Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A meta murder mystery

The Word Is Murder (Hawthorne #1) by Anthony Horowitz

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Oh my god this book was so much fun! I thought Anthony Horowitz’s other novel (Magpie Murders) was meta, but this goes above and beyond! Okay, let me see if I can sum this plot up correctly without TOO much confusion: Diana Cowper, mother of a famous actor, walks into a funeral parlor and arranges her own funeral. Then she goes home, and someone murders her (gasp!) — that’s our murder mystery. But then there’s a detective named Daniel Hawthorne. He wants a ghostwriter to write […]

A book within a book!

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

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I read this in January. That’s how far behind I am. But I remember it pretty well. Which shows how good it was! The book opens with editor Susan Ryeland reading a manuscript by cranky author Alan Conway — the latest in a series about his cranky detective, Atticus Pünd. Conway has been working towards an ending for Pund for years, but Ryeland is hoping to get at least one or two more books from Conway first. So we meet Susan, and then dive into […]

Elementary, my dear…self.

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Read as part of CBR10 Bingo: Off a list. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/75892-the-most-anticipated-books-of-spring-2018.html This book should not have worked. A mystery writer inserting their self as a character is bad enough; most detectives are ancillaries for their creators as is. And my personal track record of the-creator-as-character is not good, though it’s limited to Stephen King’s appearance in his Dark Tower series. Yet it does work, at least well enough, because Anthony Horowitz is such a compelling writer. I discovered Horowitz earlier this year with his superb Magpie Murders book. Later, I found […]

Might frustrate you, but only temporarily

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I enjoyed this one! It was easy and fun to just chew through – I started it on the plane, got home, and promptly cracked it back open to finish. It’s a mystery within a mystery and I did enjoy that format for the most part. Head’s up, you mostly finish the first mystery at the halfway point in the book and have to read rest of it to get the answers. Our main character (I think her name is Susan? I can’t remember) is […]

Meta Midsomer Murders

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First of all, I’ve got to give credit to my dearest Angry Dimples. We live on opposite sides of the planet and she has been the most constant human presence in my life these past 5 or 6 years. When she asked if I would be interested in reading Anthony Horowitz’ Magpie Murders, I remembered my training and said yes. Magpie Murders is a mystery novel within a mystery novel. Susan Ryeland is an editor at a small publishing house in London. She is the editor for […]

Meta Mystery!

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Here’s your 2017 beach read. It’s a murder mystery set within a murder mystery, a meta-mystery, if you will, that peers with a gimlet eye at both the process of writing and the publishing industry. This book is great fun to read and stocked full of characters who draw you in and/or repulse you. Both mysteries will keep the reader firmly planted in his/her seat until all whodunnits have been revealed in a most satisfactory way. The novel opens with Susan Ryeland just home from […]



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