Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Not My Cup of Tea, Unfortunately

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

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 I really did not like this book very much. At the same time, it is clear I am really not the intended audience for this book. Man, I really hate writing reviews like this, because while I didn’t like it, I can see that someone else probably would, especially someone younger, and this being a YA book, that makes total sense. So, I’m prefacing this with the disclaimer that I am a Cranky Old and so if you are not a Cranky Old, take this […]

Luke Cage meets noir meets The Diviners meets more please!

Abbott by Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivelä

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Abbott is a brief, five-issue series set in 1970s Detroit about journalist Elena Abbott, lone black female reporter at the Detroit Daily. Abbott prefers to delve into the stories the paper’s board would rather not see printed. She’s recently getting heat for her piece on the death of a black teen at the hands of police, but so far she’s been protected by her loyal boss. She has a new case on the horizon and it’s a grisly one.  A mutilated police horse is found […]

True Journalist

Nineteen Seventy-Four by David Peace

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Well I guess I know what a British James Ellroy would read like. The only other book I read of David Peace’s is his fun and hilarious soccer send-up The Damned Utd., which was the basis for a fun and hilarious soccer movie. I tried Red or Dead but found it’s repetition too cloying and it’s 600+ pages too daunting. Still, I think he’s a talented writer. It took me several tries to get into this one; I had to get used to his writing voice. But I’m […]

Midwestern Horror Show

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

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It’s been six years since I read Gone Girl but I would probably put this ahead of it as Gillian Flynn’s most realized work. It’s miles ahead of Sharp Objects for sure. There’s not a big departure from anything Flynn has done in other books: a woman horribly abused by life living in a perpetual state of neuroticism and self-loathing who has to either solve a mystery or figure her life out. This time it’s the former and I suppose there’s not a big difference between the three but […]

The Ties That Bind

Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy

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The conclusion of James Ellroy’s Underworld USA trilogy is probably not the best work of is but it may be one of my favorites. If you haven’t followed along with my reviews, allow me some framing: I have a weird relationship with James Ellroy’s books. LA noirs and overarching American conspiracy are definitely my thing. But for years, I wasn’t able to connect with Ellroy’s style. Not necessarily his writing style, per se, though that often leaves something to be desired. Rather, Ellroy reads were […]

Clunky and Unrealistic

Phantom Prey by John Sandford

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Ehhh. I didn’t really like this one. It’s a strong 3 star book, but the whole thing with the character of Fairy just didn’t work for me. It actually took away from the first plot (who murdered Alyssa Austin’s daughter and why). And though Sandford delays showing us what is going on until the 60 percent or so mark, I found myself losing interest after the reveal and just wanting to finish the book already. Usually Lucas has two cases to follow and in this […]



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