Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

January 2022 Leftovers

Hit Parade by Lawrence Block

Sex Criminals, Volume 1: One Weird Trick by Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky

Devils In Exile by Chuck Hogan

Ex Machina, The Deluxe Edition: Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

Munich by Robert Harris

Shella by Andrew Vachss

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler

The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz

No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfeld

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris

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My resolution for Cannonball Read in 2022 is to only write reviews where I feel like I have much to say and then dump the others in a singular post at the end of the month to track how much I’ve read. This’ll spare me from writing 250+ words about books that I can’t even think of a hundred for. So… Hit Parade **** I enjoy these books and while this is the one I maybe enjoyed the least (did EVERY story need cutaway conversations with […]

Standing on One Two Fifth

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

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Colson Whitehead writing a crime novel is exactly what it sounds so depending on how you feel about him as a writer will impact how you feel about this book. I realize that’s a pedantic thing to say because that’s true of almost every writer. But I emphasize it here because I’ve usually never been able to be in sync with Whitehead’s style. I couldn’t finish Underground Railroad and while I liked parts of Zone One and the concept as a whole, he kept losing me with tangents. Still, […]

It’s Set in Scotland. Of Course it’s Bleak.

Knots and Crosses (Inspecor Rebus #1) by Ian Rankin

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Edinburgh, 1986. A number of young girls disappear. They’re abducted seemingly randomly, strangled and their corpses abandoned. All of Edinburgh’s police force is on top of it and so is John Rebus, a chain smoking, hard drinking former marine who now works as a burnt-out office drone for Edinburgh’s constabulary. It’s not that he doesn’t care, but the work he does is monotonous and neverending, and he’s far away from the action – at least, he thinks so. But someone keeps sending him letters, letters […]

Last Call

The Cocktail Waitress by James M. Cain

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This month’s Hard Case Crime was a real winner. The kind of book I wish they could find and/or publish more often. Of course, unpublished works from crime masters aren’t exactly lying around waiting. Charles Ardai and co. lucked out when some mutual connects hooked them up with the last James Cain manuscript, one that had never seen the light of day. Cain is often considered part of the Hardboiled Trinity, along with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Yet he didn’t write the kind of […]

“Are you in a cult?”

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

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Well, I might be! Really, I’m inundated with cultish language- much like most of you are as well! The above question, posited by our own CBR gurus and shared across social media, was attached to an excellent review by faintingviolet. Her review kindled a blaze with other CBR readers- myself included! Our Goodreads walls are packed with update-after-update barrages of people frantically ripping through this read! I am very much looking forward to the Cultish flood headed our way. Now- back to the question. Am I […]

Slight prequel to Cormac Reilly series

The Sisters by Dervla McTiernan

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This prequel to Dervla McTiernan’s Cormac Reilly series takes us back to the beginning of Carrie Ryan’s career, when she was a keen young constable striving to break into the detective boys’ club.  Carrie is diligent, with excellent investigative instincts and people skills, but she is beginning to realise that this may be less useful in building a career than being accepted as one of the lads. Carrie shares a small studio apartment with her sister Aifric, a junior barrister who has yet to build […]



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