Audio Book Review: The Living End

The Living End

By:  Craig Schaefer

Publish Date:  August 27, 2014, Audiobook Release June 18, 2015

Format:  Audiobook - 9 hrs 31 mins
Narrated By:  Adam Verner

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Series:  3rd in Daniel Faust series; 1st Book ~ The Long Way Down, 2nd Book ~ Redemption Song

Impression:  Dark, gritty. Drugs, dark magic. Fighting and torture. Great combination!

Synopsis:
As the FBI closes in on the Las Vegas underworld, Daniel Faust -- grifter, thief, and sorcerer -- isn't the only one feeling the heat. Half-demon racket boss Nicky Agnelli is fighting to hang onto his empire, leaving a trail of dead informants in his wake, while Daniel's ex-girlfriend Jennifer rallies her forces on the street and aims her sights at Nicky's crown.

Meanwhile, homeless people are vanishing by the dozens. Daniel has bigger problems to worry about, but a plea from an old friend sends him on a search for answers. What he finds is a conspiracy twenty years in the making, involving a power-hungry senator, occult experiments, murderous British mercenaries...and Lauren Carmichael, Daniel's nemesis.

From a gunfight in the Arizona badlands to unearthing buried secrets in a New York laboratory, the hunt is on. With Lauren's deadly plan revealed and time running out, Daniel and his crew will stop at nothing to take her down. She's got the law in her pocket and a hired army at her back. He's got black magic, bullets, and the art of the con. It's high noon in Vegas and when the dust settles, only one side will be left standing.

May the best villain win.

First Sentence:
Eugene Planck wasn't a danger to himself anymore, not since the day he'd chugged down a bottle of acid to burn the snake living in his stomach.

Purchase At:
Amazon 

Audible

My Thoughts and Summary:

*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Adam once again blows away the voice of Daniel Faust and crew. He breaths new life into Daniel with each word through emotion and personality. He changes tone along with personality for each character. It's great to get a full rounded feel of the characters through voice with Craig's amazing writing.

Craig has an amazing ability to draw details and physical feelings in his unique descriptions to have me understand. I know if it's a good or bad with his word selection. I'm always taken with Craig's descriptions. They are unique and detailed to fit his world. The descriptions give the feel and detail to understand what it means or feels like. He uses what we know and twists them to the moment in the magical world. Amazing.

Sometimes I wonder how a story can move from one place to another. Where do the threads and ties come from? Craig flows through a story with ease. Each step forward creates that new thread and tie for Daniel to find the next step as he goes. Crafty, indeed.

Dark and gritty with drugs and dark magic. Fighting and torture. But there is so much going on in the story! There's the FEDs to worry about in a case against Nicky which draws Daniel and others into the line of sight of FEDs. There's Lauren Carmichael still trying to ascend. Meadow Brand is still after Daniel. And it's all coming to a point. If Lauren accomplishes what she wants, it will be the end of the world -- from her and maybe from others to stop her.

Craig creates another story that kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering how Daniel will get through this and come out on the other end, alive. Another outstanding addition to the world. I love it!



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

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:
Amazon 

Audible

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!

Audio Book Review: The Long Way Down

The Long Way Down

By:  Craig Schaefer

Publish Date:  July 12, 2014, Audiobook Release January 6, 2015

Format:  Audiobook - 9 hrs 51 mins
Narrated By:  Adam Verner

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Series:  1st in Daniel Faust series

First Impression:  Wonderful story full of dark magic and dark deeds in the world, and Daniel gets tangled up fighting them.

Synopsis:
Nobody knows the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas like Daniel Faust, a sorcerer for hire and ex-gangster who uses black magic and bullets to solve his clients' problems. When an old man comes seeking vengeance for his murdered granddaughter, what looks like a simple job quickly spirals out of control.

Soon Daniel stands in the crossfire between a murderous porn director; a corrupt cop with a quick trigger finger; and his own former employer, a racket boss who isn't entirely human. Then there's Caitlin: brilliant, beautiful, and the lethal right hand of a demon prince.

A man named Faust should know what happens when you rub shoulders with demons. Still Daniel can't resist being drawn to Caitlin's flame as they race to unlock the secret of the Etruscan Box, a relic that people all over town are dying -- and killing -- to get their hands on. As the bodies drop and the double-crosses pile up, Daniel will need every shred of his wits, courage and sheer ruthlessness just to survive.

Daniel Faust knew he was standing with one foot over the brink of hell. He's about to find out just how far he can fall.

First Sentence:
"I know what you are," the old man said.

Purchase At:
Amazon 

Audible

My Thoughts and Summary:
*I requested to review a copy of this audiobook for an honest review from the author or narrator.

When the police didn't seem to help Jud, he hired Daniel Faust to look into Stacy, his granddaughter's, murder. The time of death by drowning is wrong, by two days, from the date of the storm that she was to drown in. Daniel agrees to look into it, not expecting there to be much of a case. What Daniel finds in the sewers is something else. Stacy was definitely murdered, but the ghost he found in her place is not what he's seen of ghosts. Her screams are powerful and dangerous. What had she become? "This has the stink of magic all over it." Daniel will fix it, solve the poor girls murder along with sending the deadly specter on, but when he digs deeper he finds demons and more are present and have others in the magic world spooked.

Adam has made my list of favorite narrators after just this one book! Adam starts strong and in character from the first word. I didn't feel like he had to ease into the story or characters at all. He had me believing he was, is, Daniel Faust at first sound. He even does voice differences for other characters, like with Jud an old man meeting with Daniel to easily differentiate the characters and draw us to them. Adam embodies the characters in tone and personality as he speaks. Yes! Adam makes the story fun to listen to! When he does the voice of a demon... I enjoyed it! Adam really is all the characters at all times.

Daniel.... Daniel has the feel of a vigilante when it comes to the magic world and the evil people in it. He's a strong character and has some serious power to him. We see part of it here, but what I've learned of his past and what Caitlin says about his past really has me curious as to how powerful he is. Daniel uses cards with his magic, fitting for being in Las Vegas. Neat! I really liked Daniel! Daniel seems to have morals, yet he's willing to cross a line to help people too. Daniel had a terrible history with his dad and the home he found himself part of when on the run but he tries to help those in dangerous situations or suffered from others terrible acts upon then.

I love the relationship started in this book with Daniel. There will be obstacles for them and they know it, but they are positive about it and willing to work through together.

There was a great balance in the writing here. We have dark deeds done and dark magic yet there is a sense of humor weaved through the story with Daniel and his friends. Also there is a being who says, magician toes tasting like candy... LOL! Well, I don't know if it's true, but it's one of the things that came up that kept the story light for me in this dark world. It made me smile at the thought.

Craig has done a fantastic job of writing sex into the story line as it's part of the plot. What Stacy was mixed up in with a few others is not pretty, and what she lived through was definitely not as well. The thing is it's the plot and not the whole world and only thought of all the characters. Well done! We do have a succubus present as well, and the thoughts do gravitate toward sex at times, but it's not the focus of the story. Now, there is a relationship started and the scenes felt to flow and fit the characters and story for them. I loved this balance and use.

I'm finding, after listening to his fantasy series and now this book, I'm a huge fan of Craig's writing style. He tells of the settings through the story that makes the surroundings real. I can mentally see and know the smells that's here with ease. Craig is wonderful at balancing delicate subjects in the proper ways to not seem overly dark or to let take over the story being told.

The story is dark with the deaths and 'monsters' but there is a humor in the comments as well. I was excited to keep listening to the story, to see what happened and what comment Daniel would have. There is sex and death, murders, and ghosts. It's all soooo well mingled together creating a world and story that is addicting. I'm looking forward to continuing on with Daniel in his adventures, as there will be more with how somethings end in this book (and there are already more books out).


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