would be a decent enough animated movie from any other studio, but from the studio that created Toy Story, WALL-E, and The Incredibles, you’re like “Lame, Pixar.” Now, the review: I’m sitting in a little Japanese restaurant eating my lunch, […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo