Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


How to lose my interest in this series

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

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CBR18 BINGO: One, because it’s first in a series. Also, it’s the only one of the series I plan to read. In 1965, teenager Frances Adams visits a fortune teller who makes an ominous prediction about Frances being murdered. The prediction includes the typical 1-800-PSYCHIC ambiguity that can easily be self-fulfilling, like the dangers of “holding a queen in the palm of one hand,” or the suggestion that a “bird” will betray her. Frances spends the next 60 years in an extreme state of paranoia, […]

A cozy mystery for coffee geeks

On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle

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I decided for a change of pace with On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle, the first Coffeehouse mystery. I like coffee, but I really like humorous pun book titles even more. I also LOVE me some cozy mysteries. I’m patiently waiting for the Christmas romances to disappear and the return of Hallmark mystery marathons. They are a balm to the soul whether on screen or the page. I like how the mystery tends to be solved swiftly and how easily I can devour the pages. […]

Why Do You Think Anything in that House was ever Yours to Take?

Tear it Down by Nick Petrie

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Two weeks ago, after a long day of pre-semester meetings at my college, I headed to a library in Gurnee (the town next to mine) with my sister to hear Nick Petrie talk with another author, Lori Rader-Day, about his newly released novel, Tear It Down.  The book is the fourth in a series about Peter Ash, a military veteran with a persistent case of PTSD and an uncanny ability to attract trouble. The conversation wandered in many interesting directions, including a discussion of series […]

Miles from Harlan County but Still Close

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My favorite mysteries have a strong sense of place, where the setting is as much of a character as the detective or police chief or in this case, the prosecuting attorney at the center of the story. In A Killing in the Hills, the place is Acker’s Gap, West Virginia, a small town hard hit by addiction and the illegal prescription drug trade where Bell Elkins, a local girl made good, but with a traumatic past, has returned to take on the community’s ills as […]



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