Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“He knew time could heal. But it could also do more damage. A forest fire, spread over time, would consume everything.”

A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #7) by Louise Penny

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Clara Morrow has finally been discovered as an artist at the age of fifty. She has her own solo show in a prestigious Montreal art museum, and to celebrate, her friends are throwing her a party in their small village of Three Pines. Everything is going smashingly, until a dead body is discovered in her garden, and it turns out to be her old childhood friend, Lillian, with whom she had a bitter parting as an adult. With yet another dead body in close proximity […]

The continuing adventures of Lady Sherlock

A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas

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This is the second book in a series. While it can be read independently, and probably makes sense on its own, you’d be better off starting with book one, A Study in Scarlet Women.  From Goodreads: Being shunned by Society gives Charlotte Holmes the time and freedom to put her extraordinary powers of deduction to good use. As “Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective,” aided by the capable Mrs. Watson, she’s had great success helping with all manner of enquiries, but she’s not prepared for the new client […]

Psycho Killer, Qu’est-ce que c’est?

In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes

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Dorothy B. Hughes was a popular crime writer of the 1940s and 1950s, perhaps the best female crime writer of her day and, based on the prose and psychological complexity on display in this slim volume, very much the equal of her better-known male peers. A very perceptive afterword written by the mystery novelist Megan Abbot does a better job elucidating the feminist aspects of the book than I could hope to, so let me just say that In A Lonely Place is a necessary […]

Drama in the courtroom and beyond

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

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Miracle Creek, Virginia, is the home of the Yoo family. The Yoos run a hyperbaric oxygen chamber out of a barn on their property. Their clients are patients who are looking for something- anything- that will help with various ailments and are desperate enough to turn to this “Miracle Submarine” for help. The novel begins with a catastrophe at the submarine and then shifts to a year later, on the first day of the courtroom trial related to said catastrophe. The novel shifts continually between […]

A Quick Little Walk on the Dark Side

The Best American Mystery Stories 2018 by Louise Penny (editor)

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I’m going to say that while I did like this collection, I don’t necessarily know that I personally would have called all the included stories “mystery” stories. A lot of them fell into more of a ‘suspense’ or general ‘crime’ genres rather than a true mystery story. That didn’t bother me most of the time, but it was enough of a thing that I wanted to get it out there for anyone who may want to check this one out. As with most short story […]

Slumpbuster

Sunset Express by Elvis Cole

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When baseball players are in a slump, there’s an old school remedy for doing something on the side to help break out of it. It’s called finding a “slumpbuster.” I’m not going to talk about what it actually is since it’s rooted in horrific misogyny (and I suggest you don’t google it either) but I’m going to take the germ of an idea (minus the misogyny) and apply it to reading. Finishing books has been a chore lately and I was disheartened at how much […]



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