Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A great time was had.

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

by 3 Comments

A great time was had. People were slain, revenge was had, plots were foiled, and women of a certain age came out of retirement to clear their names and kick some ass. There’s also a cat named Kevin in here, and I just think that’s important. I don’t actually think I have too much to say about this one. There wasn’t much deep about it, it’s just a good book, a thriller but more on the cozy end than not. A cozy thriller! Who knew […]

“And they all liv’d together in a little crooked house.”

Crooked House by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

Ooh, I got really into this one. It’s been a month since I’ve finished so I’ve had some time to think (though I do of course wish I’d written the review right away, but alas) and I think the reason that I loved this one so much is that it’s one of the few non-detective mystery novels to get the mystery part right and have it be believable. A lot of the time, as a mystery fan when encountering books with non-detective main characters, there […]

Wolf Women

Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe

by 3 Comments

Whew. This book is something. Don’t know if I loved it or hated it but I know I won’t forget it! I almost quit it five times and yet I couldn’t put it down. I can usually handle bleak, depressing crime fiction but oh man, this one is bleak!* It mostly works until it doesn’t…but the ending kind of comes together but it doesn’t? I really need more people to read this so I can parse it out. A few more points… -Loved: Jennifer Wolfe […]

Jersey Girl

Death of a Dancing Queen by Kimberly G. Giarratano

by Leave a Comment

CW: This book has a tragic trans angle. I won’t spoil how and while I think the writer handled it well enough, it still touches on some worn tropes that could be hard for some. Please be warned. They say that if you like to write, write a book you’d want to read. I had no hand in writing Death of a Dancing Queen, obviously, but by-and-large this is a book I’d want to write: interesting PI character, well-described setting, villains of both the regular- and underworlds respectively. […]

“A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it.”

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

by Leave a Comment

A librarian friend, whom I usually agree about books with, has been singing the praises of William Kent Krueger for quite a while now. Last year, based upon her recommendation I read his book The Tender Land, and didn’t much care for it. But since she has been relentless, I decided to give him another chance and read Ordinary Grace. So glad I did, as I really liked this one. The story is set in 1961 in a small town in Minnesota.  Thirteen year old Frank […]

Murder of the Week

A Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz

by 2 Comments

I was a touch disappointed in Anthony Horowitz’s last Hawthorne mystery, so I started The Twist of a Knife with my expectations tempered. I love Horowitz’s two Atticus Pünd novels (Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders), and I suspect I’ve been judging the Hawthorne series a little too harshly because of that. I still enjoy them, though, for what they are: light-hearted, fun mysteries that read like episodes of your favorite murder-of-the-week television series. The Twist of the Knife is an entertaining installment. When the novel […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo