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Angel Dare #2
Choke Hold
INSIDE THE WORLD OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS - AND MURDER...
Angel Dare went into Witness Protection to escape her past -- not as a porn star, but as a killer who took down the sex slavery ring that destroyed her life. But sometimes the past just won't stay buried.
When a former co-star is gunned down, it's up to Angel to get his son, a hotheaded MMA fighter, safely through the unforgiving Arizona desert, shady Mexican border towns, and the seductive neon mirage of Las Vegas...
Angel Dare went into Witness Protection to escape her past -- not as a porn star, but as a killer who took down the sex slavery ring that destroyed her life. But sometimes the past just won't stay buried.
When a former co-star is gunned down, it's up to Angel to get his son, a hotheaded MMA fighter, safely through the unforgiving Arizona desert, shady Mexican border towns, and the seductive neon mirage of Las Vegas...
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
72 people are currently reading
1861 people want to read
About the author
Christa Faust
79 books396 followersChrista Faust is an American author who writes original novels, as well as novelizations and media tie-ins.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews
June 17, 2017
Yet another 2011 Bouchercon story about how Kemper-Met-An-Author….
Christa Faust was one of the speakers at a panel on sex and violence that was being held later than any other discussions, but there’d been some kind of snafu and the room wasn’t set up ahead of time. It was Miss Faust who took charge, ascertained that somebody had screwed the pooch, led the effort to commandeer another room, and essentially had moved everyone down the hall and got the whole thing going within about ten minutes. And she did all of this while wearing a dress tight enough to kill most mortals. After watching her in action, I was pretty sure that if zombies had burst into the convention hall, Miss Faust would have whipped off her high heels to use as skull impaling weapons against the undead and led us all to safety.
The next day, she walked up while I was chatting with another author to see if he’d be attending her next panel about fighting sports like boxing and crime fiction. When I asked if there would be actual fighting at the panel, she launched into an imitation of a professional wrestler ranting about all the ways she was going to destroy everyone in the room.
Later on, Dan had accompanied me to get some books signed by her, and she admired the Hard Case Crime shirt he was wearing while showing off her own HCC tattoo, and then she did a hilarious bit about how she’d been forbidden from using the profanity she wanted in the Supernatural tie-in novel she’d done.
In other words, Christa Faust is the shit.
And by the way, she writes a pretty mean hard boiled crime novel, too.
In her previous HCC book Money Shot we met Angel Dare, a retired porn star who was now an agent for others in the adult entertainment industry. Poor Angel got mixed up with some very bad people, and the ensuing events left her life in ruins. Now she’s hiding out and working in a diner under an assumed name in Arizona. Angel gets a shock when a former boyfriend and fellow veteran of the porn industry Thick Vic walks in. A few minutes later she gets an even bigger surprise when a gunfight breaks out in the diner.
Angel ends up on the run with Vic’s son Cody as they flee from a local gangster. Cody is a mixed martial arts fighter whose big break is waiting for him in Vegas in a few days if he can make it there alive. Along with Cody’s trainer, a punch drunk former fighter, Angel will have to confront some very dangerous men as well as her own past.
Angel is a unique character to base a crime novel around. As a former porn star, she wields her body as an asset to be used, and seemingly doesn’t let trading sex for favors bother her. However, she also uses the sex as a way of distancing herself from her own emotions. She’s tough and capable, but she’s not an ass kicking super woman.
The plot doesn’t end up anywhere near where I thought it was going, and I was genuinely surprised by the ending. Christa Faust doesn’t pull her punches, and Angel’s story here is as painful and brutal as a swift jab to the nose.
Christa Faust was one of the speakers at a panel on sex and violence that was being held later than any other discussions, but there’d been some kind of snafu and the room wasn’t set up ahead of time. It was Miss Faust who took charge, ascertained that somebody had screwed the pooch, led the effort to commandeer another room, and essentially had moved everyone down the hall and got the whole thing going within about ten minutes. And she did all of this while wearing a dress tight enough to kill most mortals. After watching her in action, I was pretty sure that if zombies had burst into the convention hall, Miss Faust would have whipped off her high heels to use as skull impaling weapons against the undead and led us all to safety.
The next day, she walked up while I was chatting with another author to see if he’d be attending her next panel about fighting sports like boxing and crime fiction. When I asked if there would be actual fighting at the panel, she launched into an imitation of a professional wrestler ranting about all the ways she was going to destroy everyone in the room.
Later on, Dan had accompanied me to get some books signed by her, and she admired the Hard Case Crime shirt he was wearing while showing off her own HCC tattoo, and then she did a hilarious bit about how she’d been forbidden from using the profanity she wanted in the Supernatural tie-in novel she’d done.
In other words, Christa Faust is the shit.
And by the way, she writes a pretty mean hard boiled crime novel, too.
In her previous HCC book Money Shot we met Angel Dare, a retired porn star who was now an agent for others in the adult entertainment industry. Poor Angel got mixed up with some very bad people, and the ensuing events left her life in ruins. Now she’s hiding out and working in a diner under an assumed name in Arizona. Angel gets a shock when a former boyfriend and fellow veteran of the porn industry Thick Vic walks in. A few minutes later she gets an even bigger surprise when a gunfight breaks out in the diner.
Angel ends up on the run with Vic’s son Cody as they flee from a local gangster. Cody is a mixed martial arts fighter whose big break is waiting for him in Vegas in a few days if he can make it there alive. Along with Cody’s trainer, a punch drunk former fighter, Angel will have to confront some very dangerous men as well as her own past.
Angel is a unique character to base a crime novel around. As a former porn star, she wields her body as an asset to be used, and seemingly doesn’t let trading sex for favors bother her. However, she also uses the sex as a way of distancing herself from her own emotions. She’s tough and capable, but she’s not an ass kicking super woman.
The plot doesn’t end up anywhere near where I thought it was going, and I was genuinely surprised by the ending. Christa Faust doesn’t pull her punches, and Angel’s story here is as painful and brutal as a swift jab to the nose.
October 9, 2011
Working in a diner, Angel Dare thought she left her past behind her, both her former career as a porn star and as a vigilante taking down the men that left her for dead. All that changed when a former co-worker, Thick Vic Ventura, walked into her diner to meet his son, an up and coming MMA fighter, for the first time. Seconds later, Vic is mortally wounded by gunmen and asks Angel to take care of his son. Can Angel protect Cody and keep one step ahead of the men that want both of them dead?
Over a year ago, before Dorcester started going tits up, I pre-ordered this book, the second in the Hard Case line by Christa Faust. It was worth the wait.
This time out, Angel Dare's path intersects with the seedy underbelly of the mixed martial arts world. Much like the porn industry, there's a lot of unsavory elements lurking in the shadows and Cody is caught in the middle.
Angel is much as she was in the previous book: tough, crass, and more than a little randy. The dynamic between her, Cody, and Cody's trainer, Hank, was well done, as was Angel's conflicting feelings about Cody. The main characters went from the frying pan to the fire so many times it was almost like reading one of Norvell Page's old Spider pulps. The action was fast and frequently brutal.
Since Choke Hold takes place around the MMA world, you might think it has less smut than the previous Faust offering, Money Shot. You'd be wrong. Angel has needs, after all.
The ending was shocking and more than a little abrupt. If I had a complaint, that would be it. Then again, it's a Hard Case so you know things will likely not end well.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I enjoyed this even more than Money Shot. The return of the Hard Case Crime series is a success so far in my book.
Over a year ago, before Dorcester started going tits up, I pre-ordered this book, the second in the Hard Case line by Christa Faust. It was worth the wait.
This time out, Angel Dare's path intersects with the seedy underbelly of the mixed martial arts world. Much like the porn industry, there's a lot of unsavory elements lurking in the shadows and Cody is caught in the middle.
Angel is much as she was in the previous book: tough, crass, and more than a little randy. The dynamic between her, Cody, and Cody's trainer, Hank, was well done, as was Angel's conflicting feelings about Cody. The main characters went from the frying pan to the fire so many times it was almost like reading one of Norvell Page's old Spider pulps. The action was fast and frequently brutal.
Since Choke Hold takes place around the MMA world, you might think it has less smut than the previous Faust offering, Money Shot. You'd be wrong. Angel has needs, after all.
The ending was shocking and more than a little abrupt. If I had a complaint, that would be it. Then again, it's a Hard Case so you know things will likely not end well.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I enjoyed this even more than Money Shot. The return of the Hard Case Crime series is a success so far in my book.
September 14, 2016
Angel Dare has been trying to keep her head down after her Witness Protection has been compromised. The former porn-star turned vigilante has been working at a small Arizona diner when her ex-boyfriend and scene partner Slick Vic Ventura shows up, bringing her past right back to her doorstep. Angel promises Vic that she'll look after his estranged son, an aspiring MMA fighter, and they both end up on the run across the Southwest. And so begins a new memorable, action-packed novel by the talented Christa Faust.
Although this time around, Angel is on the run and in defense mode rather than on a mission to hunt down her attackers the way she did in the first book, Money Shot , she is no less a badass and the book is just as good as the first one! Faust's writing is always witty and entertaining, and filled with memorable characters, very much like the writing of Joe R. Lansdale, especially in his Hap and Leonard series. And like Lansdale, Faust has a wonderful knack for pacing. I've now read three of her books and I haven't been bored for a second. Once again, Angel is a fun character, willing to do whatever is necessary to survive. It's also fresh reading about sex where it's not treated as this dainty virtue that needs to be handled with kid gloves but it's also not treated like a male porn fantasy either. We're all adults here and sex is an integral part of Angel's character (she's more comfortable with empty sex than real intimacy), she is in complete control over it, and it's simply just another weapon in her arsenal. This is another good novel by Faust, it's a sequel that lives up to the first, and I definitely recommend it. And I'm still waitingimpatiently for the second Butch Fatale, Dyke Dick novel!
Although this time around, Angel is on the run and in defense mode rather than on a mission to hunt down her attackers the way she did in the first book, Money Shot , she is no less a badass and the book is just as good as the first one! Faust's writing is always witty and entertaining, and filled with memorable characters, very much like the writing of Joe R. Lansdale, especially in his Hap and Leonard series. And like Lansdale, Faust has a wonderful knack for pacing. I've now read three of her books and I haven't been bored for a second. Once again, Angel is a fun character, willing to do whatever is necessary to survive. It's also fresh reading about sex where it's not treated as this dainty virtue that needs to be handled with kid gloves but it's also not treated like a male porn fantasy either. We're all adults here and sex is an integral part of Angel's character (she's more comfortable with empty sex than real intimacy), she is in complete control over it, and it's simply just another weapon in her arsenal. This is another good novel by Faust, it's a sequel that lives up to the first, and I definitely recommend it. And I'm still waiting
June 18, 2025
I enjoyed most of this book quite a bit.
But there seemed to be an issue in the beginning, say just after the first act. It kept starting scenes then dropping them. Like paragraphs were lost, connective tissue. Then it did return to normal, but…
I was a bit surprised that Hard Case didn’t do something about it.
(June 2025). Three months later, as I start the third book in the series…
I of course barely remember any problems here… I can only remember the very good scenes in this book. I would say I loved it. What a terrific series.
But there seemed to be an issue in the beginning, say just after the first act. It kept starting scenes then dropping them. Like paragraphs were lost, connective tissue. Then it did return to normal, but…
I was a bit surprised that Hard Case didn’t do something about it.
(June 2025). Three months later, as I start the third book in the series…
I of course barely remember any problems here… I can only remember the very good scenes in this book. I would say I loved it. What a terrific series.
January 2, 2015
Man oh man oh man oh MAN! There needs to be MORE ANGEL DARE BOOKS!
This one picks up a few months after the previous story, Money Shot, ends. And if you thought the FIRST one had lots of gratuitous violence and sex, then you'll be pleased as punch to see the amount increased!
As in the first one, this is classic noir beefed-up with a modern twist, all painfully well-written. Instead of the seedy SoCal porn industry, this novel is set in the world of MMA fighting along the American-Mexican border. That's not to say it has less sexy-sex, just more punchy-punch.
There is ONE thing, though, that I keep thinking about: The main character, the amazing Angel Dare, has spent years upon years in the porn business. Therefore, to her, sex is a service with an attached worth, like landscaping or tax-filing. She wields the power she has over people any way she can to get by. I find this both excitingly awesome (bypassing the whole bullshit societal taboo people have about sex), but also really sad (all the mystery, allure, and magic of a physical connection is gone, leaving only the physical act, and what it gains). And that's pretty much how I see Angel as well: excitingly awesome, but also really sad.
I'm hoping beyond hope her story is not over.
This one picks up a few months after the previous story, Money Shot, ends. And if you thought the FIRST one had lots of gratuitous violence and sex, then you'll be pleased as punch to see the amount increased!
As in the first one, this is classic noir beefed-up with a modern twist, all painfully well-written. Instead of the seedy SoCal porn industry, this novel is set in the world of MMA fighting along the American-Mexican border. That's not to say it has less sexy-sex, just more punchy-punch.
There is ONE thing, though, that I keep thinking about: The main character, the amazing Angel Dare, has spent years upon years in the porn business. Therefore, to her, sex is a service with an attached worth, like landscaping or tax-filing. She wields the power she has over people any way she can to get by. I find this both excitingly awesome (bypassing the whole bullshit societal taboo people have about sex), but also really sad (all the mystery, allure, and magic of a physical connection is gone, leaving only the physical act, and what it gains). And that's pretty much how I see Angel as well: excitingly awesome, but also really sad.
I'm hoping beyond hope her story is not over.
May 19, 2025
When last we saw Angel Dare, former porn star and business entrepreneur, she had just stopped a human trafficking ring led by Eastern European mobsters and had killed all but one of them in a revenge spree after they had beaten, raped, and nearly killed her. That was in “Money Shot”, Christa Faust’s unflinching debut crime thriller.
Now, Angel is back, trying to lay low after her federal witness protection program identity was discovered by the Eastern European mobster she mistakenly left alive in the last book. She escapes her new (albeit boring) life in New England and ends up back in sunny California. Hell, if she’s gonna die, she may as well die in a place she loves, right?
Faust’s sequel, “Choke Hold” starts off with Angel waiting tables at a roadside diner in the middle of a desert highway rest stop. Out of the blue, her ex-lover Thick Vic Ventura walks in. He’s there with a 20-year-old son that he barely knows, trying to work on the relationship. Suddenly, three Mexican teenagers walk into the diner and start shooting. Vic gets it in the back. Angel grabs Vic’s kid, Cody, and the two sneak out the back door. Angel’s freaking because she has no idea if these guys are random shooters or if they’ve been hired by Vukasin, the mobster.
It turns out Cody may be involved in some bad shit, too. He’s a boxer who was ordered to take a dive but didn’t. Now the heavies are after him. There’s also the issue of some missing drugs.
With the help of Cody’s aging trainer that Angel strangely has the hots for, the three set out on the road to find out what the hell’s going on, how to set things right, and how to avoid the guys with guns.
Faust knows noir, and shit is this ever noir. I used the term “soul-deadening” in another review to describe another book by Faust, but that can work here, too.
This book reminds me (in terms of tone, at least) of “No Country for Old Men”, the Coen Bros. film based on the Cormac McCarthy novel. That book/film involved a protagonist in way over his head, too.
Also like that book/film, “Choke Hold” has elements that are funny and that would work as comedy if it weren’t so terrifying and violent.
Angel has been through a helluva lot, but her enemies are like the Terminator: they’ll never stop until she is dead.
I hope Faust writes a third book to feature Angel Dare because 1) she’s a great writer, 2) Angel needs some fucking closure, and 3) seriously, ANGEL HAS BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH, SHE NEEDS TO GET A BREAK, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE, FAUST!!!
Now, Angel is back, trying to lay low after her federal witness protection program identity was discovered by the Eastern European mobster she mistakenly left alive in the last book. She escapes her new (albeit boring) life in New England and ends up back in sunny California. Hell, if she’s gonna die, she may as well die in a place she loves, right?
Faust’s sequel, “Choke Hold” starts off with Angel waiting tables at a roadside diner in the middle of a desert highway rest stop. Out of the blue, her ex-lover Thick Vic Ventura walks in. He’s there with a 20-year-old son that he barely knows, trying to work on the relationship. Suddenly, three Mexican teenagers walk into the diner and start shooting. Vic gets it in the back. Angel grabs Vic’s kid, Cody, and the two sneak out the back door. Angel’s freaking because she has no idea if these guys are random shooters or if they’ve been hired by Vukasin, the mobster.
It turns out Cody may be involved in some bad shit, too. He’s a boxer who was ordered to take a dive but didn’t. Now the heavies are after him. There’s also the issue of some missing drugs.
With the help of Cody’s aging trainer that Angel strangely has the hots for, the three set out on the road to find out what the hell’s going on, how to set things right, and how to avoid the guys with guns.
Faust knows noir, and shit is this ever noir. I used the term “soul-deadening” in another review to describe another book by Faust, but that can work here, too.
This book reminds me (in terms of tone, at least) of “No Country for Old Men”, the Coen Bros. film based on the Cormac McCarthy novel. That book/film involved a protagonist in way over his head, too.
Also like that book/film, “Choke Hold” has elements that are funny and that would work as comedy if it weren’t so terrifying and violent.
Angel has been through a helluva lot, but her enemies are like the Terminator: they’ll never stop until she is dead.
I hope Faust writes a third book to feature Angel Dare because 1) she’s a great writer, 2) Angel needs some fucking closure, and 3) seriously, ANGEL HAS BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH, SHE NEEDS TO GET A BREAK, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE, FAUST!!!
October 17, 2011
I've admired and shelved them since they first debuted, but only now have I popped my Hard Case Crime cherry. I'd held off for so long, one reason because I thought that the covers would be better than the story, and because they are numbered and it's possible once I started to read them I'd feel obligated to read them all. I don't know why the latter would be the case, I read New Directions books and don't feel the need to read each one, even though they are numbered, but maybe it's because the Hard Case Crime novels are pulpy and can probably be read like candy. Yeah, I held off fearing reading one would mean having to read (at the time I made my decision 30-something books) sixty-something plus books.
But then one had to be MMA based, and then it had to be not available for interlibrary loan from the Queens Public Library, so I broke down and bought it, one because I'm a sucker, and because for the first weekend in awhile and for the first weekend in the next month or so there isn't a UFC or Strikeforce event to watch, and it would be a total waste of a weekend if I could only watch two hours of Bellator and then do something better with my time than watch / read about grown men beating the snot out of each other. At least I didn't decide the void in my weekend needed to be filled with, say, Let's Get it On! the memoir of UFC referee "Big" John McCarthy. A crime novel is a step above reading something like that, right?
The novel opens with a pretty devastating jab, the kind that would just flatten out someone's nose and have them leaking blood and breathing through their mouth, and continues in a relentless combination that ends with knock-out one two combo of something like a flying knee to spinning back-fist: over the top, showy and lacking in subtlety but getting the job down in a spectacular fashion.
Oh fuck that last sentence was fucking lame. See what an ass I'll make myself sound like just to avoid doing a book report part of a review?
The book's about a former porn star (this is the second book featuring her, I didn't read the other one, but I think enough back story was filled in so I get the gist of the earlier book, I'm not sure if I will go back and read the first novel) who gets entangled with a couple of MMA fighters because of a shared problem of various people trying to catch and do bad things to them. The three go on an adventure through the American Southwest and Northern Mexico and lots of violent and adult things happen. How is that for a book report.
Oh, and Tito "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" Ortiz gets made fun of. He's the only real-life MMA person who shows up in the book (he's not named but there aren't any other professional fighters married to Jenna Jameson), I made some guesses about who other characters were based on, but I highly doubt this is supposed to be read as a roman a clef.
But then one had to be MMA based, and then it had to be not available for interlibrary loan from the Queens Public Library, so I broke down and bought it, one because I'm a sucker, and because for the first weekend in awhile and for the first weekend in the next month or so there isn't a UFC or Strikeforce event to watch, and it would be a total waste of a weekend if I could only watch two hours of Bellator and then do something better with my time than watch / read about grown men beating the snot out of each other. At least I didn't decide the void in my weekend needed to be filled with, say, Let's Get it On! the memoir of UFC referee "Big" John McCarthy. A crime novel is a step above reading something like that, right?
The novel opens with a pretty devastating jab, the kind that would just flatten out someone's nose and have them leaking blood and breathing through their mouth, and continues in a relentless combination that ends with knock-out one two combo of something like a flying knee to spinning back-fist: over the top, showy and lacking in subtlety but getting the job down in a spectacular fashion.
Oh fuck that last sentence was fucking lame. See what an ass I'll make myself sound like just to avoid doing a book report part of a review?
The book's about a former porn star (this is the second book featuring her, I didn't read the other one, but I think enough back story was filled in so I get the gist of the earlier book, I'm not sure if I will go back and read the first novel) who gets entangled with a couple of MMA fighters because of a shared problem of various people trying to catch and do bad things to them. The three go on an adventure through the American Southwest and Northern Mexico and lots of violent and adult things happen. How is that for a book report.
Oh, and Tito "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" Ortiz gets made fun of. He's the only real-life MMA person who shows up in the book (he's not named but there aren't any other professional fighters married to Jenna Jameson), I made some guesses about who other characters were based on, but I highly doubt this is supposed to be read as a roman a clef.
October 24, 2011
Angel Dare, the protagonist of Christa Faust's first novel Money Shot, returns in her second outing. As the book opens, Angel is on the run from some very bad characters after she helped authorities break up a sex slavery ring. She's working under an assumed name at a diner in the middle of nowhere, when she's discovered by a former co-star from her days as a major porn star.
Angel hardly has a chance to say hello before a couple of thugs show up and kill her old friend. Just before the guy dies in her arms, Angel promises that she'll protect his young hot-headed son who has ambitions of being an MMA fighter. Unfortunately, just at the wrong moment, the bad guys from Angel's past also show up and so she, the young hothead and the kid's mentor, a damaged former fighter, are on the run both from her enemies and his. The trail takes them through a tough Arizona desert and into Las Vegas where things are not looking good for Angel or for any of her new friends.
This is a new entry in the Hard Case Crime series, and like Faust's first HCC book, it's a good read with a sexy, smart protagonist who's not afraid to do what must be done in order to achieve her objectives. My only complaint is that the book is published in a trade paperback format rather than in the mass market format which was the case with the earlier books in this series. Given the books themselves, many of which are reprints from the golden age of pulp novels, and given their great throw-back covers, the mass market format seems much more appropriate for this series. But that's a relatively minor issue and readers who have enjoyed the earlier HCC books will certainly like this one.
Angel hardly has a chance to say hello before a couple of thugs show up and kill her old friend. Just before the guy dies in her arms, Angel promises that she'll protect his young hot-headed son who has ambitions of being an MMA fighter. Unfortunately, just at the wrong moment, the bad guys from Angel's past also show up and so she, the young hothead and the kid's mentor, a damaged former fighter, are on the run both from her enemies and his. The trail takes them through a tough Arizona desert and into Las Vegas where things are not looking good for Angel or for any of her new friends.
This is a new entry in the Hard Case Crime series, and like Faust's first HCC book, it's a good read with a sexy, smart protagonist who's not afraid to do what must be done in order to achieve her objectives. My only complaint is that the book is published in a trade paperback format rather than in the mass market format which was the case with the earlier books in this series. Given the books themselves, many of which are reprints from the golden age of pulp novels, and given their great throw-back covers, the mass market format seems much more appropriate for this series. But that's a relatively minor issue and readers who have enjoyed the earlier HCC books will certainly like this one.
July 19, 2018
I never knew I would love hard crime noir this much, but man do I love Christa Faust’s writing. After Butch Fatale and Money Shot I was ready to dive into the next Angel Dare adventure.
Choke Hold is just as dark, just as violent and just as crazy intense as Money Shot. After taking down the sex slavery ring, former porn-star Angel ‘Vigilante’ Dare is biding her time working in a small Arizona diner, when a ghost from her past, ex-boyfriend and scene partner ’Thick’ Vic Ventura shows up there to meet his estranged son. All seems to go well until 3 Mexican guys come in and bullets start to fly. Vic gets hit and Angel makes him a deathbed promise to look after his son Cody, an aspiring MMA fighter.
Clueless as to who and why they’re after Vic’s son (and now Angel as well), they end up seeking help from Cody’s friend and mentor Hank ‘The Hammer’ Hammond, a damaged former fighter. With bad guys all over the place (the thugs from Angel’s past have picked up her scent as well) the trio needs to get the hell out of Dodge to stay alive.
The wife looked like she should be in the business. Bright red Miss America hair. Big fake tits. Collagen trout-pout. Tiny, surgically bobbed button nose. Her body was flawless, jacked and shredded, with an astounding bubble butt that looked like it could crack walnuts. She was in a g-string bikini in most of her photos, except the fight shots, in which she wore loose pink satin shorts and a sports bra. There was also a photo of the grieving widow standing graveside in a tacky and inappropriate dress that showed way too much plastic cleavage. “Hi there,” a female voice said behind me. “Are you one of the mothers?” I turned to face the real live Truly Richland. There had clearly been a lot of Photoshop action in those pictures, but the body under her Richland MMA Academy tank top and tiny shorts was still amazing. She was my age or maybe a little older and had a brittle, anxious smile. Her voice was syrupy and Southern. Up close, her nose job was appalling. It made me glad I never got mine fixed.
m/f explicit
Themes: damage is the overall theme here, on the run again, Angel does more flight than fight this time around but she will do whatever she needs to do to survive, there’s a high body count, don’t get too attached to people, Faust has a way with describing people, places and things. Just love it and wish she would write more.
5 stars
Choke Hold is just as dark, just as violent and just as crazy intense as Money Shot. After taking down the sex slavery ring, former porn-star Angel ‘Vigilante’ Dare is biding her time working in a small Arizona diner, when a ghost from her past, ex-boyfriend and scene partner ’Thick’ Vic Ventura shows up there to meet his estranged son. All seems to go well until 3 Mexican guys come in and bullets start to fly. Vic gets hit and Angel makes him a deathbed promise to look after his son Cody, an aspiring MMA fighter.
Clueless as to who and why they’re after Vic’s son (and now Angel as well), they end up seeking help from Cody’s friend and mentor Hank ‘The Hammer’ Hammond, a damaged former fighter. With bad guys all over the place (the thugs from Angel’s past have picked up her scent as well) the trio needs to get the hell out of Dodge to stay alive.
The wife looked like she should be in the business. Bright red Miss America hair. Big fake tits. Collagen trout-pout. Tiny, surgically bobbed button nose. Her body was flawless, jacked and shredded, with an astounding bubble butt that looked like it could crack walnuts. She was in a g-string bikini in most of her photos, except the fight shots, in which she wore loose pink satin shorts and a sports bra. There was also a photo of the grieving widow standing graveside in a tacky and inappropriate dress that showed way too much plastic cleavage. “Hi there,” a female voice said behind me. “Are you one of the mothers?” I turned to face the real live Truly Richland. There had clearly been a lot of Photoshop action in those pictures, but the body under her Richland MMA Academy tank top and tiny shorts was still amazing. She was my age or maybe a little older and had a brittle, anxious smile. Her voice was syrupy and Southern. Up close, her nose job was appalling. It made me glad I never got mine fixed.
m/f explicit
Themes: damage is the overall theme here, on the run again, Angel does more flight than fight this time around but she will do whatever she needs to do to survive, there’s a high body count, don’t get too attached to people, Faust has a way with describing people, places and things. Just love it and wish she would write more.
5 stars
November 9, 2011
In a world where a clenched fist is the only good currency and violent action speaks volume, an unassuming former porn star/quasi PI fights to save her life and that of her former lover's son, Cody - an aspiring MMA fighter caught up in a scheme which threatens to ruin all he has worked for. After watching 'Thick Vic' gunned down whilst attempting to reconnect with his begotten son Cody, Angel Dare's life is once again thrown into chaos, armed with little more than wit and sexual prowess she takes Cody under her wing and together they try to find the people responsible for the hit.
Faust does a great job of throwing the reader into the harsh world of professional fighting while shining a light on the dark emotional scares these athletes incur as well as the physical surface wounds. The protagonist, assumes a different role from that of 'Money Shot' but is still the honest and resourceful Angel from the first book - this time round, she's more prone to flight than fight but when accompanied by professional fighters, why get your hands dirty? That being said, Angel proves she can still hold her own when push comes to shove. There is an added layer of subtle apprehension to Angel given the situations she found herself in the previous outing, which, if anything, further define and strengthen her character, making her seem more grounded and three dimensional.
Well plotted with ties to the previous book but enough background to work well as a standalone – 4 stars.
Faust does a great job of throwing the reader into the harsh world of professional fighting while shining a light on the dark emotional scares these athletes incur as well as the physical surface wounds. The protagonist, assumes a different role from that of 'Money Shot' but is still the honest and resourceful Angel from the first book - this time round, she's more prone to flight than fight but when accompanied by professional fighters, why get your hands dirty? That being said, Angel proves she can still hold her own when push comes to shove. There is an added layer of subtle apprehension to Angel given the situations she found herself in the previous outing, which, if anything, further define and strengthen her character, making her seem more grounded and three dimensional.
Well plotted with ties to the previous book but enough background to work well as a standalone – 4 stars.
March 18, 2020
In Choke Hold by Christa Faust, Angel Dare is back for another novel of hard-core noir and danger.
The book opens with Angel Dare working in an out of the way diner trying to save money to purchase high-quality identification, including a passport, so she can continue living under the radar, possibly in Mexico.
Don't worry, Ms. Faust fills in the story of how the first Angel Dare novel Money Shot ends and how this one continues.
While in the diner, a man from Dare's past appears to have randomly arrived and after a violent shootout-bloodbath, the man from her past gets Dare to promise to protect his estranged 18-year old son, which then leads to Dare becoming entwined in the world of mix-martial arts brawling, cocaine deals and run-ins with assorted violent thugs.
Choke Hold keeps moving and is highly recommended to those that enjoy rough and tumble noir and aren't bashful when it comes to reading about a former adult film actress/producer who is not afraid of who she is and what she has become.
Also, to add to the enjoyment of the writings of Christa Faust, it is recommended one read more about this amazing writer and noir professional.
The book opens with Angel Dare working in an out of the way diner trying to save money to purchase high-quality identification, including a passport, so she can continue living under the radar, possibly in Mexico.
Don't worry, Ms. Faust fills in the story of how the first Angel Dare novel Money Shot ends and how this one continues.
While in the diner, a man from Dare's past appears to have randomly arrived and after a violent shootout-bloodbath, the man from her past gets Dare to promise to protect his estranged 18-year old son, which then leads to Dare becoming entwined in the world of mix-martial arts brawling, cocaine deals and run-ins with assorted violent thugs.
Choke Hold keeps moving and is highly recommended to those that enjoy rough and tumble noir and aren't bashful when it comes to reading about a former adult film actress/producer who is not afraid of who she is and what she has become.
Also, to add to the enjoyment of the writings of Christa Faust, it is recommended one read more about this amazing writer and noir professional.
February 1, 2012
Angel Dare returns in this sequel to Christa Faust's Money Shot. The previous book was a hell-ride. The new one takes the reader on another burning episode in the life of Angel Dare, former adult movie star and now in the federal witness protection plan. At the conclusion of Money Shot, Angel had just unleashed a pack of Eastern European girls on the international gangster who'd sold them into sexual slavery. It was a bleak end after she'd taken out revenge on the punks who left her for dead. Choke Hold picks up nearly a year later.
Angel is waitressing at a cheap diner near the Arizona-Mexico boarder when one of her former co-stars and boyfriends, Thick Vic, walks in the door. A former drug addict, he's cleaned up his act and is now trying to reconnect with the son he hardly knew. But in the first chapter a gun battle erupts when gangsters come looking for Vic. Pretty soon they're after Angel too. Once again she has to flee into the night.
Angel finds herself on the run with Vic's son Cody. They're forced to get help any way they can. The first assistance comes in the form of Hank, Cody's surrogate dad and a has-been Mixed Martial Arts fighter. Hank lives out in the desert by himself, teaches at a hole-in-the-wall dojo and is on parole for an assault charge. To make matters worse, Hank is punch drunk and on medication from all the years of head shots. But Hank is the only person who can help Angel and Cody.
The action is relentless in this book. Just when you think a moment is going to get tender, somebody smashes in the door. There are at least two sets of criminals after Angel and maybe more. As with Money Shot, the only person who comes out looking good in this book is Angel. Everybody else is damaged goods.
Damage seems to be an over-riding theme in Choke Hold. Hank was once a famous fighter, now he goes across the boarder to fight in illegal matches in Mexico. Angel survived an abusive father to start her own talent agency in California, but she's on the run from gangsters. One of her contacts is a survivalist who treats his teenage wife as a slave. In this novel, the only way to repair the damage is to survive the beatings.
As always, Faust has a way with describing people, places and things. Such as to how she describes the survivalist network which consists of "perpetual teenagers living out their own personal late-’80s post-apocalyptic movie fantasies". Or this extreme pornographer: "Always pushing the limits, flogging the freedom of speech routine till it bled, but underneath all the self-important oppressed genius bluster, the truth was that his stuff just wasn't very good.". Or her similarities of the adult film world to professional fighting: "Young men fighting to become this ultimate over-the-top expression of manhood. Young female porn stars striving to become the ultimate expression of feminine allure.".
The resolution of the novel is bleak, but I've come to expect it from Faust. In her world you have to be strong to survive and it helps if you don't care. Angel cares, although she runs when she must. Which is what makes this and the prequel such powerful books. Even the brief sexual encounters in Choke Hold exist to allow the characters the energy to survive another day.
This novel is a gripping read. I zipped through it in less than a day and was trying to cook dinner with hand while reading Choke Hold in another. Ms. Faust is at the top of her game and we can only look for more trophies.
Angel is waitressing at a cheap diner near the Arizona-Mexico boarder when one of her former co-stars and boyfriends, Thick Vic, walks in the door. A former drug addict, he's cleaned up his act and is now trying to reconnect with the son he hardly knew. But in the first chapter a gun battle erupts when gangsters come looking for Vic. Pretty soon they're after Angel too. Once again she has to flee into the night.
Angel finds herself on the run with Vic's son Cody. They're forced to get help any way they can. The first assistance comes in the form of Hank, Cody's surrogate dad and a has-been Mixed Martial Arts fighter. Hank lives out in the desert by himself, teaches at a hole-in-the-wall dojo and is on parole for an assault charge. To make matters worse, Hank is punch drunk and on medication from all the years of head shots. But Hank is the only person who can help Angel and Cody.
The action is relentless in this book. Just when you think a moment is going to get tender, somebody smashes in the door. There are at least two sets of criminals after Angel and maybe more. As with Money Shot, the only person who comes out looking good in this book is Angel. Everybody else is damaged goods.
Damage seems to be an over-riding theme in Choke Hold. Hank was once a famous fighter, now he goes across the boarder to fight in illegal matches in Mexico. Angel survived an abusive father to start her own talent agency in California, but she's on the run from gangsters. One of her contacts is a survivalist who treats his teenage wife as a slave. In this novel, the only way to repair the damage is to survive the beatings.
As always, Faust has a way with describing people, places and things. Such as to how she describes the survivalist network which consists of "perpetual teenagers living out their own personal late-’80s post-apocalyptic movie fantasies". Or this extreme pornographer: "Always pushing the limits, flogging the freedom of speech routine till it bled, but underneath all the self-important oppressed genius bluster, the truth was that his stuff just wasn't very good.". Or her similarities of the adult film world to professional fighting: "Young men fighting to become this ultimate over-the-top expression of manhood. Young female porn stars striving to become the ultimate expression of feminine allure.".
The resolution of the novel is bleak, but I've come to expect it from Faust. In her world you have to be strong to survive and it helps if you don't care. Angel cares, although she runs when she must. Which is what makes this and the prequel such powerful books. Even the brief sexual encounters in Choke Hold exist to allow the characters the energy to survive another day.
This novel is a gripping read. I zipped through it in less than a day and was trying to cook dinner with hand while reading Choke Hold in another. Ms. Faust is at the top of her game and we can only look for more trophies.
February 19, 2013
To say I devoured this novel might be a bit of understatement. To say I enjoyed it might be a bit of an understatement as well. Needless to say, Angel Dare is the shit, and I can't seem to get enough of her. Literally. For me it's all about the characters, and CHOKE HOLD has more than its share of interesting individuals. Angel and her posse practically pop off the page, and along the way, she more than delivered on a few surprises.
Christa Faust certainly seems to have a friend or two in the porn industry, or maybe she goes all in on the research, studying footage on the Internet, or visiting sets through the back door. But how she does it doesn't really matter. What matters is that she pulls it off with her plot, and most importantly, with her characters. She captures a few of the highs and more than enough lows.
If you're looking for a wild ride, with a former porn queen who can still deliver the goods, then you'd be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining read.
Christa Faust certainly seems to have a friend or two in the porn industry, or maybe she goes all in on the research, studying footage on the Internet, or visiting sets through the back door. But how she does it doesn't really matter. What matters is that she pulls it off with her plot, and most importantly, with her characters. She captures a few of the highs and more than enough lows.
If you're looking for a wild ride, with a former porn queen who can still deliver the goods, then you'd be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining read.
October 12, 2011
I love this book. Christa Faust did the thing that I LOVE to see the most in serial story-telling: she gave real lasting consequences to the violence from the first Angel Dare story. Where in Money Shot, she's a self-assured well-composed person (for most of the story), in this book, she's still coping with the violence that was done to her and that was done by her. She's not quite completely broken, but her world is definitely cracked and she's not as in control as she used to be (in or out of her comfort zone). Brilliant!
Excellent story-telling, and a great second chapter for a character who I hope gets at least one more starring role before retiring or being retired (I really want to see her take it to Damian Damnation!).
Excellent story-telling, and a great second chapter for a character who I hope gets at least one more starring role before retiring or being retired (I really want to see her take it to Damian Damnation!).
March 31, 2012
This contemporary noir is unusual for taking the traditional form (think Mickey Spillane) from the perspective of a hard-boiled female - a sex worker uncomfortable with intimacy but as tough as they come and capable of looking after herself.
Faust writes well and there is an underlying authenticity to her work but, ultimately, not much happens and what happens is a little predictable.
There is a villain who reminds one of a counterpart in 'No Country for Old Men' and a scene of sadism near the end that is truly remarkable because, instead of being voyeur, the reader is placed firmly in the position of the victim. The remorselessness of this scene was truly horrific.
The book is bleak but, as someone who can read Heidegger and Ligotti without a qualm, I do not find that cause for criticism. The underbelly of American life today is probably very bleak so I see no exaggeration there.
No, my complaint, if there is one, is that, although a good read to pass the time, it was ultimately a little pedestrian. She can tell a story but not an enormously imaginative one. Still, fans of the genre are happy and that's probably what counts.
Faust writes well and there is an underlying authenticity to her work but, ultimately, not much happens and what happens is a little predictable.
There is a villain who reminds one of a counterpart in 'No Country for Old Men' and a scene of sadism near the end that is truly remarkable because, instead of being voyeur, the reader is placed firmly in the position of the victim. The remorselessness of this scene was truly horrific.
The book is bleak but, as someone who can read Heidegger and Ligotti without a qualm, I do not find that cause for criticism. The underbelly of American life today is probably very bleak so I see no exaggeration there.
No, my complaint, if there is one, is that, although a good read to pass the time, it was ultimately a little pedestrian. She can tell a story but not an enormously imaginative one. Still, fans of the genre are happy and that's probably what counts.
June 26, 2021
The second volume of the exploits of former porn star turned action hero Angel Dare is a lot like the first one: plenty of titillating sex, lots of action, and even a little bit of story jammed in here and there wherever it might fit. Faust is clearly knowledgeable about the adult film and mixed martial arts communities and explores them playfully, in between bursts of gunfire and murderous mayhem that never quite seem to draw the attention of local law enforcement. The damaged characters share a few poignant moments (until someone invariably kicks down the door of the room they happen to be sitting in) but overall it feels like a ton of ideas were slapped into a cement mixture and poured out into a somewhat fun but incoherent mess.
November 20, 2014
This was a good, quick read for a Friday night. Maybe a little goofy. I was slightly non-plussed at a few things, especially that if you're on the run from some bad Croatian dudes who are right outside the building, might it not be the best idea to just take a time out to bang a porn star on a live webcam? I mean, I get that live webcam is probably a safe-ish place to be, but don't you have other things to worry about? Maybe that's a guy thing. The body count was depressingly high and I'm still sad about poor Hank, but I want to read the earlier books in this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2019
Choke Hold is the bleak, breakneck followup to Faust's earlier Hard Case knockout, Money Shot. It's set partly in the world of MMA fighting rather than in the world of porn, but, as Angel Dare points out, the two worlds have a lot in common:
Strange how similar they seemed. Young men fighting to become this ultimate over-the-top expression of manhood. Young female porn stars striving to become the ultimate expression of feminine allure. A few made it and became big stars, but most got chewed up and spat out, crippled by addiction, chronic pain and daddy issues before they hit thirty.
Angel's life gets upended (again) when an old costar and flame of hers, Thick Vic, washes up at the diner where she's working under an assumed name. One epic shootout later, and Vic's dead, having coaxed Angel into promising to look out for his son, Cody, an impulsive eighteen year-old fighter convinced he has a bright future in the business. Currently, though, he's in some hot water, and getting him to his reality show debut alive is going to be a challenge. Angel has her own pursuers, too--a survivor from the human trafficking group in Money Shot is ruthlessly hunting her down. It's a rare night where a door doesn't get broken down by someone with a gun.
Angel and Cody are accompanied in their journey by Hank, a weathered, beat-to-hell, punch-drunk fighter who serves as Cody's mentor and, increasingly, Angel's would-be chivalrous knight. The tenuous growing feelings between Angel and Hank, and the way they only sometimes intersect with the purely sexual drive Angel's more comfortable with, is really well-done and adds a lot of pathos to what could in other hands be just a well-done violent farce--three people, one room, two doors, and a whole lot of bullets--although Faust has too strong an understanding of the actual human cost of all this death for any of this to read as shallow. This is a brutal read at times, not a romp, and it's better for that.
The setting does a lot of good work, too: the distinctive milieu of the adult film industry worked well for Money Shot, and you still get a little bit of that here (there's a great scene where the characters wind up in Vegas at an AVN convention), but you also get the fighting world and the off-the-grid survivalist world, both vivid and well-rendered. And Angel is a great protagonist, too, hard-bitten and realistic, capable of walking away from some kinds of trouble but too goodhearted, and in some ways too nostalgic, to avoid others. It was a lot of fun just to follow her for her second book, and I hope there are more Angel Dare adventures in the future.
Strange how similar they seemed. Young men fighting to become this ultimate over-the-top expression of manhood. Young female porn stars striving to become the ultimate expression of feminine allure. A few made it and became big stars, but most got chewed up and spat out, crippled by addiction, chronic pain and daddy issues before they hit thirty.
Angel's life gets upended (again) when an old costar and flame of hers, Thick Vic, washes up at the diner where she's working under an assumed name. One epic shootout later, and Vic's dead, having coaxed Angel into promising to look out for his son, Cody, an impulsive eighteen year-old fighter convinced he has a bright future in the business. Currently, though, he's in some hot water, and getting him to his reality show debut alive is going to be a challenge. Angel has her own pursuers, too--a survivor from the human trafficking group in Money Shot is ruthlessly hunting her down. It's a rare night where a door doesn't get broken down by someone with a gun.
Angel and Cody are accompanied in their journey by Hank, a weathered, beat-to-hell, punch-drunk fighter who serves as Cody's mentor and, increasingly, Angel's would-be chivalrous knight. The tenuous growing feelings between Angel and Hank, and the way they only sometimes intersect with the purely sexual drive Angel's more comfortable with, is really well-done and adds a lot of pathos to what could in other hands be just a well-done violent farce--three people, one room, two doors, and a whole lot of bullets--although Faust has too strong an understanding of the actual human cost of all this death for any of this to read as shallow. This is a brutal read at times, not a romp, and it's better for that.
The setting does a lot of good work, too: the distinctive milieu of the adult film industry worked well for Money Shot, and you still get a little bit of that here (there's a great scene where the characters wind up in Vegas at an AVN convention), but you also get the fighting world and the off-the-grid survivalist world, both vivid and well-rendered. And Angel is a great protagonist, too, hard-bitten and realistic, capable of walking away from some kinds of trouble but too goodhearted, and in some ways too nostalgic, to avoid others. It was a lot of fun just to follow her for her second book, and I hope there are more Angel Dare adventures in the future.
December 24, 2024
Usually sequels just tread the same ground and tell a similar story, but not here as we get Angel Dare thrown headfirst into another excellent thrill ride from start to finish.
October 20, 2011
I really enjoyed Money Shot (and every other Christa Faust book I have ever picked up), so I was surprised that the sequel with its splotlight on the world of MMA left me so lukewarm. The last fifty pages just felt like a grind and I found myself just wanting the book to be over so that the pain would end.
Its a fine line to walk with a noir/crime book. A happy ending would have seemed cheap but this ending seemed particularly merciless.
All in all, I was disappointed but wouldn't hesitate to pick up a book with Christa Faust's name on it.
Its a fine line to walk with a noir/crime book. A happy ending would have seemed cheap but this ending seemed particularly merciless.
All in all, I was disappointed but wouldn't hesitate to pick up a book with Christa Faust's name on it.
July 28, 2021
Moins convaincue par ce second tome, qui réutilise les ficelles du premier. On ne s'ennuie pas, mais on peine à passer au niveau d'exaltation suivant, coincé par des personnages qui deviennent sans fond, répétitifs, voire creux. Quel dommage !
July 2, 2011
Author Christa Faust jumps right into the action on this one. Angel Dare is working as a waitress in a small diner when on old boyfriend, and co-star from her porn star days, walks in, recognizing her. Thick Vic Ventura reveals he's there to meet his son, who he's never seen, It turns out to be the tattooed eighteen year old boy sitting in the corner. Vic is suddenly shy and Angel encourages him to talk to the kid.
Three Mexican gangbangers walk in as he's headed to the boy's booth, turning as he passes, pulling guns and shooting him in the back. The owner of the diner pulls a shotgun and opens up. Angel, Vic, and the kid end up behind the counter huddling from the bullets flying. By the time it's over, the three of them had worked out the back door and around to Vic's car, an old beater, and fled down the highway, pursued by the surviving Mexican.
They manage to give him the slip and Vic dies, though not before getting a promise from Angel to look after the boy.
We start to get a little back story then. Angel had testified against the Croatian running the sex slave trade of middle European girls(from Money Shot) and gone into witness protection. That lasted about a year before the surviving Croatian found her and sent her on the run again. She was working in the diner while waiting for a passport with a new identity to be readied when the gun battle broke out.
The kid was Cody Noon and he had visions of being a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. He certainly had the build. He was headed to Las Vegas to get on a reality show where the winner gets a contract with one of the MMA organizations.
But first they had to deal with killers, both Angel's set and these Mexican variety, who sent them?, not to mention a slimy little cretin who wanted Cody fighting in Mexico. They head for Cody's friend place, Hank, an old MMA fighter long past his prime, a bit punchy, but the only father figure the boy had ever known.
A chase through the Arizona desert, into and out of Mexico, all the way to Vegas, guns blazing, always just a half step ahead of two three sets of killers. Faust knows how to write action scenes. It kept me turning the pages until I could figure what was going on.
Five stars. This one due from Hard case Crime in October.
Three Mexican gangbangers walk in as he's headed to the boy's booth, turning as he passes, pulling guns and shooting him in the back. The owner of the diner pulls a shotgun and opens up. Angel, Vic, and the kid end up behind the counter huddling from the bullets flying. By the time it's over, the three of them had worked out the back door and around to Vic's car, an old beater, and fled down the highway, pursued by the surviving Mexican.
They manage to give him the slip and Vic dies, though not before getting a promise from Angel to look after the boy.
We start to get a little back story then. Angel had testified against the Croatian running the sex slave trade of middle European girls(from Money Shot) and gone into witness protection. That lasted about a year before the surviving Croatian found her and sent her on the run again. She was working in the diner while waiting for a passport with a new identity to be readied when the gun battle broke out.
The kid was Cody Noon and he had visions of being a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. He certainly had the build. He was headed to Las Vegas to get on a reality show where the winner gets a contract with one of the MMA organizations.
But first they had to deal with killers, both Angel's set and these Mexican variety, who sent them?, not to mention a slimy little cretin who wanted Cody fighting in Mexico. They head for Cody's friend place, Hank, an old MMA fighter long past his prime, a bit punchy, but the only father figure the boy had ever known.
A chase through the Arizona desert, into and out of Mexico, all the way to Vegas, guns blazing, always just a half step ahead of two three sets of killers. Faust knows how to write action scenes. It kept me turning the pages until I could figure what was going on.
Five stars. This one due from Hard case Crime in October.
October 20, 2011
Christa Faust's newest opus illustrates the old hard-boiled/noir dictum that things will go to hell in a hurry, and then go downhill from there.
Former porn star Angel Dare is lying low (so to speak) in the Witness Protection program after testifying against human traffickers when "Thick Vic," one of her old co-stars, is gunned down right in front of her. Angel agrees to take care of the dying man's son, who hopes to land a gig in fighting after being promised an audition in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Angel is known in Vegas--and almost everywhere else--by the guys she helped put away before entering Wit Pro and changing her name.
Cody, who could have been Angel's son if his dad had been more faithful, has a sweet combination of strength, naivete, and virility, and he's an intriguing character and problem. So is Hank, his trainer, who was a champion in his own day but now battles serious health issues because of his choice of profession. The two join Angel and try to get Cody to his audition without getting killed by various trigger-happy hoods, nutcases, and former pimps along the way. Its easier said than done, and Angel is especially worried that the trafficking ring may take Cody and Hank down because they're with her, never mind whoever tried to kill Cody along with his father.
The body count in the book is somwhere around all of Shakespeare's tragedies combined, and justice becomes a pretty abstract idea. But it works because Faust writes energetic prose with large doses of dark, violent, sexual humor. She keeps the pages turning rapidly with surprising plot twists and solid dialogue, and even makes you believe that Angel can live to tell us about this tale.
Former porn star Angel Dare is lying low (so to speak) in the Witness Protection program after testifying against human traffickers when "Thick Vic," one of her old co-stars, is gunned down right in front of her. Angel agrees to take care of the dying man's son, who hopes to land a gig in fighting after being promised an audition in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Angel is known in Vegas--and almost everywhere else--by the guys she helped put away before entering Wit Pro and changing her name.
Cody, who could have been Angel's son if his dad had been more faithful, has a sweet combination of strength, naivete, and virility, and he's an intriguing character and problem. So is Hank, his trainer, who was a champion in his own day but now battles serious health issues because of his choice of profession. The two join Angel and try to get Cody to his audition without getting killed by various trigger-happy hoods, nutcases, and former pimps along the way. Its easier said than done, and Angel is especially worried that the trafficking ring may take Cody and Hank down because they're with her, never mind whoever tried to kill Cody along with his father.
The body count in the book is somwhere around all of Shakespeare's tragedies combined, and justice becomes a pretty abstract idea. But it works because Faust writes energetic prose with large doses of dark, violent, sexual humor. She keeps the pages turning rapidly with surprising plot twists and solid dialogue, and even makes you believe that Angel can live to tell us about this tale.
March 25, 2021
And so on the second of the Angel Dare stories and I have to say that this is just as fast paced and brutal as the first however as the cover (both front and back) shows the story moves from the world of porn to MMA.
I have to say that some of the scenes are disturbing although from my rather sheltered view of the world I do not doubt reflect aspects of the real world (this is why I think I am going to immerse myself in something utterly fantastical to disconnect).
However again we see the heroine of the story Angel dare stepping up and show the world her true resilience and the fact that she cannot rely on anyone around her (especially since they are nearly all men) and must consider the fact that the best person to look after her is herself.
This book is not for the easily shocked or offended however I have to say this book has demonstrated you can be a hero and a "badass" and a woman at the same time - Christina Faust I salute you and I hope this is not the end of Ms Dares story.
I have to say that some of the scenes are disturbing although from my rather sheltered view of the world I do not doubt reflect aspects of the real world (this is why I think I am going to immerse myself in something utterly fantastical to disconnect).
However again we see the heroine of the story Angel dare stepping up and show the world her true resilience and the fact that she cannot rely on anyone around her (especially since they are nearly all men) and must consider the fact that the best person to look after her is herself.
This book is not for the easily shocked or offended however I have to say this book has demonstrated you can be a hero and a "badass" and a woman at the same time - Christina Faust I salute you and I hope this is not the end of Ms Dares story.
August 30, 2013
Choke Hold picks up not long after Money Shot ends, timewise it's maybe less than a year. It's not been easy time, though. Angel Dare has been in and out of the Witness Protection program. While there are some flashbacks to fill in what's happened in the meantime, the one thing you'll notice about this book is the pace. You know how people say things like "thrill ride" and "rollercoaster" and usually you just yawn? If Money Shot was a wild race, Choke Hold is desperate dash through a war torn bomb corridor. It simply doesn't let up for more than a breath now and then. And it's so noir you could black your shoes with it. Hope you never meet Angel Dare, because you're not too likely to survive it. When I finished this book -- and believe me, I barely put it down once I picked it up -- I went back and re-read quite a bit of it, picking apart just how Faust did what she did. Superb stuff.
June 30, 2013
Former adult-film star Angel Dare is one of the most original and compelling characters in modern noir fiction. She's tough and vulnerable, scared and courageous, cynical and sentimental. She's taken some damage (and she'll take quite a bit more in this book), but she's as capable of dishing out her own brand of damage in heaping helpings. And she'll use anything, from a gun to a shovel to her, shall we say, professional talents to survive and to defend the people she's promised to protect.
This one's a bit bleaker than the first one (and I didn't think that was possible), but the pace, and Christa Faust's strong, clear narrative voice are irresistible. Highly recommended.
This one's a bit bleaker than the first one (and I didn't think that was possible), but the pace, and Christa Faust's strong, clear narrative voice are irresistible. Highly recommended.
December 12, 2011
Maybe I'm a bit tough in my rating. I really enjoyed the book, it was fast moving, a good plot, a good story, violent with a brutal ending. But at the end of the day it was a story about an ex-porn star, on witness protection, getting mixed up with mixed marshal arts (MMA) fighters. Probably a journey too far into the cartoonish for me, and not as good as the first Angel Dare book. I think I saw someone describe this book as B-Noir, in my mind a perfect description --- but don't let this review put you off reading the book, just know what you're jumping into!
May 8, 2018
UPDATE: Upon reflection, there are sequences here I can't get out of my head and for pure escapist reading, this one is hard to beat, as the pages fly by. During the next holiday with relatives, I might take a stack of Faust's books.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I'm better suited to the Hardy Boys (Case File #51) version of a "Choke Hold". The sex here turns horrific: our heroine, Angel, rebels against abused women in porn, but then participates (in a grueling porn movie shoot) in the end (of the book, natch) as part of a deal to get herself and two guys out of the country. Which means she is back where she started, allowing herself to be abused. I liked the sports story plot though, and that kept me reading. There is a market for Angel Dare. It's called "Books Not For me."
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I'm better suited to the Hardy Boys (Case File #51) version of a "Choke Hold". The sex here turns horrific: our heroine, Angel, rebels against abused women in porn, but then participates (in a grueling porn movie shoot) in the end (of the book, natch) as part of a deal to get herself and two guys out of the country. Which means she is back where she started, allowing herself to be abused. I liked the sports story plot though, and that kept me reading. There is a market for Angel Dare. It's called "Books Not For me."
October 26, 2012
After I was thoroughly entertained last year by Christa Faust's novel, Money Shot, I made it a point to put its followup on my to-be-read pile. Choke Hold definitely carries on with the indomitable porn star, Angel Dare, but she is--for lack of a better term--damaged goods. And where the mixture of fear and defiance played out to great effect in Money Shot, this novel shows that there were dire consequences to her actions and she's a long way off from what she once thought of as a normal life.
Angel is reduced to living on the run, her witness relocation blowing up in her face, and now laying low as a waitress in Arizona. As if now a magnet for bad luck, one of her old flames wanders into the diner, but not to see her. He's there to meet his eighteen-year-old son for the first time. But before father and son can have a Hallmark moment, three very mean men with even meaner hardware show up. A showdown ensues and Angel finds herself on the run with her former lover dying in the backseat, giving her word she'll keep Cody, his eighteen-year-old son, safe. From there, Angel's life is swept into Cody's world of mixed-martial arts, underground pitfights, and a whole new batch of unsavory men out to exploit the young man.
There is this salacious element to Angel Dare that kind of acts as a hook. After breaking up a sex slave ring in L.A., her life fell apart at the seams and she's been doing all she can just to stay alive without the associates of those she brought down making her pay a terrible price. The porn industry seems almost utopian compared to the quagmire she is in at the start of this book--and it only seems to get worse for her. I had moments reading this where I wondered aloud why she was standing by this kid, despite the tenuous relationship she had with his father. I guess her resolve and moral obligation via the man's dying request kept her going, but it felt like it strained credulity at a couple spots. Still, it was riveting stuff, as Cody's life seemed to spin out of control like hers had in the previous novel.
Seeing the evolution of Angel's character was a treat, and it felt very genuine given her circumstances. An added bonus was the budding romance with Cody's mentor, Hank, a kindhearted lummox long past his prime in the ring whose body--and mind--is banged up to a point that feels utterly tragic. He's a bit of a mother hen to Cody, but Cody has to look after Hank too, as Angel gradually sees past the muscles and bravado to the fragility and broken dreams of both men.
While I'd be happy to spoil the ending of this book, I'll refrain and simply say that this is a gutwrenching and visceral sequel to Money Shot with all the action I was expecting and a whole lot more that I was not. If Christa Faust has another Angel Dare novel up her sleeve, I can't wait to read it.
Angel is reduced to living on the run, her witness relocation blowing up in her face, and now laying low as a waitress in Arizona. As if now a magnet for bad luck, one of her old flames wanders into the diner, but not to see her. He's there to meet his eighteen-year-old son for the first time. But before father and son can have a Hallmark moment, three very mean men with even meaner hardware show up. A showdown ensues and Angel finds herself on the run with her former lover dying in the backseat, giving her word she'll keep Cody, his eighteen-year-old son, safe. From there, Angel's life is swept into Cody's world of mixed-martial arts, underground pitfights, and a whole new batch of unsavory men out to exploit the young man.
There is this salacious element to Angel Dare that kind of acts as a hook. After breaking up a sex slave ring in L.A., her life fell apart at the seams and she's been doing all she can just to stay alive without the associates of those she brought down making her pay a terrible price. The porn industry seems almost utopian compared to the quagmire she is in at the start of this book--and it only seems to get worse for her. I had moments reading this where I wondered aloud why she was standing by this kid, despite the tenuous relationship she had with his father. I guess her resolve and moral obligation via the man's dying request kept her going, but it felt like it strained credulity at a couple spots. Still, it was riveting stuff, as Cody's life seemed to spin out of control like hers had in the previous novel.
Seeing the evolution of Angel's character was a treat, and it felt very genuine given her circumstances. An added bonus was the budding romance with Cody's mentor, Hank, a kindhearted lummox long past his prime in the ring whose body--and mind--is banged up to a point that feels utterly tragic. He's a bit of a mother hen to Cody, but Cody has to look after Hank too, as Angel gradually sees past the muscles and bravado to the fragility and broken dreams of both men.
While I'd be happy to spoil the ending of this book, I'll refrain and simply say that this is a gutwrenching and visceral sequel to Money Shot with all the action I was expecting and a whole lot more that I was not. If Christa Faust has another Angel Dare novel up her sleeve, I can't wait to read it.
Read
September 7, 2015Not half bad, for a crazy trashy cartoon piece of pulp. Crusading-pornstar-on-the-run Angel Dare is a great protagonist, and the book as a whole (from punchdrunk cage fighters to Mexican drug kingpins to hardcore gym culture to some tacky porn expo near the climax) is timely without seeming trendy and at the same time deeply classic, in its reverence for the tropes and, more importantly, the tone of old-time pulp. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much when I picked it up at the library, but this is the antidote to all those po-faced police procedurals that seem all the rage. To me, crime fiction should either (a) dissect a culture to reveal its dark underbelly or (b) have as little to do with reality as possible. Somehow, Faust’s (I love the pseudonym) neo-dimestore epic succeeds on both counts. Not that it’s without its faults: I thought the way Angel responded to the sleazeball porn producer’s advances at the expo kind of sold her short, and at times (as you’d expect) it has a tendency to glide across the surface of things just stirring up froth. But wow, that climax was gut-churning! And the whole thing was fun and frantic enough to just push it over the finish line. If you’re sick or depressed or on a ’plane, train or Greyhound, give it a go. Angel Dare, baby. She’s just gotta keep movin’.
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