A la Cara

Angel Dare #1

by Christa Faust, Óscar Palmer Yáñez (Translator)

Angel Dare creía llevar una vida perfecta y ordenada. Hasta que su pasado regresó de imprevisto para sumergirla en una espiral de violencia. Brutalmente agredida, dejada por muerta y acusada falsamente de asesinato, Angel se verá obligada a huir de la justicia al mismo tiempo que de la organización criminal que quiere acabar con ella. Pero Angel no está dispuesta a seguir siendo una víctima indefensa. Armada con todos los recursos aprendidos durante una década como profesional de la industria del cine para adultos, e impulsada por una furia incontrolable, no dudará en hacer todo cuanto sea necesario hasta conseguir que sus agresores paguen por todo lo que le han hecho.
Christa Faust reinventa el género negro desde un punto de vista puramente femenino, pero tan áspero y cortante como el de los mejores maestros del hardboiled. El resultado es una novela trepidante y sorprendente con la que Faust ha ido a unirse a ese pequeño pero imprescindible grupo de autoras que, de un tiempo a esta parte, están renovando un estilo tradicionalmente masculino con un ímpetu, un desparpajo y una dureza propios de los grandes clásicos.

“Un libro duro y oscuro, lleno de estilo e inventiva, que no hace sino crecer hasta llegar a un desenlace arrollador”.
Allan Guthrie

“Una novela negra incisiva escrita con gran estilo y de lectura absorbente”.
Ramsey Campbell

“Christa Faust es como la única morena en un mundo lleno de rubias”.
Quentin Tarantino

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Noir, Fiction, Thriller, Pulp, Mystery Thriller

253 pages, Perfect Paperback

First published February 1, 2008

About the author

Christa Faust is an American author who writes original novels, as well as novelizations and media tie-ins.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ex-porn star and talent agent Angel Dare has been set up, beaten up, and left for dead. Now she's hiding from the law AND the bad guys who want a missing suitcase. What does Angel want? Revenge, and she'll do whatever it takes to get the men who ruined her life.

This was a fun read of the fast and furious variety. The ass-kicking female protagonist kept me turning the pages when I really should have been doing something else. It definitely satisfied my thirst for seeing bad guys go down ( and not in the fun way.)

Be warned - this is violent and gritty. And, while the porn industry may seem like titillating subject matter for a novel, there's not a lot of sex in this book. Faust does not sugar coat the toll that sex for pay takes on the performers.

Years in porn are a lot like dog years. They tend to age the girls much quicker than human years.

Don't get me wrong - there are some laughs here. I liked some of the porn star names, particularly Heidi Ho.

And, yeah, I used the formula - childhood pet + street where you grew up to calculate my porn star name. It's Princess Channel. Eh. That's okay, I suppose, but I always thought the ultimate porny name would be Lickety Split.

Don't worry. I won't be appearing anytime soon on a screen near you.

[Dan Schwent · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you shoot a woman and leave her in the trunk of a car, you'd better make sure she's dead...

Former porn star and current talent agency owner Angel Dare is duped into meeting an old friend, beaten, raped, shot, and left for dead in the trunk of a Honda Civic, all because of some missing money she knows nothing about. But Angel doesn't die and, with the help of an ex-cop named Malloy, goes looking for those responsible...

Money Shot is a quick read, full of action and suspense, as befits its place in the Hard Case Crime series. Angel's quest for vengeance leads her through the underbelly of the porn industry and the seedy world of sex slavery. Her feeling that her life was stolen from her is completely understable. The action is quick and brutal. Christa Faust is a fairly capable writer. Money Shot reads like an action movie. I suspect porn enthusiasts would enjoy it even more than I did.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's often said that the most sensitive part of your body during a porn session is your ears - no one likes getting busted with their undies around their ankles.



Well, no-one that is, unless you're Angel Dare.

”I’m sure you’re wondering what a nice girl like me was doing left for dead in the trunk of a piece of shit Honda Civic out in the industrial wasteland east of downtown Los Angeles. Or maybe we’ve met before and you’re wondering why it hadn’t happened sooner.

My name’s Gina Moretti, but you probably know me as Angel Dare. Don’t worry, I won’t tell your wife. I made my first adult video when I was twenty, though I lied on camera and said I was eighteen.”

And No! I’m not reading cliterature *ahem*! Honest! I’m actually reading my first novel from the Hard Case Crime series. That said, I did learn a hell of a lot about the porn industry from this book! And it ain’t pretty!



Money Shot caused a sensation when Hard Case Crime released it in February 2008, not only because of its content, but because it's the first Hard Case Crime release written by a woman.

Money Shot is about an ex-porn star, Angel Dare, who after working 9 years in the business, decides to set up a talent agency called 'Daring Angels', to better protect girls in the business from the hands of suitcase pimps and talent agencies. Angel gets duped into meeting an old friend and is beaten, raped, shot, and left for dead in the trunk of a Honda Civic, all because of some missing money that she knows nothing about. But Angel doesn't die and, with the help of an ex-cop named Malloy, goes looking for those responsible….

Money Shot is a slow train wreck through the adult entertainment industry. It doesn't paint a pleasant picture of the industry or the people in it.

"If you spend any amount of time working in the porn industry, you quickly get numb to drug casualties, just like you get numb to prolapsed rectums on set and guys who stick needles in their johnsons and all the other workaday atrocities of the modern smut racket."

In creating Angel, a feminist porn star action hero and avenging angel who stepped into her G-string and heels and loaded her gun to take down a sex slavery syndicate, Faust has been touted as "rewriting the femme fatale guidebook and upending the whole noir spectrum."

Written in a casual but confident first person perspective, Money Shot delivers some hardboiled action with some great humour and moments of unexpected poignancy. Angel is not a shallow character. She has a lot of depth and goes through a personal transformation throughout the story. But make no mistake, Money Shot, as the title suggests, is also gritty raunch in places; disturbing and even grotesque.


[Source: Urban Dictionary]

This is Christa Faust's first Angel Dare mystery. And the good news is that fans of Money Shot can get to read about Angel again in another Hard Case Crime novel, Choke Hold.

There are many sites on the internet that deal with porn, including name generators.
I'm thinking of getting into "the industry" so I gave it a shot.
My industry name would be Skimpy Pleaser. I kinda like it.

And just so GR readers don't have to worry about getting busted with their undies around their ankles, I thought I'd share with you a sneak peak of my first audition. After all, you needn't worry about hiding out if you are on a book review site, right?



Oh c'mon... you don't think I'm that stupid, do you?

For just $19.95, including postage and packaging, I will send you a copy.

As you can see, my Nan has one already. She got hers for free, family n' all.



3.5 stars/5

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an awesome little pulp crime novel set deep in the porn industry community of Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, which also happens to be where I lay my head at night! It follows Angel Dare, a former porn star who now runs an agency for new talent. One night she gets a call to shoot one last scene and she can't resist the urge to prove that she's still got it. But the shoot turns out to be a front and she winds up shot and left for dead in the trunk of a car and framed for murder. She then must use all of her wits to find those responsible and pay them back in full!

I enjoyed the character of Angel Dare, a well-rounded heroine who at first doubts herself and her ability to handle the situation that she's in, but then grows and realizes that she actually can be a badass and totally handle her own with the tough guys and take care of herself. I mean damn, she gets a bullet in the chest and still manages to walk to a local mercado and call for help! It made for interesting reading because at first, I was a little disappointed because Angel felt like your run-of-the-mill damsel in distress, feeling sorry for herself and relying on some ex-cop to help her. But then at a point in the book, you realize that this is all necessary as Angel comes into her own and evolves in a potent character arc that was enjoyable to read! Christa Faust skillfully finds a great balance with her narrative voice, injecting just the right humor at the right times, even managing to get a snicker out of the reader in tense situations.

I wanted to shout something tough and manly like Freeze motherfucker, or I'll blow your balls off! In the end I just pointed the gun and yelled, "Hey!"

And she's the real star of this crime show, that Christa Faust, writing with great confidence and wit, with good pacing and a clever style. Aside from a slightly stumbling resolution, I had lots of fun reading this and I can't wait to see what she does with her other work!

I'll also take some time to mention Glen Orbik, the awesome cover artist who also contributed other amazing covers for Hard Case Crime (including the great cover for David Goodis's The Wounded and the Slain, and the covers for Hard Case's popular Stephen King and Michael Crichton releases), and who sadly passed away while I was in the middle of reading this.

Eventually, morning came instead of bad guys. That was the thing about mornings. No matter how fucked up your life got, how deep and black your despair, how sure you were that you couldn't take another second of this shit, morning just kept on coming.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love to be a porn star, but my wife won’t let me. And I certainly can’t argue her logic: while they make decent money, porn stars put themselves at a higher risk for sexually transmitted diseases, they age out quickly (much like football players), work in an industry that doesn’t always attract the most respectable employers, and (the icing on the cake for me) tend to stop viewing sex as something fun and, instead, view it as a job. Ugh.

She’s right, of course, which is why I have to live my fantasy vicariously through Internet porn and reading about porn stars in books like Christa Faust’s “Money Shot”.

Actually, if anything is to turn me off to the porn star life it’s Faust’s novel, a noir-ish crime thriller about a porn actress forced to become detective when she is kidnapped, beaten, raped, and left for dead.

Faust’s protagonist is a tough, business-savvy former porn star named Angel Dare who now owns an “adult modeling agency”, a fairly lucrative business that is meant to help young girls getting into the business by avoiding some of the pitfalls (casting couches, financial and sexual abuse, drugs) that Angel and her cohorts had to endure when they got into the business.

Things are going pretty well for Angel, until the day she gets a call from an old friend who says he may have an acting job for her with an up-and-coming young porn star. Even though she’s retired, the prospect of one more movie excites her, especially with a young stud twenty years her junior. Unfortunately, when she arrives at the location, it turns out that it’s a trap. She is viciously raped, beaten, shot, and thrown into the trunk of a Honda Civic.

But her perpetrators underestimate her. First off, she survives. Second, she calls in help from an ex-cop friend who is willing to get his hands dirty. Together, they work to uncover a sex trafficking ring, seek revenge on her rapists, and, if they’re lucky, get their hands on a bag full of money.

“Money Shot” is a pretty exciting story, but it’s not all about entertainment. Faust uses the novel to subtly illuminate and criticize the much darker elements of the porn industry---rampant drug abuse, the nefarious infiltration of more foreign “backers” (Eastern European and Russian mobs, for example), pedophelia, and human trafficking---that casual fans of porn don’t often want to think about. Reality checks and guilt trips are a real turn-off.

Which is why “Money Shot” is a kind of “scared straight” tactic for anyone thinking about going into porn. It may seem like a fun idea, but the reality is that it’s just not worth it.

[Carla Remy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually give anything I like a lot or even love 4 stars, so I can reserve 5 for books I truly and utterly adore .
And, yes, I give Money Shot 5 stars.
I couldn’t stop reading it. Well structured, with terrific suspense and action. Also funny and smart.
It pleases me that a woman around my own age wrote this.
I cannot wait to read more by her.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christa Faust's Money Shot is the first Hard Case Crime original I've read, and it's a doozy. Some have complained that the new paperback originals that Hard Case publish are too self-conscious, and work too hard at recreating all the conventions of pulp narratives from the '40s, '50s, and '60s without taking the time to think about whether or not those conventions might work in a modern setting, or even why they may have worked in the first place, but this is definitely not the case with Money Shot. Faust brilliantly uses all the old conventions of hard-boiled fiction (e.g., first-person narration, clipped dialogue, brutal violence, MacGuffin-driven plot, damsel[s] in distress, constant sexual tension, interchangeable thugs who stand between the hero and his or her ultimate goal) while still creating a believable female character who operates in a 21st-century milieu. The book isn't without its problems. Many scenes make you question whether or not the protagonist, Angel Dare, would even be present were she not narrating the novel, and there are a few plot contrivances that I just didn't buy; they seemed to exist merely to move the plot forward. Overall, though, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. It's entertaining, violent, pulpy, funny, and all the little details of life in the adult-film business seem dead-on. Also, the cover art might be the best in the Hard Case Crime series so far.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought about dropping this all the way to a 1 star rating, but I really didn't hate the book. I only sort of disliked it. And before anyone jumps to the conclusion it was the subject matter it wasn't. I can stand an "adult" type story. The problem here is simply that the book was a kind of one trick pony with what I found some fairly weak storytelling.

Of course I know everyone won't feel that way and to be fair it is complete and total "mind-junk-food" so. you know to each their own.

Our protagonist here (Angel Dare) is a semi-retired porn star. She runs an agency sending young women out on jobs now but can't resist doing the occasional come-back. The thing is she finds herself caught in the middle of something, unexpected this time.

The writer here can't resist pontificating (a lot) on her views of porn, life, love and marriage (a really jaded view of marriage by the way. I'd guess at some background on that but have no real evidence...)

I got through the book and in case anyone wants to know there is very little actual overt sex in the book.You get a lot of graphic language, descriptions of porn situations, some porn movie shots/filming and so on. It's not a book for kids. It's simply a somewhat predictable mystery that leans a bit heavily on what I suppose would be called prurient interest.

Don't plan to read the sequel, can't recommend it. Up to you.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Coming back from the dead isn't as easy as they make it seem in the movies."

Hard Case Crimes have been hit or miss with me. Most I find good but not many great. I know there's more out there waiting for me to discover and fall in love with them - I've read about five (sad number).

Angel is a retired porn star who currently keeps afloat by running a company of working women for the entertainment industry. After receiving a phone call from a director she respects and trusts, she agrees to do one last job - but finds out there is a gigantic catch. Now on the run and having escaped death, she must clear her name and get revenge on those who almost put her in the coffin.

The author doesn't hold back with the porn industry business - definitely more insight than I'd had before (or wanted.) It's told with no apologies in a matter-of-fact way through memories and a present set visit. I had NO idea men put injections there, yikes.

Usually books like this are told through the point of view of men who run into the classic noirish dame, but in this case it was a woman writer doing a good job telling a story with an experienced woman's point of view. The writing style is awesome and casual, easy to digest and read through quickly.

Characterization is well done too, particularly in the strong and independent personality Angel has. Every once in awhile there's a touch of vulnerability that makes her come across more real. Even the "good guys" in this show realism as they sometimes betray Angel when she and I weren't expecting them too.

It's pure crime and no mystery, a well-done and tense book that's well-structured. It gets a little silly and overreaching in the end with some of the deaths, but it does so while still embracing the pulpy feel these kind of books promise.

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great, fast-paced, and well-written noir romp.

Heh heh, I said romp. I used that word because this particular "detective story" is set in the word of the SoCal porn industry. And the word "romp" is a sexy-sex-sex word to me.

I highly enjoyed the fact that this particular seedy story had a female protagonist/narrator. Angel Dare is both the damsel AND the "hero."

This hits all the right noir-ish notes: dirty back alleys, untraceable pistols, suitcases full of moolah, bad dudes with greasy hair, and a main character who repeatedly gets the shit kicked out of her, but keeps on going.

I loved it, and I'm moving directly on to the next one, Choke Hold.

[Mohammed Abdikhader Firdhiye · Rating 3 out of 5]

It all began with the phone call asking former porn star Angel Dare to do one more movie. Before she knew it, she'd been shot and left for dead in the trunk of a car.

When i read that part of the synopsis i thought no way im gonna get a book that sounds so clichè,so far from my taste. The cool cover pose with the gun, the female author being a contemporary noir author is what made me try this.

I liked Angel Dare despite her porn star name sounds silly. She had a strong voice,attitude that made her beliavable and easy to like despite all the things she does in the book. The novel was fun to read and had some real word darkness in the story. Which is pretty much all i ask of modern noir novels. I havent really enjoyed the new noir novels i have read by Hard Case Crime so far. Most of the HCC novels i have enjoyed have been written by alltime greats,masters of the field.

Strong 3 stars for me, rate it higher than most 3 stars novels.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from the cool name and cover, what really took this story to the next level for me was Angel Dare. Needless to say, Christa Faust knows how to spin a tale with a strong, capable heroine (not to be confused with the substance that might have been consumed by sex slave workers). The story clipped along like a Greyhound on I-70 in the middle of Colorado. Angel knows how to deal with the pond scum in the sex slave trade and porn business, and she can take a beat down about as well as any red-blooded male. She doesn’t cry or whine or wallow in self-pity; she just wraps her hand in plastic and punches out glass windows.

If you’ve ever wanted a behind-the-scenes look at the porn industry, then MONEY SHOT should answer a few questions for you. And while this is Angel’s tale, and it’s rather aptly told, the secondary characters are painted rather convincingly with some quick sketches. Even though this book introduces some seedy characters and takes the reader to some seedy places, it doesn’t let sex and violence rule the tale. All-in-all, if you find feminine noir enjoyable, then you’ll want to check this book out.

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trying to explain what I was currently reading to my wife, I described the passage I’d then reached thus: “The former porn star who is in our heroine is at the home of another former porn star, one who is washed up and drugged out, trying to get a current porn star – this one drugged up and paranoid – to leave the bathroom, before a third former porn star comes back.”

My wife looked at me with baffled disapproval. But really, I can think of no better description for the level of exaggerated, over the top tawdriness at which this novel operates.

Obviously the world of porn is likely to be seedy with many dark corners. And this book revels in every disgusting and dangerous nook and cranny. There’s no lace-clad, sugar coating here. No glorification of the world it depicts. Indeed if you knew someone who for some reason wanted to enter the world of pornography, handing over this book would be a fantastic deterrent.

Former porn star, Angel Dare, is kidnapped, tortured and left for dead. She comes to wanting revenge and to understand just what the hell happened to her. Angel does make a fun and frank narrator, contrasting her sexual provocativeness with a very human terror and horror of the violence that’s suddenly overcome her world. And I’ll be honest, her wit and her arched observations are the main reason this reader made it to the end. As this is such a dark and sleazy book, one that revels in the filth around it, that you’re likely to feel the need for a good cleansing shower every forty pages or so.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read on plane from Doha to London, full review may follow

Full of potential this Hard Case Original from Christa Faust reads like the anti-Megan Abbott of modern female written noir. Whereas Abbott focuses on the domestic life of her female characters Faust has a protagonist who used to be a porn star and tries acting like a male action star.

I wish it could have hit the height my imagination had in mind but still a highly enjoyable pulp read.

[Mindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have recently become obsessed with the Hard Case Crime books. I want to collect them all! The covers are so amazing!

Unfortunately, this book wasn't as amazing as the cover. I enjoyed the beginning and end, but the middle dragged for me. Angel Dare is a great character and I am looking forward to reading the next one.

[brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

if it wasn't enough that quentin tarentino said that "christa faust is a Veronica in a world of Betties", how about that b. gottlieb says she's the sleaziest, toughest, pulpiest crime writer out there?
i think i'm in love.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected to like this more than I did. Overall the story was good, almost 4 stars, but the heroine's motivations degraded it. On the plus side, there was a wonderfully gritty trip through the porn industry & some memorable characters that were quickly, but well sketched. Our heroine was strong, tough & capable. Lots of action & sexual tension. Not much actual sex & what there was didn't detract from the story. It didn't read like a porn novel, which would have been very easy to do. The story was fast paced & the writing was pretty good; hard bitten, earthy & without pretense.

Downsides: Our heroine was too upset by events that I felt she should have taken more in stride & with more intelligence. Her reactions were over-blown & that's what most of the story hung on, so it constantly felt forced. Supposedly a smart gal, she makes a series of dumb decisions that dig her deeper into a situation that can only lead to her deeper into a morass of murder & betrayal. I had to suspend my belief a little too often.

The shock value was over done, too; gratuitous scenes & actions. A little less emphasis on how bad the bad guys were would have made a much better story, IMO. Their motivations were suspect, at best. Lots of murder & mayhem without much reason at times. The last death scene was unbelievable, too. Neat idea, but not well scripted.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate porn puns and I hate product placements all through the book for Target and Walmart and Payless Shoes and it was a slimy, gross book anyway and I didn't care what happened to the tough as nails porn star and I don't know who was a bigger whore, the porn star or the author for shilling for all these white trash consumer dungeons.

[Mike Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover and the title... well... they'd normally make me move on without reading the book. Except, this is an original novel published by Hard Case Crime who are famous for their retro covers. This cover was an Anthony Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original and Best Cover Art (2009) and the novel was a Barry Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2009)and an Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2009) and besides, I was reading the ebook version so no-one was ever going to see the cover... except you guys of course.

In Money Shot Christa Faust has produced a Hard-boiled crime novel that is very different from the typical macho gumshoe flexing his muscles and firing his gun as he wise-cracks his way to catching the bad guy.

The book opens with our heroine Angel Dare, naked and bound hand and foot in the trunk of a car in a remote lot. She's been left for dead but she's still breathing. A fact that the man who tried to kill her will come to regret.

Angel is a strong woman who has survived being in front of the cameras in the porn industry and gone on to carve a place for herself managing the new generation of talent performing in porn films and gentlemen's clubs through her Daring Angels agency. She knows the challenges that women working in the porn industry face and she does her best to keep her Angels safe while helping everyone to make money, She was satisfied with her business and her life. Until her life was blown up when a close friend betrayed her to ruthless men ready to torture, rape and kill to get what they want.

And that's just the first couple of chapters.

This is not a comfortable or cosy book. It's an unflinching look at some terrible people doing some nasty things. This is a story of a woman coming to understand that her old life is gone, that her friends are either dead or have betrayed her or both and deciding that none of that is going to stop her from killing the men who did this to her.

This isn't the kind of thriller where you sit on the edge of your seat wondering what clever twist is going to allow the heroine to escape in the nick of time. It's the kind of thriller where bad things happening lead to worse things happening until everything is in ruins. It's a story that focuses on trauma and its consequences rather than on complex plots.

What kept me wading through the soulless sex, the vicious violence, the grimly plausible exploitation and the constant bloodshed was Angel Dare herself. She felt very real to me and what happened to her was truly awful. What she did about it wasn't any better. The price she paid for it may even have been worse but I could see it happen.

She's a smart, tough, occasionally witty woman who has survived things that might have broken other people. Christa Faust has given her a unique and relatable voice that kept me moving forward as the plot got darker and darker. Angel often said or thought things that made me smile, like her view on shopping malls:

"I hate malls. They're like strip clubs for women. All tease and sparkle and the empty promise that if you just drop enough cash, somehow you’ll be fulfilled."

The second and, I think last, Angel Dare book is called Choke Hold. I'll be adding it to my TBR list shortly.

[Ben A · Rating 4 out of 5]

A top notch crime thriller that left me breathless from its fast pace, fun characters and story as well as going in incredibly unexpected directions.

[Tanveer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generic plot with average writing but with a pornstar pseudonym reference to Buster Keaton.
Mildly enjoyable but forgettable.

[Clint Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pornography? What is that? The author kept mentioning that word. I must Google it. . . .

So why am I giving this novel four stars when I've been so sparing with my stars of late? Did it blow me away? Did it tug on my heartstrings? Did it give me a happy ending? Nah. I think it was mostly due to very low expectations coming into it.

I've become enamored with the Hard Case Crime print series because the covers are gorgeous and they reprint a lot of pulp crime novels that are very hard to come by. But this was one of their newer titles, which takes place in a modern world. Why the hell would I want to read about cell phones, the internet and 9/11, when I could pick up another of their titles and read about telegrams, typewriters, and dirty Commies? And if you read the back, it sounds like another wan attempt at creating a female Rambo. I mostly just picked it up to make room on the shelf.

But then I became quite pleasantly surprised by it. The prose reads like it's straight out of the '70's or earlier. The female heroine is believable, tough in her own non-Rambo way, and goes through a version of the Hero's Journey to get to a level where she becomes a believable badass. One thing I wondered about as I neared the end was if the whole story was imagination, or if the author was cathartically creating a revenge fantasy against someone who sexually abused her. It would be an interesting question to have answered, but not necessary, obviously, to enjoy the book.

Bonus points to the author for a perfect title.

One last note on the book: it pulls no punches on its portrayal of the porn industry, so if graphic descriptions of sex acts make you squeamish, you might want to avoid this one.

[Vickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I should put on some chili red lipstick and shake out a cigarette before I start this review. I left the chili red lipstick at home and I don't smoke, so I'll do the best I can.
MONEY SHOT is a no holds barred, don't get attached to anyone kind of book. Under normal description, this could be a cozy mystery...the main character is not a detective and finds herself having to investigate the hell that her life has become through no fault of her own. Except cozy mystery writers tend to not utilize the porn industry as a backdrop and the main character is rarely (read NEVER) a porn star who now runs her own agency for porn starlets.
Angel Dare, porn star back in the day and still recognized for her work in X rated films, retired from in front of the camera and is now behind the scenes with her high class adult modeling agency Daring Angels.
Angel is having one of those days of feeling her years and finds herself saying yes to a request to get in front of the camera just one more time. She ends up hit in the face and stuffed in the trunk of a car, left for dead.
She wants to find out who did this to her and why and get her life back if she can.
It's grimy, sordid, definitely not a feel good book to read and I read it in practically one sitting. I couldn't sleep nights until at least some aspect of the awfulness that was happening to Angel was rectified. I read until someone got what was coming to them.
The voice over in my head for this book was Linda Fiorentino, all smoky.
Five gritty avenging beans......

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dove right into this book, hoping that Faust achieved the same wonders that I found in her book, "Hoodtown." The prose pulled me in right away, as did the makings of the mystery. Faust quickly drops her heroine in the shit, and I braced myself for a brutal comeback culminating in bloody, bloody revenge.

Fifty pages later, I felt stuck. The good prose was still there, along with the makings of a deeper mystery, but something about the heroine's place in the story kept me at a distance. Angel Dare herself keeps questioning her role in events, whether or not she is up for the revenge she so dearly desired, and her reliance on a tough guy she barely knows. Despite frequent action and a developing story, I didn't feel the pull that Faust worked on me in "Hoodtown."

Then Angel Dare looked the devil in the eye and made her own deal and committed to her revenge; she kills her first person, and her reaction to this act brought me closer to her character while offering a different take on violent revenge in the very genre that promotes it. Soon after, Dare figures out just how she needs to see her self-appointed deed through, and her self-realization makes for the kind of reading that makes you want to yell out "fuck yeah!" Then she brings the pain--and you know what? All of that wandering and wondering made sense, and all of the bloody doings actually meant something.

All hail Faust, killer writer.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any book that begins with the main character beaten and bound in the trunk of a car clearly qualifies as an actionpacked book. From page one, it's all systems go in this one. I dare you to try and put this book aside for a few days without finishing it. You are not going to be able to do it.

Christa Faust is the real deal when it comes to gritty crime writing. Money Shot is a story about Angel Dare, an aging porn star who now runs her own talent agency. Unbeknownst to Angel, someone left a briefcase with her and now criminal elements are after her in a bad way. An old friend is shot in front of her eyes and, since the bad guys used Angel's gun, the police believes she murdered him. So, in typical hard case style, everyone is after her and the only person she can depend on is an ex-cop Malloy. Together, they fight through the seamy underbelly of LA's porn industry to find out what's going on before the bad guys wipe them out. The story is told through Angel's eyes and is told with a sharp sense of humor. The story flows well and doesn't fall apart plot wise. Although the setting is the porn industry and there are humorous descriptions of that industry, the focus of the story is not sexual. Rather, it's another innocent person on the run and a mysterious package story.

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts strong but drags in a few places. It also gets really old hearing about how much the main character keeps drooling over the guy helping her.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is viceral fiction (I mean emotionally driven rather than crude). There's such an ugly cast of characters here (the 3 P's: pornstars, prostitutes, and psychopaths). The revenge motive drives the entire second half of the book. This is justice given out by the injured party which usually isn't pretty and in this case, it's really unpleasant. Faust pushed the limits of my taste at certain points as she almost seemed to relish sticking the reader's nose into the cesspool of humanity (human slavery). She walked a fine line in her philosophical debates (mostly all internal and not between characters) concerning women stripping and doing x-rated films. I will say that she didn't try to make any of these women into saints-that-strip like some do. The women characters in this novel are mostly coarse or vulgar which fits. The men are mostly emotionally dead (unless they're being tortured). This novel is noir but it won't have you guessing about a mystery or detective work. Instead, it delivers you into a walking purgatory and a living hell. I say that without an ounce of hyperbole. Think about that before you decide to read this novel. In the end, this one is difficult to score. I'd probably go with 3.5 stars if that were an option.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fast paced and violent story from Christa Faust which I have to was a lot more fun that I was expecting. After all in this day and age who would feel comfortable reading a story where the main character is assaulted and left for dead (yes that was part of the original cover right up) who then embarks on a journey of revenge.

However I have to say (and knowing next to nothing about the author Christa Faust) I think the subject was sensibly and in its own way sensitively approached. After all the heroine of this story is no push over or easy target - the situation she finds herself in was not of her making and yet she find a way to survive.

This story (and if you read it you will see there are no danger of spoilers) reminds me of the film Chinatown with Jack Nicholson - a thrilling story with some very disturbing undertones - and like this book no one is pure and innocent but you very quickly get an idea of who is trying to do the right thing and who is clearly not.

I know that the Hard Case Crime imprint prides itself on a certain style and story type and I have to say this certainly does not try and dispel that, I feel that I certainly jumped in at the deep end with this one.

[Logan Mendivil · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was honestly a DNF which is rare for me as I have a nagging mind set that makes me want to finish what I started. I got a little over half way of the book finished. Figured I should throw that honesty out there before I continue.

This book simply wasn't for me.. the violence, I can take. The descriptive Gore doesn't phase me all that much. However, the sleaziness of the book was the big turn off for me. I understand that the protagonist of the story is a retired porn star and that it deals with some other people in the porn industry but some of the phrases, wording and puns were even unnecessary with the characters background. A porn star is a person and, no I don't know any, but I doubt that when they are off the clock or in a life and death situation they will be tying all their thoughts to porn films or conjuring up all the over the top stage names of some of their co-stars in the past. It made it seem a bit unreal and uncomfortable to read. That of course is my personal opinion as any review for anything is. This just wasn't my cup of tea.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this one as much as I'd hoped to. It starts out well with the kind of female protagonist I like. The book opens with Gina Moretti, a former porn star (stage name Angel Dare) narrating. She's beaten, bound and gagged in the trunk of a car. She flashes back to how she ended up in this predicament and the book takes off from there. The problems I had were that the plot isn't very plausible. She's on the run for a murder she didn't commit. Her gun was used in an execution style murder and the victim was left in her car. The problem with this set-up is Gina herself. She's been beaten, raped, shot, and left for dead in another vehicle. Would this not be evidence enough of a set-up?

And though I know this is noir crime fiction, there seemed to be one or two too many 'betrayals'.

I will read another by Faust because I loved Gina's narration and the pacing.