Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A Matter of “Pure Will”?

Voss by Patrick White

March 15, 2026 by LittlePlat Leave a Comment

I have an embarrassing confession to make: I have never read anything written by Patrick White. It’s odd, and somewhat disappointing really, that our only Australian-born Nobel Laureate for literature is so frequently passed over. For example, I never heard his name brought up once when I was studying English. He doesn’t seem to have much of a profile outside of Australia either. (Unlike say, Gerald Murnane, who seems to be slightly more recognized here in the US than at home.) So, I made the […]

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Fiction, History, Suspense Tagged With: Australia, historical fiction, Patrick White, psychological suspense

LittlePlat's CBR18 Review No:4 · Genres: Audiobooks, Fiction, History, Suspense · Tags: Australia, historical fiction, Patrick White, psychological suspense ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“It hits her full force that her mother is a mystery to her. She could have anything folded away inside her silence.”

The Hunter (Cal Hooper, #2) by Tana French

June 6, 2024 by narfna Leave a Comment

Who am I kidding, this is five stars. It didn’t hit me as hard as previous books of hers have, but there is no fault here. She’s just a master of character and atmosphere, and she knows how to seed a twist in such a way that it has thematic value, not just shock value. Like its predecessor, The Searcher, this is a slow burn character study of a mystery. Also like The Searcher, this is a mystery where the investigation isn’t even the third most important […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense Tagged With: Cal Hooper, crime, Irish, narfna, psychological suspense, Tana French, The Hunter

narfna's CBR16 Review No:28 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense · Tags: Cal Hooper, crime, Irish, narfna, psychological suspense, Tana French, The Hunter ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Good lord almighty, this book was depressing. #CBRBINGO – Adapt

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

October 11, 2022 by narfna 2 Comments

I was really looking forward to this one, but was unfortunately thwarted in my enjoyment by my own delicate little flower feelings. As it turns out, this is one of those books I like thinking about, writing about, and talking about more than I do the actual experience of reading of it. It put me in a terrible mood, and made me very unhappy. Wait, I take back the delicate flower thing. I’m more like a sponge, soaking up the atmosphere around me. And the […]

Filed Under: Suspense Tagged With: cbr14bingo, narfna, Patricia Highsmith, psychological suspense, Strangers on a Train, Suspense

narfna's CBR14 Review No:162 · Genres: Suspense · Tags: cbr14bingo, narfna, Patricia Highsmith, psychological suspense, Strangers on a Train, Suspense ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

I’m still not sure I’m ok after this one…

The Winters by Lisa Gabriele

September 13, 2021 by chelz.hawk Leave a Comment

    “Once I made up my mind to leave, a calm came over me. The fight was over. In fact, it felt less like leaving then like Asherley was pushing me out, rejecting me like a body rejecting an unfamiliar organ.” A modern twist on the classic “Rebecca” tale, our young heroine works for a charter company in the Caribbean and until she pays of the debt she owes her employer for her father’s funeral expenses, that is all she’s ever going to do. […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Romance, Suspense Tagged With: cbr13bingo, classic retelling, Creepy, Lisa Gabriele, plot twist, psychological suspense

chelz.hawk's CBR13 Review No:31 · Genres: Fiction, Romance, Suspense · Tags: cbr13bingo, classic retelling, Creepy, Lisa Gabriele, plot twist, psychological suspense ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“Cal feels like he ought to stand on a street corner handing out warnings, little pieces of paper that just say: Anyone can do anything.”

The Searcher by Tana French

December 17, 2020 by narfna 6 Comments

This was slower paced and less twisty-turny than her other books but I loved that about it. I liked her last book, The Witch Elm, but I loved this one. This is also a character study as well as a mystery/crime novel (that isn’t part of her Dublin Murder series), but here the protagonist is a former cop from Chicago who retired and decided to try and find peace in the Irish countryside. He bought a beaten down farmhouse and has spent a lot of […]

Filed Under: Mystery, Suspense Tagged With: crime fiction, irish fiction, literary, mystery, narfna, psychological suspense, Tana French, The Searcher

narfna's CBR12 Review No:181 · Genres: Mystery, Suspense · Tags: crime fiction, irish fiction, literary, mystery, narfna, psychological suspense, Tana French, The Searcher ·
Rating:
· 6 Comments

This was . . . weird.

Little Face (Spilling CID, #1) by Sophie Hannah

August 26, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

Well, this was an experience. Disappointing, kind of bonkers, somehow still readable, lots of plot holes. It felt good to clean it off my TBR, and I’ll probably continue the series just because I’m curious about the bizarre relationship between the two detectives, but boy was it not what I was expecting. The premise of this book is a good one, one that I don’t think it really delivers on: a woman leaves her house for the first time since her two week old baby […]

Filed Under: Mystery, Suspense Tagged With: British, little face, mystery, narfna, psychological suspense, Sophie Hannah, spilling cid

narfna's CBR12 Review No:103 · Genres: Mystery, Suspense · Tags: British, little face, mystery, narfna, psychological suspense, Sophie Hannah, spilling cid ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
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Recent Comments

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