Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Too much plot makes not a good thriller

Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea

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“I’m sorry, Avery. I love you, and we’ve been on some wild rides together. But this one might be too crazy for me to jump aboard.” Victoria Ford, the chief suspect in a murder investigation, died when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. Now, twenty years later, her remains have been identified, and Avery Mason, the journalist reporting on the story, realizes there is more to the case than anyone realized. Guys, I really wanted to like this book. Though I felt iffy about 9/11 […]

Matt Scudder – Nostalgic NYC Noir

When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

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My dad was a huge fan of the prolific author Lawrence Block. Block is best known for two series of books, one following ex NYC cop Matthew Scudder and his battles with alcohol and guilt, as well as a light-hearted series about the charming burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, who always seems to find himself on a job in a fabulous residence that also happens to contain a dead body. Most of the Scudder novels are included with my Audible subscription, so I have been enjoying revisiting […]

4, 4 for 4

Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life As A Weapon by Matt Fraction

Death Comes As The End by Agatha Christie

Country Dark by Chris Offutt

Heaven's A Lie by Wallace Stroby

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Over the weekend and into the early part of this week, I read four books. Each one merited four stars and all were good in their own unique way…   Hawkeye, Vol 1: My Life as a Weapon It’s good. I guess. No really, it’s good. All good. It’s fine. Just…it’s kind of why I don’t read a lot of comics: simplistic hero narratives with twee dialogue. I know this is what everyone wants thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m not sure it’s what […]

Jersey? Sure.

The Barbed-Wire Kiss by Wallace Stroby

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Hmmmmm. I really liked this book. It’s a great first novel and I promise to read more Wallace Stroby. Thing is, I wanted to like this book more. But it leans one some of my least favorite tropes in male-written crime fiction. The first chapter is one of the best first chapters I’ve read in a crime novel. It does a great job of introducing setting, protagonist and problem. Right away, I was pulled into its bleak, lower-class Jersey shore atmosphere. The dialogue was finely tuned and […]

Waiting to Die

Shoot the Moonlight Out by William Boyle

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William Boyle has done it again. I don’t know if he’ll ever write anything as delightfully manic as A Friend Is A Gift You Give Yourself. But as long as he keeps doing these Brooklyn-based character driven crime stories, I’m a happy reader. This one is familiar if you’ve read his others but you don’t need to in order to dive in. They’re loosely connected so you can start anywhere. Boyle uses the template of a crime novel to create a world of south Brooklyn that he […]

“I grinned stupidly at my whiskey for a few moments. Thinking over my job, which was harrowing. My task, which was nigh impossible. My face, which was mangled. My savings, which no longer existed.”

The Gods of Gotham (Timothy Wilde, #1) by Lyndsay Faye

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Always count on Lyndsay Faye for lots of atmospheric and interesting historical details, and a juicy, emotionally resonant mystery. This wasn’t my favorite of hers, but I’m definitely going to be continuing the series. Timothy Wilde has 400 dollars saved up, and a job tending bar, until a fire devastates his neighborhood, and injures him so severely his face becomes permanently disfigured. It’s 1845, and the NYC police department is in its infancy. There is a potato blight hitting Ireland, and thousands upon thousands of […]



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