Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Classic Swedish Noir

Martin Beck Book Series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

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In 1965 writing partners (and partners in real life) Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö embarked on a quest – to write and publish ten novels in ten years featuring Stockholm’s Martin Beck. The novels, police procedurals, were structured as not only mysteries, but reflections and commentary on modern Swedish society. The duo wore alternating chapters – but since I haven’t read any of their individual works I couldn’t;t guess who wrote which chapter in any given novel. The books are cohesive and follow policeman Martin […]

Bloody tango steps in Sweden

The Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell

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This is the fave thriller of a friend of mine, I found it on one of the free bookshelves around town and gave it a try. I read quite a few of the Wallander cases as a teen, but I mostly only remember the gory violence and not much else. While not a Wallander case, this definitely doesn’t disappoint either when it comes to cruel ways to die. A former police man is found flogged to death in his house somewhere in the Swedish boondocks, […]

Ice and blood and family secrets

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Growing up in a small town in the Deep Midwest, I dreamed of traveling to all of the exotic places I heard and read about, even though it seemed out of reach. My family was poor and never took any real vacations, not even a road trip to the Black Hills or Yellowstone, and until my freshman year of college, I’d really only been to four states including my own. I didn’t see the ocean until I was 18, didn’t fly until I was 22, […]

Payback is a bitch

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When Sonny isn’t on the nod, alone in his prison cell at Staten, he is The Confessor. Inmates of all persuasions come to him for absolution, for healing. Others, like a fallen minister and a crooked lawyer, get him to do the confessing for others. It’s been like this for 10 years, until lifer Johannes Halden comes to unburden himself to The Son. Then the story really takes off. From the writer who created detective Harry Hole (10 books so far), comes a stand alone […]



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