Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Ya Drink Too Much

When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

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My tour through Matthew Scudder’s New York continues. This is another solid entry in the series. I was a little concerned when I saw Matthew drinking at Armstrong’s and other places on the west side. It seemed to negate the ending of Eight Million Ways to Die. Was Block going to retcon everything or just pretend it didn’t happen? However, the reader soon realizes the whole time this is a flashback novel of something Matthew did in 1975, while he was still binge drinking. And while there’s […]

Offed at the Races

Gargantuan by Maggie Estep

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Maggie Estep lived a fascinating life. Novelist, poet, MTV correspondent. I think it would have been quite something to have known her when she was alive. Sadly, she passed (seemingly unexpectedly) in 2014. Hex, her first book in the Ruby Murphy took me two tries to get into, not because it’s bad or complicated but because her style is so unique. Each chapter happens from the POV of a different character, and each character is infused with a lived-in personality. But the plotting happens at […]

City is a Pity; Half of Y’all Won’t Make It

Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block

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My tour of the Matthew Scudder series continues. Many think this is where Lawrence Block made the proverbial leap with these books in terms of quality. That’s probably true; this is far and away the best written book of the series so far. It’s concise and tight. I was engaged the whole time. However, I still think this one falls short of greatness, mostly because of the ending but we’ll get there. Anyway, alcoholic ex-cop and amateur PI Matthew Scudder maneuvers through the bleak landscape […]

Shoulda Beena Contenda

Button Man by Andrew Gross

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Button Man is my first Andrew Gross novel and it may be my last. Not because it’s bad; at three stars, it’s definitely not. But because it’s bland, predictable, uninspiring. And with a set up that’s right in my wheelhouse: gangsters, Prohibition, New York, etc., I should’ve liked it a lot more than I did. Positives: Gross does get the era of 30s New York right. Supposedly, this story was inspired by tales of his family, some of whom were Jewish immigrants from Russia. I don’t […]

Knives Out

A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block

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Made a recent commitment to make my way through Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series. I found the first three enjoyable enough for passing the time but mostly unmemorable. This was the first one that really moved me. And that’s surprising because the crime itself is based on a mystery trope I hate: slashed women/murdered women/serial killer. When I saw the plot for A Stab in the Dark, I audibly groaned. I can’t stand books like that and I rarely read them. Had I not already been […]

Cult Fandom

Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg

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I knew going in this wouldn’t be a conventional mystery novel but I was still impressed at how well William Hjortsberg followed the traditional tenets of what constitute a hard boiled novel. For about 90% of the book, this reads like a decent PI tale. And though I found the cult aspects to be boring and the reveal to be predictable, I still enjoyed the writing. This is a book that wastes no space. There are 48 chapters and each one exists to move the […]



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