James Lee Burke – Cannonball Read 17

July-August 2024 Leftovers

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain

Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney

Confucius for Christians: What and Ancient Chinese Worldview Can Teach Us about Life in Christ by Greg A. Ten Elshof

Lucky At Cards by Lawrence Block

A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block

Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK by Gerald Posner

Doing the Devil's Work by Bill Loehfelm

The Kneeling Man: My Father's Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Leta McCullough Seletzky

The Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter

Burning Angel by James Lee Burke

The Queen City Detective Agency by Snowden Wright

Poetic Justice by Andrea J. Johnson

September 14, 2024 by Jake Leave a Comment

Because I’ve been posting most of my reviews due to Bingo, I haven’t kept up with the leftover ones until now. Hope everyone had a good summer. It’s my least favorite time of year but this one wasn’t so bad. Heartsick***: I took this book too seriously when I tried to read it the first time. I relaxed and enjoyed the ride the second. Goofy fun, nothing more. Brief Answers to the Big Questions****: I do enjoy listening to Hawking’s desire to push the boundaries […]

Davy Jones Locker

Dixie City Jam by James Lee Burke

September 25, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

Read as part of CBR13Bingo: Machine. The book revolves around a missing Nazi sub sunk in the Louisiana Gulf Coast as a MacGuffin. Sigh. Every Dave Robicheaux novel will feature things that will both delight and frustrate me… The good… -Some wonderful descriptions of south Louisiana atmosphere, both weather and culture. You really feel like your transported to the place but not in a gratuitous way. -A few True Detective-esque reflections on the nature of life and crime that’ll take my breath away and keep me […]

Extra Reading

Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

Players by Don DeLillo

A Stained White Radiance by James Lee Burke

Louise Hathcock: Queen of the State Line Mob by Robert Broughton

Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark

June 7, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

I’m trying to document all of the books I read on here to better hit my cannonball numbers. These are ones I’ve been meaning to upload into combined reviews but haven’t. Some are good, some are eh, but most of them just didn’t merit a lot of words from me at the time I finished them for various reasons. Who Is Maud Dixon? *** For a similar identity-based thriller I read last year, a reviewer derisively pegged it as The Talented Mr. Rip-off. I didn’t […]

Heaven’s Prisoners – James Lee Burke (1988)

Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke

April 12, 2021 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The second in the Dave Robicheaux novels. I liked the first one a lot, and did not like this one nearly as much. I will fully admit that when I was a teenager, I put some energy into finding a tape of the truly terrible movie version of this because of some famous nudity. The idea of Alec Baldwin as a grizzled Vietnam vet and retired police detective is absurd, not discounting that he’s ten years too young for the role. The mystery begins with […]

Crescent City

A Morning for Flamingos by James Lee Burke

March 31, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

After being slightly disappointed with Black Cherry Blues, the third David Robicheaux offering from James Lee Burke, I found this a return to form even if it follows a similar formula: drugs, old acquaintances, and every Italian in south Louisiana being involved in the Mafia. What made this one an improvement, and hopefully a pivot to the series, is how Robicheaux develops a relationship with the head mobster in the middle of the maelstrom. Previously, they’ve all been two-dimensional antagonists but this time, he bonds with […]

Time to Ketchup

Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke

Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York by Elon Green

The Revelators by Ace Atkins

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

March 27, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

Because I read two behemoth 660+ page books back-to-back, I went on a little reading binge this week to “ketchup.” I liked most of these, two more so than the two others. Black Cherry Blues *** I want to go through the David Robicheaux series for two reasons: 1. I love Louisiana and 2. I want to see how Burke develops this story. After enjoying Heaven’s Prisoners, I found this a step back for multiple reasons… 1. Burke pads an already thin story with a lot […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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