Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

World Needs Bad Men

Corruption City by Horace McCoy

Blood on the Moon by James Ellroy

L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy

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I don’t necessarily agree with the title, which comes from the famous exchange from season one of the TV show True Detective. But since it’s thematic of the three books I read recently, I decided to go with it. I hate coming up with titles. Corruption City ***** A fun crime tale that should have been better. McCoy lays out a good story but halfway through, it’s like an editor reminded him it’s a pulp novel so he has to take shortcuts. Still an entertaining tale. McCoy might […]

Together We Cry

Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption, and Cover-Up of America's Greatest Unsolved Murder by Piu Marie Eatwell

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As much as I love Los Angeles stories and true crime tales, I’ve long avoided reading about the murder of Elizabeth Short. I did read James Ellroy’s fictional take and watch I Am The Night but both of those were kind of pop pulpy examinations with little basis in reality geared for entertainment. The main reason I’ve avoided it is I don’t find the murder and brutality of white women as fascinating as others, particularly white men, seem to do. I know there are many psychological […]

Dodger Blues

Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between by Eric Nusbaum

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If you’re a sports fan with a social conscience, you’ve probably had that moment where you realize that sports, professional and collegiate, are a labor-exploiting racist racket. It’s comparable to being a kid and realizing Santa Claus isn’t real. I’ve had those moments too, long before the backlash to Colin Kaepernick’s protest or seeing the words “Black Lives Matter” on a basketball court. Eric Nusbaum, a sports fan like me, had it when he was a kid, when an octogenarian former activist and HUAC victim […]

Murder, They Wrote (And Directed)

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas by Glenn Kenny

The Big Fix by Roger L. Simon

The Damsel by Richard Stark

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I went on a bit of an unexpected reading tear these last few days, which is good because I need to clear some space off the TBR pile in advance of reading Barack Obama’s new book.   Moonflower Murders 4 Stars ::Trigger Warning:: Tragic homosexual plot And how sad it is because the book didn’t need it. I was curious as to how Anthony Horowitz was going to follow up with his superb Magpie Murders series. He does so by giving us most of an Atticus Pünd novel, […]

California Loathe

Damage Control by Denise Hamilton

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(TW: mention of rape) There’s a lot going on in this book. Not sure the author pulls it all off but I know that I liked it and I wanted to keep reading to the very end. I had been meaning to read this one for a while. Not only does it wind up on a lot of lists featuring great LA mysteries but the writer herself has cited Ross Macdonald as a major inspiration. This has the setup of an Archer-esque story: someone going […]

Meh. I read it for the bingo square.

Strip by Thomas Perry

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This was the first Thomas Perry novel I’ve read, and it moved up my TBR list specifically because I needed a yellow book for CBR bingo. I was expecting ‘detective novel’ but this is more of a ‘thriller’- the detective, Lieutenant Slosser, is a bit part character who takes a backseat to the dueling main characters, aging strip club owner Manco Kapak, the man Manco thinks robbed him, Joe Carver, and the man who actually robbed him, Jefferson Davis Falkins.  While Manco is busy sending […]



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