The Get Off

Angel Dare #3

by Christa Faust

The first Angel Dare novel, MONEY SHOT, earned universal finalist for the Edgar, Anthony and Barry Awards, won the Crimespree Award and chosen by fans as their favorite Hard Case Crime title of all time. Angel’s story continued in CHOKE HOLD and – after almost 15 years – it comes to a blazing conclusion in THE GET OFF.

WILL THE CHANCE FOR A NEW LIFE BE ANGEL’S LAST SHOT?

Tagged as a cop killer when a mission of vengeance goes wrong, Angel Dare finds herself on the run, with an unexpected she’s pregnant. Her desperate flight takes Angel across the American west, where cattle barons lock horns with rodeo bullfighters and life can end suddenly and brutally. A renegade couple living off the grid near the border might offer a chance of escape – but can Angel reach them in time…?

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

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2025

About the author

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

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Get Off (Publication March 18, 2025) is the final long-awaited entry to Christa Faust’s cutthroat crime trilogy featuring Gina Moretti as Angel Dare. Angel is a different kind of crime fiction hero. In the first book in the trilogy, Money Shot, she introduces herself as an adult film star who ends up on the run for her life in an action-packed adventure. Book two the Chokehold continues her adventures through the Southwesten desert.

The Get Off starts out with Angel, who thinks of herself as a hero, not a femme fatale because she is not really a villain, stalking her arch-enemy Vukasin right to his urology appointment where, dressed as a scrub nurse, she attempts to take Vukasin out of action, but gets interrupted by a gunfight to take him out before she can get to him.

But, in the Get Off, Faust really explores what it means to have crime fiction written by a woman because no male writer would ever give his heroine the kinds of female problems that Angel suddenly has when she realizes that her breasts are leaking and that she may have put on more than a few pounds. Once again, Angel is on the run with two murders to her name and her pleas of innocence notwithstanding she pulled the trigger and should expect to suffer the consequences.

Think of this novel as an action-packed racecar that is going at breakneck speed. The action seldom lets up as Angel has half the country on the lookout for her and is no condition to protect herself properly. From there, she follows a trail of rodeo clowns out into the wilderness where there is no hiding and no salvation.

The Get Off is a fitting conclusion to this set of three Angel Dare novels, offering a version of Angel that no one could have expected, often a bit more helpless than in the first two novels, but with a survival instinct second to none.

This review follows an advance reader’s copy from the publisher.

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one finds Angel in the rodeo circuit, dying her hair red and trying to deal with certain physical issues but mostly sin and redemption and more sin. This does a great job of bringing back the memory of dead characters from the last two books. The title is a double entendre. Sex and Death.

[Blair Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

The long-awaited Angel Dare book was well worth the wait!

“A real femme fatale is a villain, and I always thought of myself as a hero.”
-Christa Faust

[SuperWendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm in a weird head space right now with reading, which probably explains my choice of inhaling this book over Mother's Day 😂.

I resisted the urge to go back and reread the first two books, feeling that this long-awaited third book had to sink or swim on it's own without me having to do homework. My main gripe with this entry is that Angel is more reactive than proactive. She's at the mercy of others around her - instead of trying to save her own skin. She even muses on this frustration more than once.

It's one bad thing happening after another plot - like watching a chain reaction pile up happen on the freeway. It spirals into some pretty grim depression at the end, and of course it does not end the way I wanted it to. Is the ending realistic? Sure. Does that mean I have to like it? No. I'm glad Angel got a send off, it's just not the send off I wanted. There's no winners here - only losers.

[Ben A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christa Faust brings Angel Dare back for one last rodeo (pun intended) and doesn't skip a beat despite all the real-world time that's passed. Just like the previous two it kicks off into a thrill ride that doesn't stop all the way until the explosive conclusion.

Special Thanks to Hard Case Crime, Titan Books and Edelweiss Plus for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Angel Dare, ex-pornstar and woman on the run, is back in her third adventure, another brutal, shoot 'em up, hardcore (in more than one sense) pulp thriller.

Just when Angel's plot to get revenge on the man who started it all is about to come to fruition, an unexpected twist has Angel accidently killing a cop and sends her off on the run with everyone in law enforcement looking for her. And to make matters worse, she's pregnant. Eventually ending up on the rodeo circuit, she finds some fellow misfits that offer her a chance at salvation, of living off the grid with a new identity and chance at life. But nothing is ever easy for Angel, as she realizes that you can't always get away from your past.

A fitting ending to this trilogy, but somehow missing the humor, the spark of the previous two books. Angel just makes one stupid decision after another, and eventually has to face up to her bad decisions. The other books were fun, this just feels hollow.

[scorpionwoman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

poor angel. she’s pregnant and she feels like a bad luck charm for everyone she comes across. whenever she meets a new person and they’re actually a good, decent soul who wants to help her out i get emotional cause i know that’s right most of the time it won’t turn out well for her. she’s completely beaten and broken down, but she’s still alive and kicking.

i liked wash and i loved chase. the side characters that angel befriends are always the highlights of this series.

im not sure if liked the main conflict towards the end. it felt a little over the top. really the whole ending was a little over the top / rushed for me. the very last part was abrupt. it made sense narratively both for this book and the whole trilogy but it left me feeling a little disappointed. overall an understandable end to angel’s story but not the way i wanted it to go.

[Wesley Mead · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tense, exciting and occasionally gut-wrenching capper to the Angel Dare trilogy. Christa Faust has lost none of her remarkable knack for propulsive plotting, surprising twists, and compelling prose.

[Vernon Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Angel Dare books are great, gritty crime novels filled with dark humor and moral complexity. Angel, a former porn star, is an extremely interesting character, walking the tightrope between right and wrong, and finding trouble at every turn. This book, the third, and probably last, in the series, is a nonstop adventure, with Angel ending up depending on a couple of rodeo clowns to take her to safety…

[Donald · Rating 2 out of 5]

“I used my vibrator so often that my occupied uterus must have felt like a cheap apartment near LAX.”

Yup, Angel is back, and pregnant! A pregnancy that she calls ‘The Situation’. This time she gets mixed up with the rodeo circuit and nothing good comes of it. And for me, at about the 200th page, nothing much kept my attention to the book. And I didn't like the ending. Not the 'get off' that Angel should have gotten.

“What happens when you give it your best shot and still lose and everyone who cares about you dies and you’re just hanging around like the one dinner party dish that never got washed.”

“Can you be an accessory to murder before you’re even born?”

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

So … this series took a turn. The witty, somewhat pragmatic, focused Angel has become less hunter and more victim. You see this change right from the start and it’s a rocky downhill spiral from there.

This installment felt more violent, more bloody (and somehow more implausible) than the previous two Angel books. The Get Off would make Quentin Tarantino proud.

I can’t say that I loved the ending but I also can’t say it wasn’t expected.

[Tony Healey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A literal tour de force for Christa Faust. I think she outdid herself with this third, final entry in the Angel Dare series. Faust's always been a blisteringly great writer, with an ability to wield sharp prose to impressive, devastating effect. And her pacing is second to none, with twists and cliffhangers that make it real hard to resist turning the pages. But in 'The Get Off' Faust puts all her skills to use to deliver what I thought was impossible: a book that is better than 'Choke Hold' - a novel I consider one of the finest Hard Case has released.
I don't want to spoil what happens in 'The Get Off' because everyone should arrive at that final chapter not knowing what's coming. I'm a writer myself and I couldn't think of a better way of finishing Angel's story. It felt right, and it felt true. Five stars from me.

[Solitairerose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lead character Angel Dare is not a detective. She’s not a hero. And in this book, she’s on the run for crimes she did commit.

This is the third book featuring the character, and the hallmark of the series is that Dare is out guide into a subculture we know little about. In Money Shot, it was pornography. In Choke Hold, it was mixed martial arts. In The Get Off it’s competitive rodeo, a world I know next to nothing about.

She brings us into it with Dare both on the run and, for the first time in the series, not in control. The book is written in a first person narrative, which is a nice way for us to learn about that world as dare does herself. As the story goes on, we get a number of side plots, lots of action sequences, and more than a little confusion as Dare herself has trouble finding out what is happening. The start of the book is straight forward as Dare attempts a revenge killing that goes sideways. As she is on the run, she is at the mercy of those around her, most of which don’t know the truth about what happened and who she is.

Faust takes us down some of the darkest streets in noir fiction, and it does follow the time honored path of a character who keeps doubling down on their mistakes. There’s a lot of action sequences, and in the first 2/3rds of the novel, Faust does a great job of constantly ratcheting up the tension as she brings disparate story threads together. The story barrels ahead at a breakneck pace for those 2/3rds, and the fact that I read the book in a single day is because I stopped everything until I got it done.

The last third, however, did not work for me.

I get that it is first person and our narrator is incapable of giving the narrative due to the circumstances that happen. The story goes in and out as Dare weaves in and out of consciousness and lucidity. For a book so expertly paced, it feels like the brakes are slammed on as the book becomes more experimental. What was a speeding train of plot slows to get inside the head of someone who isn’t thinking right, and in another novel, this could have been a great sequence.

It just didn’t fit here. It didn’t fit the character, and it didn’t fit the narrative.

From here, it moves to a final action sequence that, while foreshadowed and hinted at, doesn’t quite fit. Because it is first person and our narrator doesn’t know any of the details, neither do we, and it smacks of Deus Ex Machina to bring everything to a dark conclusion.

When I read an original novel by Faust, I expect darkness with a side of nihilism. This is not a book to read if you aren’t willing to go to some of the darkest parts of society and a person’s inner thoughts. I also think it was brave and shows growth that Faust was willing to get experimental with this, the last Dare novel. But not all experiments work, and this one didn’t work for me. Still, for the return of a great character in Angel Dare, a look at a subculture I don’t know, and hell of a dark story, I found it worth reading.

[Raymond G. Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had been so long since I'd read Money Shot and Chokehold that by the time the trilogy's third ending was approaching it's big confrontation, I'd forgotten who the character it happens with was. Faust did something really interesting in this book, and it doesn't work 100% for me, not as a piece of writing (it's fantastic, as usual) but based on how it made me feel as a reader

Faust's narrative choices are definitely
unexpected. Angel Dare, the trilogy's protagonist, has left a trail of murdered friends and loved ones in her wake (not by her hand but by the hands of the people hunting her down), as well as the bodies of people who have tried and failed to do her in.

If someone's picture were to appear in the dictionary next to the word Agency, an obvious choice would be Angel Dare. She spent the first two novels on the run, surviving assassination attempts made by mobsters, evading arrest by police, doing everything she could do to survive.

The Get Off opens with Angel quite pregnant, still on the lam, hormonal, and depressed. Faust takes the Queen of Agency who barreled through the first two novels, slows her down, fattens her up, and guides us on the last leg of her journey, which she navigates with limited mobility, and in a state that requires her to rely on men in a way not previously depicted.

It's a bold choice, and Faust's writing is superb. But this deliberate slowing down of our protagonist led me to believe she'd reflect on her life and the events that led her to her current circumstances. Instead, she waddles through the story hijacked by mood swings and onsets of sudden nausea. After giving birth, she sinks into post partum depression right up until the end, but by the time she snaps out of it, it's too late.

Faust's choice of ending is brave and admirable, brief as it is. To me, just as a reader, Angel's energy, Agency and brain bandwidth being hijacked by her pregnancy deflates the story of the sharp insight and the excitement that marked the first two installments, but I have a feeling this may be the point. Angel does all she needs to do in the end: she (apparently, though it's only vaguely implied).

It's a good read, just a different vibe than the first two.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

And so this saga comes to a close, with a dark, dark, dark final entry built around Angel's guilt over all the casualties that have accrued since its start. Appropriately noirish, certainly, with unexpected narrative turns (this one is, both narratively and textually, in central ways a western) and callbacks to previous characters and situations. Not bad, certainly, but the whole conceit felt fresher, funnier, angrier the first time out. (As everyone says, Money Shot was an immediate pulp classic, with a subject matter you couldn't have put out on a mainstream press back then and a perspective you wouldn't have put out back then. Having reread it last fall, can confirm that it still shocks, and the twists feel fresh, scary, and wrong-foot you as intended.)

Still, this makes an effort to out-Jim Thompson Jim Thompson, to coin a bad verb. That kind of Pop. 1280, The Getaway narrative, where escape just leads you into darker and darker corners of experience. Do you want noir rodeo? We've got noir rodeo. A vision of the Southwest that feels dusty, downtrodden, hopeless, and somehow used-up? That too. I don't know that the story had to end the way that it does, but the inciting incident and the last scene certainly finish the whole three-novel plotline with an (arguably) deserved, and arguably unfair, payoff. I was going to say three stars, but actually as I write, I can tell that it's sticking with me more than I felt it was when I closed the book.

[K.A. Laity · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thriller killer trilogy ends with The Get Off. Angel Dare's adventures began with Money Shot and continued with Choke Hold, the latter I read on a train ride in Finland and was so captivated with its breakneck pace that I immediately read it again. It's hard to believe that Christa Faust can get even more noir and grim with her heroine, but she does.

It's tough to imagine Angel outside her grimy cityscapes but when you've been tagged as a cop killer, getting out of town is your only option. Too bad she picked up a freeloader for the trip: unexpected pregnancy. 'The situation' as she refers to it complicates everything. She's dealing with hormones as well as an increasingly fanatical pursuit and ends up in the most unexpected place of all: the rodeo circuit. Faust's research into this subculture shows without ever falling into the temptations of info dump. She brings this world to vivid life and offers a cast of characters you'll find memorable.

It would be cliché to say Angel goes from the frying pan into the fire--what's after fire? Hellscape, I guess. And some literal fire, too. Each twist in the tale manages to be both unanticipated and wholly believable. If you like your crime fiction brutal and fast moving I heartily recommend you take a ride with Angel Dare.

[Dah · Rating 1 out of 5]

ANOTHER HARD CASE CRIME FLOP


I bought this book at a used bookstore for cheap. I'm attempting to return it. Wish me luck.

Christa Faust writes like an angry thirteen-year-old girl stuck in after-school detention. Her first person style of writing comes across like a diary filled with the ill temper of "everybody's wrong but me".

If you like the writing-style of an angry thirteen-year-old girl, and ranting diary-like entries, then this book is for you. But for me, I closed the book at page 40. Angel Dare is one of the most uninteresting characters in a crime story I've ever come across.

Go ahead and count how many times Faust needs to use the expression "Fuck" –– for lack of a more compelling vocabulary –– I got bored with the counting.

On the front cover, Hard Case Crime brags about being the first publisher to publish this obvious crime writing nonsense––in my opinion (most likely) no other publisher would touch it.

Hard Case Crime needs a new editor for reading manuscripts. Just saying.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first Angel Dare novel was excellent and the second was fairly good. This one is neither.
I did finish it, but by skipping ahead in last 1/3 or so. The plot and situations were so implausible as to be ludicrous. Reminded me of a poorly made movie serial from the 1930's or 40's (watch on YouTube). One ridiculous cliff hanger after another with implausible solutions. Way too many. In addition, it tended to drag a lot all the way through the book. The whole pregnancy scenario was a distraction and unbelievable.
Gave it 2 stars because I did finish it, but would not recommend it. Definitely not up to Hard Case Crimes normal standards. I have read almost all of the Hard Case books since first one.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fitting conclusion to the series. I don't know Christa Faust personally but having followed her on social media for years, I picked up on her own life transitions in her writing. In the first two books, Angel tries hard to do what she needs to do with no help from others. In this one, she absolutely needs all the assistance she can get because of her pregnancy. Faust's own life has changed (again, this is all public on her Instagram) and I feel like that's being reflected in what is a deeply personal creation of hers. This wouldn't have been the conclusion to Angel's story had she written it fifteen years ago but it's a moving one for today.

[Nigel Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last (I would think) of the Angel Dare trilogy of pulp-fiction crime thrillers. In this one, Angel becomes an accidental cop-killer and goes on the run.

As with the others this is fast paced, and ricochets from incident to incident faster than poor Angel can keep up. I think that, alongside other commentators, I was less satisfied with this one for some reason. It's pretty bleak, almost grindcore, with an ending to match (or is it?). I think I'll need to refresh my reading of the previous two novels.

Nevertheless Dare is a great character and this is a great romp of a read.

[Beau Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hero’s journey this book is not. Far from it, really, and I think Faust and her character, Angel Dare, knew that from the start. One last ride taking the spotlight the only way I think it could. Not glamorous. No blaze of glory. But in the end a last minute Hail Mary that allows sacrifice and an ending as happy as this type of story can provide. Go forth, seek out, purchase and enjoy. Tell ‘em a fan of Christa Faust sent you.

[PhantasticReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can say, without spoiling anything, that The Get Off is the last of the Angel Dare books.

Since we first met her in the back of a Honda Civic, Angel Dare has been in trouble and on the run. But you can't run away forever, and Angel's story had to end eventually. This conclusion feels honest for the character and I'm glad to see the story wrap up here rather than milk Angel for all she's worth and peter off twenty books later, completely divorced from the bawdy, ballsy babe we've been cheering along.

Am I sad it's over? Of course, especially after the wait for this volume. But Faust gives us a final hurrah, dropping us in the middle of the action and not letting up. We have a dramatic revelation, an attempted murder, and a shootout all within the first breath.

Clear your schedule before cracking this one open or you too risk being dragged from your book at 4am by a groggy and startled family member wanting to know why you're still up lurking in the dark.

[Josh reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the Angel Dare series comes to an end. I started this series years ago when Christa Faust began this character’s journey, the story concluded in the only way I could see as true to the author’s vision. Well done Christa, An authentic conclusion to an uncompromising series.

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ballad of Angel Dare comes to a close with bangs AND whimpers. While this book didn't grab me the way the first two books in the series did, it was still a great read, and I'm overjoyed to have gotten some much needed closure on my Angel addiction, albeit rather bittersweet.

[Luís Costa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a detour from the previous entries, as Angel is not in Parker mode as much as in other volumes, instead dealing with her pregnancy while on the run. Still quite brutal and Faust works well with that premise.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing conclusion to the series. I doubt that it would have been published by anyone else to be honest. Poorly written compared to the first 2 and just sort of random violent stuff until the sudden end.

[Race Bannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning starts off fast and furious before
hitting the brakes with a bucolic long middle
portion, and then ending with a rather abrupt
surprise. I thought the ending was a disservice
to the trilogy. Oh well.
Not recommended

[Cal Bowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've got to be honest here, not a fan of the ending. I enjoyed the other books and the story is a wild and crazy ride each and every time, but this one just kind of ... oof'd out for me on the last page.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing read the third in a series where I am waiting on the second book to arrive from the library. Read in one day like the first one, if you want an intriguing read that doesn’t stop check out this series .

[D.H. Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An explosive climax to a three book series. It didn’t end the way I wanted it to, but that’s like real life.