Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Three Mysteries for a Cozy Spooky Season

Still Life by Louise Penny

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

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October seems to be flying by – suddenly, the weather is cool enough for sweaters most days, the electricity bill is FINALLY declining, and we are seeing ghosts and pumpkins everywhere. The October Vibe is always welcome – I love the early part of the end of the year, which is both more macabre and somehow less melancholy than the upcoming holiday season. I often try to read something vaguely spooky for October – but rarely do I get it just right. Two years ago, […]

“They lead ‘still’ lives, waiting.”

Still Life by Louise Penny

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My husband and I started watching the Three Pines series on Amazon Prime, which was enjoyable; Chief Inspector Gamache, played by Alfred Molina, is a delight of eyebrows. The television series reminded me that I likely hadn’t read Ms. Penny’s earlier works though I have picked up the occasional book in an airport bookstore but have moved haphazardly through the series; thus, I decided to start at the first book. Sill Life draws Chief Inspector Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec to the delightfully bucolic […]

A thriller in Paris.

All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #16) by Louise Penny

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This was a major improvement on the last few books. It feels like Penny is getting her groove back. This book featured an implausibly large conspiracy, and I didn’t even think to complain about it once! The whole book takes place in Paris. Gamache and Reine-Marie are in Paris because Annie and Beauvoir’s baby is coming, and they want to be there for the birth (they moved to Paris last book, if you recall). The Gamache’s other son Daniel, who I dislike, also lives in […]

Hopefully the last one of these I three-star for a while.

A Better Man (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #15) by Louise Penny

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Not too much to say about this one. Not one of my favorites of this series. Parts of it I really liked, and parts of it I really did not. It’s been over a month now, and I’ve read 1,000 books since then, so I’m really not remembering specifics here. I remember there was a missing woman, and that plotline was interesting. I wished I was more interested in the plotline where Gamache comes back to be the head of the homicide department, a move […]

The only thing wrong with small towns are the people who live there.

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

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Dare I hope that I will continue enjoying the later Gamache books much more than the early ones? This series has really been touch and go for me since the beginning, but I’ve enjoyed most of the later ones quite a bit. Glass Houses was no exception, even with a plot that’s ludicrous even by Louise Penny standards (in addition to the weapons of mass destruction from a few books ago, the town of Three Pines is now also [SPOILER] the #1 location on the Canadian/U.S. border […]

“Life was far from harried here. But neither was it still.”

Still Life by Louise Penny

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In a small village in Quebec, a beloved retired teacher is found dead in the woods. She has been shot through the heart by an arrow. Is it murder, or simply a tragic hunting accident? Enter Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, sent from Montreal to investigate. In the way of murder mysteries everywhere, the tiny village of Three Pines is full of odd characters, many of whom are hiding secrets. This is not quite a cozy mystery, and not quite a procedural, either. What this book […]



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