Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A great time was had.

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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A great time was had. People were slain, revenge was had, plots were foiled, and women of a certain age came out of retirement to clear their names and kick some ass. There’s also a cat named Kevin in here, and I just think that’s important. I don’t actually think I have too much to say about this one. There wasn’t much deep about it, it’s just a good book, a thriller but more on the cozy end than not. A cozy thriller! Who knew […]

“Forty years on one of the most elite assassin squads on earth and it finished like this, with a free cruise and a bouncy letter from a girl who signed her letters with hashtags.”

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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In ten words or less: Retired female assassins: promising premise, fumbles in execution. Retired female assassins are staring down the barrel of retirement when they’d rather still be staring down the barrel of a gun. They miss the action, but they’ve earned their rest and a cruise seems like, well, like something to do with plenty of time on their hands. The contract on the hitman trope is popular in books and in movies. However, Raybourn has taken us away from male characters and even […]

Girls Just Wanna Have . . . Fun?

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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Think Charlie’s Angels facing their sunset years.  Far more deadly and ruthless than Farah Fawcett and her pals though, and there is four of them.  And to celebrate their retirement, the Museum (their employer) is sending them on an all-expenses paid cruise.  Hmmm.  Doesn’t really seem like the sort of thing an assassin agency would do. And of course it’s not.  The crew seems oddly muscular, and Kevin can’t be trusted in the least.  Especially since Billie recognizes him as a fellow agent actually named […]

It’s the biggest and most dangerous dating show in the universe!

Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews

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This is not the place to start The Innkeeper Chronicles, as it’s the sixth installment overall (four full books and a novella come before it). This story has a LOT of callbacks to previous stories, so just start with Clean Sweep if you haven’t tried this yet. Innkeepers Dina DeMille and Sean Evans are still trying to recover from the last cosmic adventure that taxed them when they discover that Wilmos, the aging werewolf who’s pretty much Sean’s surrogate grandfather has been abducted. The traces […]

The Devil’s Details

Hit Man by Lawrence Block

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Read as part of CBR13Bingo: Gateway. This is an excellent introduction to Lawrence Block, one of my favorite writers. Also proved an excellent introduction for me to his Keller series.  I really don’t have the words to describe Lawrence Block. It’s an appreciation for him that has grown as I’ve gotten older and my tastes have evolved. In my 20s, I’d look for the pulpy mystery shlock with exciting hooks. Now that I’m older, I appreciate the mundane nature of life and how fictionally exciting […]

When the only person who knows all the secrets is six

Spy x Family vol 5 by Tatsuya Endo

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Bingo 13: Self Care I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned in previous reviews that I tend to turn to manga and comics for comfort reading. One of my current favorite series is Spy X Family, in which a husband, wife, and daughter are gathered and have to present an ideal picture to the world, but things can get awkward at home since everyone has a major secret: Dad is a spy, Mom’s an assassin, Bond the dog who gets premonitions of the future, and daughter is […]



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