Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The weakest one of these in a while.

Kingdom of the Blind (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #14) by Louise Penny

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Lots of mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I really liked the main conceit of the plot, that this old woman makes Gamache, Myrna, and a strange young man named Benedict the liquidators of her will, despite that none of them knew her. The woman, who called herself the Baroness, had a strange and interesting past, and as often happens in these books, a murder occurs. The B-plot of the book follows Cadet Amelia Choquet after she is expelled from the academy […]

Classic Swedish Noir

Martin Beck Book Series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

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In 1965 writing partners (and partners in real life) Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö embarked on a quest – to write and publish ten novels in ten years featuring Stockholm’s Martin Beck. The novels, police procedurals, were structured as not only mysteries, but reflections and commentary on modern Swedish society. The duo wore alternating chapters – but since I haven’t read any of their individual works I couldn’t;t guess who wrote which chapter in any given novel. The books are cohesive and follow policeman Martin […]

Cannonballing with Agatha.

4:50 from Paddington (Miss Marple, #7) by Agatha Christie

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I had a very good time with this one. Especially the beginning and ending. (The middle did get a bit squidgy.) The premise of this one has Miss Marple in it from the beginning, which is always nice, but even when that happens, she still takes a backseat in her own books. This time, it’s because she says she’s too old now to do her own footwork, so she enlists the services of Miss Lucy Eyelesbarrow to help her search for a body. The set […]

Poirot vs. A Serial Killer!

The ABC Murders (Hercule Poirot, #13) by Agatha Christie

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I’ve read a lot of Agatha Christie books at this point (but still have so many left! She was a gift) and this has to be one of my favorite so far. This was also the first of her novels I’ve not read by audiobook, and I liked it! (I do still love the indulgent feeling I get from listening to a Christie by audio, especially if it’s Dan Stevens reading it to me.) I will probably pepper in a few hard copies here and […]

“There is always a road back. If we have the courage to look for it, and take it. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I don’t know. I need help. These are the signposts. The cardinal directions.”

A Great Reckoning (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #12) by Louise Penny

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This is one of my favorites in this series so far, right up there with #5 and #9. It gave me everything that I like about this series with very little of what I don’t. A lot of authors by book twelve are just turning the cogs, phoning it in, and things can get stale. Penny at the very least seems to know how to keep things feeling fresh and new, and yet still give you the comfort of returning to check in with the […]

“You tell your lies and you think nobody knows. But there are two people who know. Yes – two people. One is le bon Dieu – and the other is Hercule Poirot.”

The Mystery of the Blue Train (Hercule Poirot, #6) by Agatha Christie

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This one wasn’t my favorite, though I liked it quite a bit by the end. I had a hard time at first getting a handle on the arc of the story, and Poirot doesn’t come in until about chapter ten, so there are just a bunch of POV characters you’re introduced to before you have any context for why they’re important to the story. I fully realize this is a technique employed by many books I have enjoyed in the past, but there was something […]



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