Choke Hold

August 22, 2011
Faust’s explosive, bullet-dodging sequel to Money Shot finds ex-porn queen Angel Dare, a wild mashup of Nancy Drew and Linda Lovelace, lying low in the Southwest after 19 months in the witness protection program in New England, avoiding the Croatian mob. One day, Angel’s former druggie flame, Thick Vic Ventura, walks into the desert diner where she’s waitressing and tells her he wants “to make amends.” With Vic is his 18-year-old son, a mixed martial arts talent who fights under the name Cody Noon. Soon, “three jittery Mexican guys” appear, and one of them pulls out a gun. Following the ensuing mayhem, Angel and Cody go on the run in a caper that involves cocaine smuggling and lots of pursuit, capture, and escape. The look into the martial arts world isn’t as compelling as Money Shot’s romp through the porn industry, but Faust pulls out a far superior wrapup to the action, noir as bleak as you’ll find this year.

August 1, 2011

She's baaaack! Did you miss unrepentant, no-holds-barred, former porn star Angel Dare (Money Shot)? Witness protection hasn't worked for Angel, and she's on the run again when she joins forces with Cody Noon, a young martial arts fighter who has just witnessed the death of his father, Angel's former costar Vic Ventura. The two gain the help of Cody's trainer, Hank, and this unlikely trio dash through Arizona, Mexico, and Nevada at a breakneck pace. Cody dreams of auditioning for a reality TV fight show, and Angel is determined to get the kid to his Las Vegas audition. Trouble is, the Croatians are still pursuing her, and unfortunately, there's a Mexican drug cartel in the mix, too. Well! There's nothing but adrenaline in this violent, well-executed retro pulp. VERDICT The sex industry, bodybuilding drugs, and basic revenge make for a potent cocktail in this eye-popping follow-up to Faust's Edgar Award nominee. She's Hard Case Crime's only female author, and her tough heroine is a welcome addition to the gritty pulp tradition. Snap it up and expect high circ.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2011
Ex-porn star Angel Dare is on the run from the slave trafficker she should have killed in Money Shot (2008). She's waitressing in a desert diner, waiting for her fake passport to come through, when trouble walks through the door with guns blazing. But the gunmen aren't looking for her: in a crazy coincidence, her former costar and lover, Thick Vic Ventura, is meeting his son, Cody Noon, and one of them is the target. Angel promises a dying Vic she'll keep Cody safeat least until he can take his place on a mixed-martial-arts reality show that's taping in Las Vegas. Kudos to Faust for bringing pulp fiction into the twenty-first century, replacing stag films and boxing with the AVN Expo and MMA. The frenetic, pulpy pace (Dare can't close a door without gunmen kicking it down) belies a bleak sensibility, especially when the sexually empowered, oft-horny heroine encounters situations when sex is her only bargaining chip. Readers excited by the prospect of a hot woman with a smoking gun may find more than they bargained for.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)