Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

> FAQ Home
> Tag: true crime

BadFellas

Murder Machine by Gene Mustain & Jerry Capeci

by Leave a Comment

Kind of wonder what could have been if Martin Scorsese had gotten his hands on this book before Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguy. This is Goodfellas, only if the murder montage was like half the movie. I knew the name Roy DeMeo and that he was the head of perhaps the most murderous crew in Mafia history but I didn’t know exactly what is story was or how it operated. On a bit of a mob kick, I finally picked this one up. It’s a brutal tale and both writers […]

“Ultimately, the reason Harvey Weinstein followed the route he did is because he was allowed to, and that’s our fault. As a culture that’s our fault.”

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

by Leave a Comment

Like a lot of people, I read this in close proximity to She Said, the other book published in 2019 about breaking the Harvey Weinstein story. (I liked She Said better. I liked that both authors were ladies, and I liked the close focus on true journalism and building relationships with their sources; it really centered the women’s stories and how they had been affected.) But this one is different enough in tone and style that it brings a lot to the table, as well, […]

Another one on the meh pile

The Wicked Boy The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer by Kate Summerscale

by Leave a Comment

If I’m not in a reading slump this year, I seem to be in a reviewing slump. This one hasn’t been helped by not really having much of substance to say about it almost a month after reading it, a surprise to me given how much I enjoyed what Summerscale I’d previously read (The Suspicions of Mr Whicher). The Wicked Boy takes a look at another Victorian murder case which the newspapers were fond of writing about, in which 13 year old Robert Coombes and […]

Demonic Duo

Forever by Pete Hamill

Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt

by 1 Comment

Knocked out two books this past weekend, one fiction, the other non-fiction, both somewhat relating to the supernatural. Forever 3 stars Considered by no less than Lawrence Block to be the great New York City novel, I knew I had to grit my teeth through Forever after failing twice before, especially considering the recent death of its author, Pete Hamill. And while I don’t like it nearly as much as Block, I’m glad I did. Hamill is a good writer; I’ve already added another of his books to […]

The Firm

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

by 1 Comment

That Elizabeth Holmes was able to dupe such noted luminaries as Joe Biden, the Clintons, Rupert Murdoch, James Mattis, George Shultz, and Henry Kissinger should cure you and anyone else who suffers from imposter syndrome. Bad Blood is one of those books I’ve seen lauded in every corner of literatti space. For months, stacks of them were available at local stores. I probably wouldn’t have had interest in the story otherwise but since it’s been everywhere, I decided finally to pull it from my local library. […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay