Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

New Sheriff in Town

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

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Titus Crown is overqualified to be the sheriff of rural Charon County, Va. He went to UVa on a football scholarship, Columbia for grad school, and spent a decade working on domestic terrorism cases with the FBI. But after a raid gone bad at a fundamentalist compound, Titus moved back into his childhood home and ran for sheriff, hoping to clean up a history of racial prejudice and corruption. His first big challenge comes when a troubled young Black man walks into the local high […]

A Small Southern Town with a Large Helping of Sex, Murder and Violence. Fun!

My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby

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After a summer of serious reads it was fun to sit down and enjoy a good noir mystery, this one taking place in a small town in Virginia. It checks all the noir boxes: a woman with a checkered present, shady accomplices, dive bars, crime bosses and church ladies. Nathan returned to Virginia after a couple of tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, he also used to work for the sheriff’s office. He now works for his cousin who is a mortician, Nathan transports the bodies. […]

Cannonballing with an excellent but very intense mystery/thriller.

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It has not affected the content of my review. Gird your loins for this one, friends. This is not a gentle romp through a mystery, with all of the small town residents rallying to support their competent and now respected Black sheriff. I didn’t really think it was possible, but this is somehow even more intense than Razorblade Tears. Makes sense, though, because he’s juggling like ten thousand more storylines and themes here than he did in […]

Pedal-to-the-Metal

Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby

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Well, this is a perfect book to review after Blood Sweat and Chrome? Going by the blurb of Blacktop Wasteland, I had been expecting a crime novel. But this is not really the case. What I got instead was a novel that was one part noir and many many parts most intense car changes I have ever seen committed to the written word. Now I may have made some grammatical clunkers there trying to convey the kind of feel you get from Blacktop Wasteland, but […]

“… anything could be a weapon if you’re dedicated enough. Even love. Especially love.”

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

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Razorblade Tears is a revenge-focused crime novel about two aging, mostly-ex criminals who set out to avenge the murder of their sons. Both Ike and Buddy Lee have unresolved issues with their sons, who were married to one another – neither man was accepting of their relationship while their children were alive. Their sons had been together since college and had a child together, but neither Ike nor Buddy Lee had more than a passing glance at one another because of their refusal to accept […]

An extremely good book. Understatement. #CBRBINGO – Landscape

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

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😭😭😭😭😭 Above was my reaction upon finishing this book, which worked its dark magics upon me until my emotions did exactly what it wanted me to do at all times. More on this later. This book also has, I think, the best last line in a novel I’ve read all year. Maybe several years. This book is propulsive and hard to put down. I gave myself almost three days to read it and I read it in half a day. S.A. Cosby, of whom I […]



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