Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

If you think your flat is haunted by a murderous ghost, why would you try to summon said ghost?

Svarte-Mathilda by Tor Arve Røssland

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3.5 stars Twenty years after a teenage girl was brutally murdered in a small town near Bergen, Elizabeth moves into the long-empty flat with her mother. Elizabeth’s parents are going through a divorce, and in a tragic accident a while back, Elizabeth’s older brother died in a fire. She hates that they had to move away from her old home and her friends in Bergen, that her mother doesn’t seem to want to talk to her at all, and she certainly doesn’t like their new […]

Not until I helped kill a man did I realize how complex an act a murder can be

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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A month or two before, I would have been appalled at the idea of any murder at all. But that Sunday afternoon, as I actually stood watching one, it seemed the easiest thing in the world. ― Donna Tartt, The Secret History “Time, and repeated screenings, have endowed the memory with a menace the original did not possess. -Donna Tartt, The Secret History Based on my experience reading The Goldfinch, I knew that my next Donna Tartt book would be a serious undertaking. After being […]

“Sometimes, an accident can be an unhappy woman’s best friend.”

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

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I’ve been sitting here trying to think about how to write about this book, and it’s sort of defeating me. I keep thinking of sentences to start the review, and then dismissing them because I hate them. Okay, so here we go again, let’s see if this sticks: This is one of King’s rare experimentally playful books. It feels weird to say that a book that is what this book is about (abuse, husband murder, caretaking) and features what this book features (old ladies who […]

Don’t sit, don’t stay

Stray Dogs: Dog Days by Tony Fleeces

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Stray Dogs: Dog Days by  Tony Fleeces is a standalone story, but it would help to read the first book. This is the story of the dogs from the first graphic novel and how their side of things plays (or really does not play) out. These are the fill-ins of possible questions you might have had. Spoiler: these are the beloved pets of the woman that were killed in the first graphic novel, but it is also a psychological thriller. These short stories are how […]

New Rural Chinese Mystery Series!

Thief of Souls by Brian Klingborg

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Thief of Souls is the first book in the Inspector Lu Fei mystery series. I’m not sure how long the series is intended to go, but I know a second book was released earlier this year. In fact, Bookpage’s review of the newest installment is what had me track this one down at my local library. Inspector Lu Fei is a mid-level law enforcement agent for China’s Public Security Bureau (PSB). He lives and works in the rural agricultural town of Raven Valley. The reader […]

Toxic Friendships That Lead to Murder

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

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CBR Bingo: Snakes The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley was the December 2021 Mocha Girls Read book club selection. The theme was “snow on the cover”. I’ve heard a bunch of hype around this book. I am also a sucker for a cozy mystery or a thriller tv show. So I was more than a little intrigued. Everyone is a suspect so this works rather nicely for the “Snakes” square. We meet a group of friends who went to Oxford together and are stuck in […]



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