Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Decent Mystery

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

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After wiping my emotional resources out with a book about the Native American genocide, I decided I needed a mystery to give myself a break from the emotional weight. Louise Penny’s A Rule Against Murder fit the bill. Quebec Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is celebrating his anniversary with his wife at a luxurious lodge edged by a lake deep in the forest. A family there is also having what appears to be an uncomfortable reunion. The Morrow matriarch is married to her second husband, and […]

The epitome of a mom mystery

Still Life by Louise Penny

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When deciding on a book for our January book club, we wanted to do an Agatha Christie adjacent cozy murder mystery and someone suggested Still Life by Louise Penny. The immediate reaction of many of us was to say “my mom loves this series!” or “my mom has read all of Louise Penny’s books!” Still Life is a murder mystery set in the small Canadian village of Three Pines. It follows Chief Inspector Gamache, a homicide detective who doesn’t see much homicide and his team […]

Ultimately Comforting and Hopeful

All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny

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This is the 16th Inspector Gamache mystery, and I’m honestly impressed with how consistent these books are. There’s been a couple that I didn’t care for much or had trouble getting into, but on the whole these books always work for me. All the Devils are Here was no different–in fact, I think it was one of my favorites thus far. Armand Gamache, his wife Reine-Marie, and his godfather Stephen are in Paris visiting Armand and Reine-Marie’s children and their families–including Jean-Guy Beauvoir, Armand’s former second in […]

Freeze Frame

Still Life (Armand Gamache #1) by Louise Penny

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Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is called out to the town of Three Pines, where artist and beloved local icon Jane Neal has been found dead. At first this appears to be a hunting accident; Neal has been shot with an arrow in the middle of the woods. But all is not what it appears, and soon Gamache is trying to decipher who, in this tight-knit and small community could’ve killed Neal. I’m not much of a fan of the whole cozy genre, and I didn’t […]

I’m on a Reading Roll – Which Makes It Hard to Keep Up With Reviews

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

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A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers I think I only have one Becky Chambers book left to read, and then I’ll have to wait for her to come back from the hiatus she’s currently on. I enjoyed both of the Monk and Robot books, though for some reason they don’t seem to be quite sticking with me the way the Wayfarers books did. Both novellas follow monk Dex and robot Mosscap and are mostly about their relationship […]

Catching Up On Some Reviews

Still Life by Louise Penny

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

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Still Life by Louise Penny Back when I was hoping to complete a Cannonball Bingo, Still Life was my choice for the North America square. The first novel in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series, it’s set in the little town of Three Pines in Canada and follows the search for the murderer of 76-year-old Jane Neal. I don’t often read mysteries, so I was surprised at how Penny approached the mystery. We spend a lot of time with other characters in the town […]



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