Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Lighthearted version of Rebecca

The Last Mrs. Summers by Rhys Bowen

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The Royal Spyness series stars Lady Georgina Rannoch, twentysomething cousin to King George V. Set in the early 1930s, the books begin with Georgie trying to make her way in life without any family support or marrying a dreaded princeling. While her royal connections prevent her from being able to find a job, it doesn’t stop her from stumbling over a lot of dead bodies and solving their murders. It’s a cute, fun series that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The Last Mrs. Summers is […]

Timely satire or too soon?

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen

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Have you ever wondered what would happen if a petite, wealthy, elderly Republican woman were killed and eaten by a Burmese python? I hadn’t either until Carl Hiaasen put the idea in my head with his latest book, Squeeze Me. Angela Armstrong is the wildlife wrangler hired to remove a Burmese python from a luxury event location in Palm Beach, Florida. Before she can deliver the python’s corpse to the state, it’s stolen from her apartment. At the same time, word has gotten out that […]

Mediocre offering in a good series

Edinburgh Midnight by Carole Lawrence

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The Ian Hamilton Mysteries is a historical mystery series set in Edinburgh, Scotland in the late 1800s. It focuses on the work and personal life of fictional Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton. Each novel involves Hamilton and his partner Detective Sergeant Dickerson investigating a heinous murder. They are often helped by a street urchin named Derek McNair, Ian’s doctor-in-training brother, Donald, and Arthur Conan Doyle (yes, really). I loved the first two novels, Edinburgh Twilight and Edinburgh Dusk, when I read them a few years ago. […]

cbr12bingo – Red!

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch

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Every entry into Rivers of London starts with a splash; we are always diving head-first, sometimes literally, into rivers of blood. Every delightful cover, all done by Patrick Knowles, is a map with a big, red, bloody “X” marking the spot. Every cover is a map, every map is filled with teensy tiny detail, and every seemingly unrelated sketch or nursery rhyme lyric builds together into the marvelous mess that is London. I love his minute details; I feel like I’m looking at a Where’s Waldo illustration for […]

Two murders decades apart, and I’m sorry, your character did what now??

What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin

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Settling on 3.5 stars for this one, rounded down. The second half of the book was more engaging/enjoyable for me, as by that point I had started to feel more than irritation for the characters, and the plot unraveling was sort of cool. But it also lost me a little at the end, because one of the main twists/reveals does not make sense! The book follows Kelly Lund, who in 1980 at the age of seventeen was convicted of the murder of famous film director […]

Murder Investigation as a Capstone Project

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

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I always enjoy a good YA novel.  In recent years, I have read some really fun Young Adult mysteries.  A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson fits this genre.  I first saw this title advertised  in February as a Barnes and Noble YA book club selection.  I tried to get it from my library back then, but it only became available when my library recently reopened. Pipa decides to do her high school capstone project about the murder five years earlier of high […]



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