Audio Book Redemption Song

Redemption Song

By:  Craig Schaefer

Publish Date:  June 13, 2014, Audiobook Release March 6, 2015

Format:  Audiobook - 9 hrs 33 mins
Narrated By:  Adam Verner

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Series:  2nd in Daniel Faust Series; 1st Book ~ The Long Way Down

Impression:  How is Daniel going to pull through this? That's the thought I had, and curious to see how he does.

Synopsis:
Daniel Faust, Las Vegas sorcerer and career criminal, has never pulled the trigger on an innocent man. When the infernal Prince Sitri challenges him to do just that, though, he can't walk away. His lover, Caitlin, is Sitri's right hand...and if Daniel refuses the job, he'll never see her again.

While Daniel works to unravel Sitri's twisted game, putting his principles and his life on the line, Caitlin has problems of her own. A pack of renegade halfbloods are in town, armed to the teeth and aiming to go to war with hell itself. Their leader is a bad memory from Caitlin's past, one she thought dead and buried centuries ago, and he's got revenge on his mind.

As if that isn't bad enough, the fallout from Daniel's last job descends in the form of an FBI task force, aimed at putting him and everyone he cares about behind bars. The feds have a magician of their own, one who knows all of Daniel's dirty little secrets. Throw in a mythical road map to hell and the ghost of a 15th-century serial killer, and the stage is set for a deadly collision.

Sitri's games are never what they seem. Everything is connected. If Daniel and Caitlin can't solve the puzzle in time, the consequences will tear them apart forever.

First Sentence:
The ghost of Merle Haggard kept Sophia trapped in her house for two weeks.

Purchase At:
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My Thoughts and Summary:
*At my request, this audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.

Another of Daniel's friends is brutally murdered by Meadow Brand, the woman who's connected to Lauren Carmichael and likely after Daniel for thwarting her occult a few weeks ago. Then Daniel learns Prince Sitri forbids his lover from seeing him. It's a spiraling fall when Daniel agrees to take a job for Prince Sitri to gain his trust to be with Caitlin. The job... to kill a good priest. When Daniel visits the man, he ends up saving him just to fall into the mouth of the beast. Daniel has to work his magic to save himself, the priest, and keep his love if she wants him.


I enjoyed the first audio book in this series, and the same holds true for this one which is done by the same voice, Adam Verner. I am always thrilled when we get the small extras with voices, like giving a vibrating sound to voices and such. Adam adds these extras in for us to give us the feel and sound of what's described by Craig. I love the personality Adam puts into the words as he narrates. He is in the moment as the character and it comes through. He also voices each with different tones to match the feel of the character, male and female, along with slight accents when noted. I love how easily Adam converts to the different tones, personalities, and accents keeping the story in a smooth flow. Amazing work.


Craig has crafted this story with many items needling Daniel. Daniel has a rough start in this book as things start to spiral downward for him in life. He's determined to keep trying through, and that doesn't always work out. All these things working at Daniel are important and come together at the end, or Daniel uses them that way.

What are these items?
~ A dear friend is murdered by someone who's killed a friend before.

~ Daniel finds himself under the microscope of Special Agent Harmony Black from the FBI as she's investigating Nicky Agnelli and all connected to him in any type of operations. Nicky's not a friend, but turning any information on one of the biggest crime bosses over to the FBI wouldn't be healthy for Daniel. And there are ties Daniel has with Nicky that could not go well for Daniel if Nicky's caught.

~ Caitlin, Daniel's lover, is working to create a safe home for cambion refugees trying to get to Prince Sitri's borders. But, there are cambion's mixed in with different beliefs. Beliefs that they can be cured of their curse and harm others they see as 'spawn of evil'.

~ Daniel and Caitlin love each other. Then, stand before Prince Sitri to learn that he sees Daniel as an enemy. Caitlin is forbidden to consort with Daniel, unless he performs a service for Prince Sitri. Kill an innocent soul. If he refuses he could lose his love forever.

Craig goes for the big punches. He has no worries about blood and gore. When the 'bad guy' hits, they hit hard and ugly. We start off with a bloody death in chapter one and the tension rises from there. Even though Craig writes dark, the story doesn't come across heavy. Daniel's personality helps lift the story, along with Adam's voicing of his dry humor.

We pretty much get the lowdown on what's happening in this complicated world of demons and magic in the beginning. So much happening at one time and Daniel's connections are all seeing something different. But it creates a wonderful feeding bed for so many possibilities.

The connections between all the problems is so well done. They are connected yet happening on their own, thriving off the others to help their selves. But, anything involving demons can't be easy and they would play off others to get what they want. I'm always mesmerized at the well thought out actions and interactions in Craig's stories. Wow.

Craig draws me in, paying close attention to details as there is always something happening. Just when you think things can't get worse. It does. And keeps you wondering how Daniel's going to fix it all. With all that's happening to Daniel, Craig timed it perfect - right when I was starting to not like the down and out Daniel, it hit Daniel why he was on this path and there is new revived life to the story and Daniel. The Daniel that's always thinking and scheming to come out the other end is the Daniel I enjoy. We get him at the start and when he returns, the story feels to jump in excitement once again. So two amazing skips of heart as we take off!

Oh, I've enjoyed Craig's writing and creation here. I'm totally on to the series!



**If you found my thoughts helpful please click Yes at Amazon and/or Audible. Thank you!