Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Stars Hollow meets the detective novel

Still Life by Louise Penny

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Still Life is the first Inspector Gamache novel in Louise Penny’s series, and for me it’s a backtrack- I started with the second novel, Dead Cold (alternate title: A Fatal Grace), back in February.  Still Life introduces us to all the main characters that show up in the later books, including the town of Three Pines and its close-knit community members.  (For such a quaint and friendly town, I get the feeling there are a lot murderers in Three Pines’ midst, if the length of […]

Short Stories Featuring Miss Marple Overall Delight

The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie

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I bought this book in paperback a while ago and though I had started some of the stories, I never got around to finishing it in one good. Not because I didn’t love it or anything, I just got busy with other books. I thought this was an overall great short story collection featuring Miss Marple and some familiar characters like her nephew Raymond West and her close friend Mrs. Dolly Bantry. The overall book is about how a group of people who get together […]

We Are Watchers, All of Us

Watchers by Dean Koontz

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Well damn, a Dean Koontz book made me cry. The last one that made me cry was “Odd Thomas.” This book hits me everywhere. Though I could have done without the whole ssnap guy (Vince) the rest of the book just works perfectly. I loved the characters (Travis and Nora) I fell in love with Einstein and also with everyone along the way who wanted to keep Einstein free. This book hits all the feels and I can see now why after the success of […]

Wow! What A Fantastic Thriller

Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh

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Since I had to get this back to the library this week, I moved this up and am wrapping up my “Watchers” read as well. I have to say that I could not put this book down last night! It was insanely good and the twists I didn’t see coming well expertly done. I also like how Mackintosh plays with POVs via some of the narrative choices she chose. I thought this worked from beginning to end and I have to go back and read […]

British Mysteries

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

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As I’ve said several times in these parts, I’m a bigger fan of the “whydunnit” than the “whodunnit.” The big reveal of the killer has never appealed much to me. I like to know what makes one person want to take the life of another. Murder is dismissed as a regular crime in fiction because of the prevalence of mystery novels but being an empathetic person, I need to have some sort of understanding as to the motivations of the players. My love of the […]

Fae Murder Mystery in San Francisco

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

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Rosemary and Rue is the first book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. I’ve been meaning to read this forever. I’m a big fan of detective mysteries and urban fantasy. I’m very happy to review it for the And So It Begins CBR11 bingo square. October Daye, Toby for short, is a changeling and a knight errant to the Duke of Shadowed Hills. In this universe, the Fae are hidden to humans and live amongst them in secret. Toby’s mother is a powerful […]



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