Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A supernatural murder mystery

Iron & Velvet (Kate Kane Paranormal Investigator #1) by Alexis Hall

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Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall is a paranormal F/F romance mystery. I’m always up for anything paranormal with a broody detective, so this was right up my alley. Kate Kane is a private investigator for the supernatural underworld of London. Even though she has a fairy mother, she lives her life as a human, only calling on her untested powers for emergencies. The book opens with a werewolf’s murder outside an elite vampire club. Kate’s called onto the case by her ex-boyfriend Patrick who basically […]

An Alluring Series

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Will Leitch is one of my favorite writers. He covers sports in word form and movies on the Grierson & Leitch podcast. All year long, he has grappled with is love for the Wes Anderson movie Isle of Dogs, which is set in Japan and has many references to famed director Akira Kurosawa but whose characters are voiced mostly by white people. The movie has been deemed (accurately in my estimation) to be culturally appropriated. I’m not one for winning “Who’s the most woke white person?” contests. […]

To Have and Have Not

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Black Money was one of the first books I read after the 2016 election. At the time, I was still making my way through the Lew Archer series. Like many people horrified at the election’s results, my mind was in a fog and I came to Black Money simply because it was the next book up. Although my brief Goodreads review says I liked it and thought it one of the best in the Archer series, I retain little memory of it given the time in which it […]

100% True to the Spirit of the Show

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While I wouldn’t say I’m a “Marshmallow” per se, I do like the Veronica Mars tv series. The first season is one of my all-time favorite seasons of a show. I didn’t enjoy number two as much for spoilery reasons but it wasn’t bad and the third season is better than it’s reputation. The movie is fun. I’m not one for high school melodramas but Rob Thomas and team get the noir/mystery aspects of the show down well and Kristen Bell is great as Veronica, the evolutionary […]

Like A Blonde Satan

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I had read The Maltese Falcon years ago but remembered very little of it aside from it having a complicated plot. Since I read it the same year I started delving hard into crime fiction, it kind of got lost in the shuffle of other classics I read, especially compared to Hammett’s sensational Red Harvest, a pulp masterpiece that would get my vote for best crime novel of all-time. But as I have never seen the movie, and keep forgetting the thread of what many allege to be one […]

Cold Case

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As an avid book reader who appreciates a good series to dive into, it’s fun when you discover a writer whose voice you really enjoy. Though there are many issues with Walking the Perfect Square, I liked this one a lot. Reed Farrel Coleman has a great sense of time. His version of 70s New York City feels real and lived in. His main character, Moe Prager, is an interesting one. An Jewish ex-cop moonlighting here as a private eye for a high profile mystery case, […]



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