Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Don’t Let Them Eat Cake!

Arya Winters and the Tiramisu of Death by Amita Bryant

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Have been trying to get my hands on this one for a while, ever since reading Amita Murray’s piece on the need for sex in cozy mysteries (I completely agree!). While I enjoyed the book itself, I’m glad I didn’t pay for it. This is one that barely clears the 4-star threshold. I appreciate what Amita Murray is trying to do: give a refreshing, sexy take on cozy mysteries with a lead that’s younger and more misanthropic than your average blue haired Miss Marple. I […]

We Thought We Knew Ye

Endless Night by Agatha Christie

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Read as part of cbr13bingo: fauna. There’s a raven on the cover. Endless Night is the rare Agatha Christie standalone and I’m finding that between this, A Pale Horse, and And Then There Were None, I’m finding that I may enjoy her standalone works more than those that feature her superstar heroes Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. (A Crooked House may be the exception to this rule. That’s one I liked a lot less than I thought I would.) I think without the need to shoehorn the large personality and abrasive, […]

“What do ladies wear beneath their riding trousers?” “I would think an infamous rake would already know.” “I was never infamous. In fact, I’m fairly standard as far as rakes go.”

A Cold-Hearted Rake (The Ravenels #1) by Lisa Kleypas

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In one word: Roguish Cannonball Read Bingo: Gateway My one word may seem a little on the nose because “rake” is right there in the title, but this is a fun romp about three roguish rakes (or two and a half really, since one fellow is introduced mainly as the set-up to book #2 in the series) who have forsaken love for either leisure or work but might be (okay, definitely will be) answering the siren song of a woman soon. Though I started with […]

Fire Fire Everywhere

The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor

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This book. Hmm. I think it would be easier to break this down into four parts: a thing I loved, I thing I liked, a thing I disliked and a thing I hated. A thing I loved… Being a mainline Protestant minister in  the post-church western world, I think CJ Tudor captures the subtleties and nuances of what parish ministry is like. She herself is not religious but whoever advised her did an excellent job. I appreciated it. A thing I liked… I don’t read […]

This is a journey …..

Steeple by John Allison

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Steeple is a perky journey that John Allison takes us on to find Satan and the good works they do. No, it is a journey that Allison takes us on to find a DILF (or a Priest I would like to friend on Facebook). No, it is a journey of a new Church of England minister, named Billie, who used to dabble in things as a teen, has her car blown up on her way to her new assignment, and who offers her thumb to […]

Reading, Reading, Reading

Broken Places by Tracy Clark

The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie

Solos by Kitty Burns Florey

The Lady Upstairs by Halley Sutton

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Finishing off the year right with another round of great crime fiction… Broken Places 4 stars A really good debut novel that’s pure Chicago without being annoying. A little predictable towards the end but well-written nonetheless. Also, much love for featuring black Roman Catholicism, which is a different expression than the commonly mass produced (re:white) Roman Catholicism of crime novels and movies.   The A.B.C. Murders 4 stars This one was about to highlight why I’m not a big Christie fan, despite usually enjoying her novels. Whereas […]



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