Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Last Time I Lied is a slow burn that sticks with you

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

by Leave a Comment

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager wasn’t exactly what I expected. This was my first Riley Sager book but I doubt it’ll be my last. In my head, it would be more like Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places – a woman researching a past crime, not sure who to trust and maybe trusting the wrong people, ending with a big climax. I guess it was sort of that, but in a way it was darker. Darker than your brother murdering your whole family as […]

Tough Decisions

Dark Night of the Soul by Gary Reilly

by Leave a Comment

I don’t know what to make of Gary Reilly’s Dark Night of the Soul. I liked it for what it is and it’s a vast improvement over its predecessor in the Murph series, Doctor Lovebeads. But it’s also a departure from the rest of the series, far more introspective and maudlin than the neo-cozy label it’s earned. There aren’t nearly as many laughs as I’m accustomed to in an Asphalt Warrior novel. The interesting thing about it is while Murph usually gets caught up in someone’s nonsense, this time, […]

Wait a Minute, Haven’t I Seen This Before?

HeartSick by Chelsea Cain

by Leave a Comment

All right, the writing was pretty decent, no quibbles there.  I just got hung up on the impossible key character. So, real life serial killers, right?  Dime a dozen out there, right?  And you know how they always turn out to be these gorgeous blonde brilliant psychopaths, who not only kill scores on their own, but even cultivate their minions, much like a troop of Manchurian candidates, who at any time will unleash their own personal killing spree just to glorify her, because she’s just […]

Truth is Not Always Freeing

The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly

by Leave a Comment

I’ve never followed a linear pattern with the Harry Bosch series. Trunk Music was my first read in it and I grabbed that one specifically because I liked the plot summary. It’s still the best one by far. The Black Echo is an uninspired mishmash of cop novel cliches. Angel’s Flight and The Wrong Side of Goodbye are fine for what they are. Rene Ballard seems like she may be an interesting character; The Late Show is a good introductory novel for her and not much else in terms of gripping mystery. Connelly is […]

The country house party from Hell.

Proper English (England, #0) by K.J. Charles

by 2 Comments

This wasn’t nearly as good as Think of England, one of my top five books from 2019, but it was still top quality, as I’ve come to expect from my K.J. Charles books. Proper English is an indirect prequel to Think of England, as it takes place two years earlier than the previous book, and shows how Fen and Pat met (they are together at the time Think of England is grappling with its own disastrous house party). But you really don’t need to read […]

An open letter to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse

Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse

by Leave a Comment

Mr. Abdul-Jabbar and Ms. Waterhouse, Thank you for hearing my plea for more volumes in your wonderful Mycroft Holmes series. As I noted in my review of the first two novels, these books bring me such pure joy that as soon as I put one down, I regret having read so quickly. On top of that, this latest novel had me thinking that surely someone must be contemplating a movie or television series so I can enjoy the stories again in another dimension. To that […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo