Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
In the last year, I’ve made it a point staying on top of the hot book du jour that caught my fancy. Most of the time, the hype is so suffocating, I have to put it down and come back to it. There’s nothing wrong with the book, but after hearing for months about how life altering it is, the expectations become impossible to reach. I usually come back to those books and wind up enjoying them independent of noise. I’m also trying hard not […]
The Less Dead by Denise Mina
As I am often so critical of stories that use adoption and/or foster care as a plot device for tragedy or a reveal as to why the Big Bad is so Bad with their Badness, allow me to sing the praise of one that does adoption mostly well. At least from my point of view, which is not one of an adoptee. I’m the parent of an adoptee so it provides me some insight but, obviously, that doesn’t compare. Still, from what I do know, […]
Death in the Family by Tessa Wegert
There are two things going on with this book, one I loved, the other I just found meh. The good thing is the main case. It’s a Knives Out esque Rich People Being Bad tale playing out on a storm swept island. I liked the way our heroine, Det. Shana Merchant navigated between the good, bad, and ugly of this family, while Tessa Wegert impressively for a rookie effort did a good job peeling back the layers to get to the conclusion. 99% of the […]
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
Happy Cannonball Read 15! This isn’t my first read of 2023, but it’s the first one that merited a review. Shrines of Gaiety is one I put down before Christmas because I didn’t have the time and wanted to fully engage with it. I picked it back up this week hoping it wouldn’t tail off…and it didn’t. Even the ending, which many didn’t like, I enjoyed and I’m almost willing to forgive Kate Atkinson for her past transgressions as to why I can’t get into […]
The Burning Room by Michael Connelly
Nineteen Eighty Three by David Peace
Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder by Steve Hodel
And There He Kept Her by Josh Moehling
The Crossing by Michael Connelly
The Nice Guys by Charles Ardai
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 by Daniel Walker Howe
Happy Holidays! Here are the books I finished this month that didn’t merit full reviews due to time constraints and/or a lack of 250 words to describe them… The Burning Room**** Usually with Bosch books, I can tell within the first 30 pages if they’re gonna be good or not. This one was different. I didn’t have a sense for it at first and had a little trouble connecting with it but it turned out to be great. I liked Connelly’s integration of Lucia Soto, […]
The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh
When you have a reputation for loading your book with twists and turns, it can make for a less pleasant reading experience for the reader because their sense are heightened and they know all the tricks. Still, I was legitimately surprised at the way Clare Mackintosh’s The Last Party broke, both for the twist and for the reveal of the killer. The setup made me roll my eyes: two people who slept together on New Years Eve don’t realize the other is a cop and are assigned […]
