Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Hell and Gone

Helltown: The Untold Story of Serial Murder on Cape Cod by Casey Sherman

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Had mixed feelings on this one, though I ultimately liked it and found it compelling and readable. And I say that as someone who doesn’t care for serial killer stories, fiction or not. The good: Sherman knows how to weave a yarn. He keeps this smooth, while integrating the many historic events happening around the Cape Cod murder case (the moon landing, Chappaquiddick, the Tate-LaBianca murders, good Lord, the 60s were quite the time to be alive). All of this while two world famous writers […]

Mind Games

Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild

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It’s well known that I’m not much of a fan of serial killer fiction. Everyone’s trying (and failing) to ripoff Hannibal Lecter, making their killers even more diabolical than their fictional predecessors. Serial killers are boring. I’m more interested in the “why” of people killing. What makes a human being take another human being’s life? Sascha Rothschild’s confidently written debut work attempts to answer that question through the eyes of a serial killer who swears she isn’t one. It’s difficult to create a legit complex main character […]

Waif Goodbye

Tooth and Nail (Inspector Rebus #3) by Ian Rankin

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London, early 1990s. Women are being attacked on the streets; their throats are slit, they’re stabbed in an unfortunate place and a bite mark is left on their stomachs. The first attack happens on Wolf street and thus the press, with their neverending creativity, dub him the Wolfman. Inspector John Rebus – lapsed Christian, alcoholic in denial, still straddling the line between ‘difficult person’ and ‘asshole’ – is called down to aid the investigation, but by whom? And why?  This is a curiously chaotic novel […]

Screen-To-Page

Final Girls by Riley Sager

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My second Riley Sager book and I think I understand now why I’m coming around to his work… He’s the Lee Child of these kinds of thrillers. I kind of mean that as a compliment (he says with some trepidation in his voice). Child is far from my favorite author and I find Jack Reacher to be a stereotypical character in broad strokes. But Child is a talented writer who knows how to craft a thriller. Every book is the same yet the story still […]

Tragic: Worst Person You Know Makes a Good Point

American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis

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TW: mentions of rape, violent murder Welp, I guess the fourth time is a charm. Brett Easton Ellis’ thing is never going to be my thing. Vomiting brand names, writing with a mix of flatness and kinetic energy, satirizing culture to the point where there’s no line. Glamorama was trash and the rest of his works have never done much for me. However, I’ve read a lot lately about New York City in the 80s and what Wall Street was like in that time. I also read […]

Time to Ketchup

Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke

Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York by Elon Green

The Revelators by Ace Atkins

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

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Because I read two behemoth 660+ page books back-to-back, I went on a little reading binge this week to “ketchup.” I liked most of these, two more so than the two others. Black Cherry Blues *** I want to go through the David Robicheaux series for two reasons: 1. I love Louisiana and 2. I want to see how Burke develops this story. After enjoying Heaven’s Prisoners, I found this a step back for multiple reasons… 1. Burke pads an already thin story with a lot […]



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