Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“This is how you save the world, Emory. One failure at a time, but always in the right direction”

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

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I loved Stuart Turton’s The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (except for one aspect of the ending) so I picked up his The Last Murder at the End of the World. I didn’t like it quite as much as his other book, but it was a solid and diverting read. Slight spoilers ahead. The story takes place on an island that is surrounded by a deadly fog. Almost 100 years before, the human population created this dangerous fog (it’s never said how or why) […]

The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

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When a scientist is murdered in the last outpost of humanity left in the world, the villagers must seek justice or all face death. I read Turton’s debut The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle several years ago, and while I enjoyed piecing together the mystery and the science fiction underpinnings of the story, I though the solution got too convoluted in the end. This book has a similar problem, but as the focus for much of the story is the science fiction setting and […]

A Holmesian Mystery-Horror Set at Sea

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

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It is 1634, and a fleet owned by the Dutch East India Company is set to depart Batavia for Amsterdam, an 8-month long journey that will face perils throughout. Aboard are Jan Haan, the Governor-General of Batavia on his way home to join the ruling body of the Dutch East India Company, accompanied by his wife Sara Wessel, daughter Leah, and mistress Creesjie. Also on board are the world’s greatest detective, Samuel Pipps, arrested for an unspecified crime, and his bodyguard, Arent Hayes. The day […]

Rashoman Mystery but better

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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After my last few books, I wanted to read a mystery. A nice amouse bouche, a pallete cleanser for my literary pallete. And boy this did not disappoint. The basic premise of this book is, we are following the MC, as they experience the day through the lens of 7 (+0.5) different people. There is no trick to it. It is, for a lack of a better word, magic. He lives the other people’s life via magic. The two twists are as follows. 1, the […]

Intriguing, but Confusing

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

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The story: A small group of villagers on an island are the last survivors on Earth after a deadly fog wiped out most of humanity. The residents of the village include regular villagers as well as three “elders,” who are scientists that work to keep the fog at bay thanks to a complex security system and lead the island. One morning the villagers awake to discover that one of the scientists has been murdered, and this murder has triggered a change in the security system. […]

What the hell is going on here?

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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My book club picked another book that I’d never heard of and most likely would not have read without their peer pressure. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) by Stuart Turton takes place on a run-down English estate, probably in the mid 1900’s. It is a unique mix of genres: there is a classic, Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery, a body switching main character who doesn’t know who he is or why he’s there, and a science-fiction-y explanation for everything. Our protagonist, whose name we later […]



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