Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Jake

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I love reading! (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Jake's Quick Questions interview.)

Jake's Reviews:

Dirty Jobs

South of Heaven by Jim Thompson

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The Year of Jim Thompson continues…with my least favorite version of his novels: the semi-autobiographical one that describes a job in granular detail and tries to shoehorn a crime story in. A great example of this is Nothing More Than Murder. I thought learning more about how the business of movie theater ownership worked in the 1940s would make for a compelling tale. I was wrong, very wrong. I don’t remember much about the crime story in that one but I do recall a lot about handling […]

Murder Your Darlings

Bunny by Mona Awad

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This one was recommended to me by a friend of mine and I’m glad I gave it a shot. While it’s not my normal thing, Mona Awad’s prose is crisp and she tells a good story. The whole thing is a horror/satire work on the nature of grad school work and the feeling of belonging or not belonging to a particular clique. I think the horror bits work better than the satire ones. When Awad shifts into situations of hyperrealism and dream states, she describes […]

A New Start

The Slasher by Michael Collins

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Because he toiled in relative obscurity compared to his contemporaries, I don’t know much about Dennis Lynds’ (“Michael Collins”) evolution as a writer. Part of my disillusionment with the last few Dan Fortune novels, which sag in talent after an awesome start, is how Collins seemed to regress. Obviously, when you do a series for a long time, a rhythm develops and plots become familiar but my biggest issue was how Lynds reverted to lazy, familiar PI tropes that weren’t there in his earlier work. […]

Telephone!

A Walk Among the Tombstones by Lawrence Block

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One thing I’ve come to appreciate about Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series the further I get into it is how unique each book feels. Sure, as with any writer one reads a lot of, I’m used to Block’s rhythms and characters but every plot and finale feels fresh. I’m ten books into this series and it’s remarkable that he can keep such a streak going. There are other series I like more than this one but I can’t say the same about them. Block is […]

Tough Decisions

Dark Night of the Soul by Gary Reilly

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I don’t know what to make of Gary Reilly’s Dark Night of the Soul. I liked it for what it is and it’s a vast improvement over its predecessor in the Murph series, Doctor Lovebeads. But it’s also a departure from the rest of the series, far more introspective and maudlin than the neo-cozy label it’s earned. There aren’t nearly as many laughs as I’m accustomed to in an Asphalt Warrior novel. The interesting thing about it is while Murph usually gets caught up in someone’s nonsense, this time, […]

Truth is Not Always Freeing

The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly

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I’ve never followed a linear pattern with the Harry Bosch series. Trunk Music was my first read in it and I grabbed that one specifically because I liked the plot summary. It’s still the best one by far. The Black Echo is an uninspired mishmash of cop novel cliches. Angel’s Flight and The Wrong Side of Goodbye are fine for what they are. Rene Ballard seems like she may be an interesting character; The Late Show is a good introductory novel for her and not much else in terms of gripping mystery. Connelly is […]



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