Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Psycho Killer, Qu’est-ce que c’est?

In the Woods by Tana French

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Detective novels are a difficult concept to grasp, at some level. Why do we purposely seek out the sort of thing – violence, grisly murders, sex crimes, blood and viscera – we would do anything to avoid in real life? Then there are the tropes of the genre itself that work both for and against it, from the hyperconfident, competent yet over-empathic medical examiner to the tortured detective from a broken home and, more tellingly, the killer’s psychopathy. The majority of all murders are crimes […]

Our House, in the Middle of our Heath

The Likeness by Tana French

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I used to share a house with nine other people. They were cool people, all nine of them, but it was still far from perfect. I lacked a sense of privacy, even with my own room. I prefer going about things on my own. I can only imagine what it must have been like to spend every night in forceful merriment. In that sense, I tip my hat in the direction of the main character of The Likeness. Detective Cassandra “Cassie” Maddox receives a phone […]

Love of the Common People

Faithful Place by Tana French

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On a street in a working class neighbourhood in Dublin, in the mid-eighties, nineteen year old Francis ‘Frank’ Mackey stands outside, in the middle of the night, waiting for his girlfriend, Rosie, with whom he is about to make a run for England. She never shows up. Twenty years later, Frank, now a member of Dublin’s undercover police force, receives a call from his panicked relatives. Someone has found Rosie’s suitcase in an abandoned house at the end of the street, and Frank’s theory that […]

“Life had manifested the heart’s invisible furies on his face.”

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

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This book chewed me up and spit me back out. In a good way, of course. But seriously, I had a major book hangover after finishing this one. The writing, the story, the characters were all so, so beautiful. I started sobbing after it was over because I was so overwhelmed with how lovely what I just read was. The story follows Cyril Avery’s life, born in the 1940s, all the way up until present day. His mother was cruelly kicked out of her rural […]

Tana French – take my money.

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I have been recommending Tana French ad nauseum every time someone asks me for a book recommendation, ever since I discovered her delightful series in 2007. I have two left to read and I purposefully wait as looong as I can manage before reading one because they are so good and knowing I have one on the horizon makes me happy. That being said, imagine my delight as I’m perusing the “Hot Picks” aisle at my local library and see she has a new one […]

The Queen is in the Building. Tell me how you feeling?

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If you’ve followed me on GoodReads, you are well aware of my affinity for Tana French. A former parishioner of mine turned me onto her books three years ago. I liked In The Woods well enough but at the time, I felt there was something lacking. I didn’t know that…a. I was unfamiliar with French’s style (subsequent readings would help me appreciate it more) and b. it was a first novel and I’ve since learned to be more graceful with first novels. I then read The Likeness and […]



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