Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Praise the Lord

The Churchgoer by Patrick Coleman

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It’s clear that Patrick Coleman has an axe to grind against evangelical culture. He uses The Churchgoer as an outlet to do so. I’m a Christian and while I’ve always been a mainline Protestant one (translation: a tad more open-minded than many), I’m quite familiar with the evangelical culture Coleman is skewering here. Many of his references and stories brought back flashbacks to my own life. Attendance numbers have steadily declined in these churches for the last decade (reflective of a decline in church attendance amongst all […]

I Wanted This Book to End So Badly

A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George

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This was my least favorite of George’s reads. It went on forever. The two narrative styles did not fit. I already guessed at who did what and it was a long winding road to get there. The Webberly thing read as ridiculous after a while. Lynley is even more of an ass in this one. It felt like a lot of things happened without a lot of police work to get people to where they needed to go. I liked the book focusing on memory […]

The Fallout

In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner by Elizabeth George

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Not too much to say except that reading about the fallout from Haver’s actions in the last book drove this one a lot. Havers is still with the force, but demoted. Lynley feels as if Havers was not properly punished for what she did and is reluctant to work with her again. Through a new case though (the investigation into two young people who are found murdered) Havers works mostly with Winston Nkata in this one. So we get to see a new dynamic between […]

Agatha Christie, Eat Your Heart Out

Fire Will Freeze by Margaret Millar

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Agatha Christie is considered the godmother of the cozy mystery, even though her books are tonally different than the cozies of today. If you’re not familiar with the cozy mystery: quaint country side, quirky-but-endearing characters, random corpse, a place where murder rarely happens. Nowadays, people dress up cozies with animals and recipes but when Christie was writing them, they had a tinge of the hardboiled in them. Not much; Christie will never be confused for Raymond Chandler. But just enough. I don’t know if Margaret […]

It’s Chinatown

China Trade by SJ Rozan

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In a context-free vacuum, China Trade is a fine, entertaining mystery. I liked the characters, especially the lead and her partner (though the “Will they or won’t they?” aspect was annoying), the plot is fine, the Chinatown setting done well. It’s a good start to a series that would potentially lead to more. But… It’s really tough to get over the idea of a white person (SJ Rozan) writing a first-person perspective novel from the POV of a Chinese woman. Now don’t get me wrong: I think […]

Viscerally Real

The Savage Detectives by Robert Bolaño

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The Savage Detectives is a lot. Being my second Bolaño doorstopper of the year, I assumed I knew what I was in for. I was way off. This was a far more challenging read than 2666. It had its rewards and I’m glad I stuck with it. But I needed to take a break halfway through, at the risk of putting it aside for good. I’m glad I did because the plot is not the most important thing going on here. This can possibly be considered a […]



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