Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Party in the City Where the Heat is On

Silent City by Alex Segura

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I enjoy crime fiction that effectively doubles as a tour guide. I’ve never been to Miami before so part of Silent City‘s allure for me was to learn more about the city. Charles Willeford does it somewhat effectively but he’s looking at it through the ethnographic lens of an old, racist white guy. Alex Segura gives me that and more. I appreciate writers who talk about their urban environments as if they actually dwell there. No “this is a good/bad neighborhood” kind of nonsense, but […]

Nine for the Tomb, and for all that was lost

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Official book description: The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman. Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit. Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as necromantic skeletons. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as […]

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Mucho Mojo by Joe R. Lansdale

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I hate the term “politically correct.” Let’s just get that out of the way. I think the idea of respecting people’s humanity as they want it to be respected is important. When the vast majority of a marginalized group say they don’t want to be addressed with a certain word or in a certain way, making the decision to listen to them is now the downfall of western civilization. Those of us who don’t share a racial, gender, body- or gender-oriented experience as someone else […]

Is there anyone NOT reading this series? If so, what is the matter with you??

A Better Man by Louise Penny

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Seriously though, there are enough Cannonballers who are on the Inspector Gamache train, that this should just be required reading. Amirite? [Review is semi-spoilery, depending on where you are in the series] Due to his questionable (yet, effective) methods of cracking a drug ring in the last book, Inspector Gamache found himself stripped of his title as head of the Quebec police department. This book sees him accepting a demotion and returning to his previous role as head of homicide. It’s a decision that is […]

Hardboiled

Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem

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Jonathan Lethem has this habit of writing detective novels and adding his own little curlicues on them. Motherless Brooklyn is fronted by a Tourette’s-minded “detective.” The titular character in The Feral Detective loves runaway animals of all kinds (feral included) and is an escaped cultist. Gun, With Occasional Music is set in a future society and has musical guns and talking animals. Lethem has spoken a lot about his major influences, including my favorite mystery writer Ross Macdonald. What impressed me about this, his first effort, is how polished it is. […]

Sex Mystery sounds like a genre I want to read much more of.

Hither, Page (Page & Sommers, #1) by Cat Sebastian

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Well, the sex part of this certainly wasn’t as prevalent as the mystery, but it did deliver on Sebastian’s other promise, which was “Agatha Christie, but make it gay.” Small English village, check. The mysterious murder of one of their own, check. The discovery that the small village is hiding a bunch of secrets, check. An outsider coming in to unearth those secrets, check. Lonely spy falls in love with traumatized country doctor, check. This was very sweet in terms of the romance, and pretty […]



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