Money Shot [Mass Market Paperback]

If you had ever thought that women couldn't write hard-boiled fiction, Christa Faust will quickly prove you wrong. Her new book Money Shot shows she is not only a good female crime writer, she is just a good writer period.

The narrator and heroine of Money Shot is Angel Dare, a retired porn actress who is now moderately successful as an agent for other women in her former field. Approaching forty and lamenting it, she is talked into making one last movie with up-and-coming star Jesse Black, who's personally requested her. She arrives at the set only to find out it's all a trap: Jesse and her movie director friend Sam have lured her here at the request of some mobster who's looking for a lost briefcase filled with cash. When Angel can't come up with the necessary answers, they leave her to Jesse who shoots her and leaves her for dead in the back of an abandoned car.

Fortunately, Jesse is not that great in the killing department and Angel survives, only to find she is accused of Sam's murder. As a wounded fugitive, she has few options, but she does have a friend in her company's security guy, Lalo Malloy. As an ex-cop, Malloy is resourceful enough, and he hides her. The two then try to clear Angel, find the briefcase, and most importantly for her, get revenge for the abuse she suffered.

Besides the fact that Faust has a nice writing style, she also doesn't fall into many of the cliches of the genre, leading to twists and a conclusion that are unexpected but good. She also provides a deeper look into the porn industry than you might typically find in a crime story about the field; I also personally enjoyed her use of my native San Fernando Valley as a setting (as also noted in the movie Boogie Nights, the Valley is the porn film production capital). Money Shot is a thoroughly enjoyable little thriller and Christa Faust is a name to keep a look out for.

Christa Faust proves that women can write crime stories that are more hard-boiled than men with Money Shot.

Angel Dare is a former porn starlet who now owns a "modeling agency." An old friend is in a bind and asks her to do an onscreen appearance as a favor. When she shows up to what she thinks will be the set, she is beaten by her supposed co-star, witnesses the murder of the friend that double crossed her, and her body is dumped in the trunk of a car.

Angel manages to escape, and with the help of her agency's security officer Malloy she sets out to learn why she was set up and to seek vengeance against those who hurt her.

This book is not for the easily offended or the weak of stomach. There are a number of violent scenes, and the picture that Faust paints of the porn industry is not a pleasant one. However, with plenty of action and a hard as nails heroine, this book is sure to entertain fans of Tarantino or readers with a dark sense of humor.

A new paperback series called Hard Case Crime has been on the market since 2004 and is reminiscent of the hard-boiled crime pulp novels of the fifties and early sixties. The publishers give new and established authors the opportunity to write a PI mystery, or a police procedural, or a straight who-done-it suspense thriller in the style of times long passed. The series premiered with The Colorado Kid by Stephen King and from there has showcased the talents of Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, Max Allan Collins, Richard Powell, David Dodge, and now Christa Faust, just to name a few.

Christa Faust has been writing for over ten years, putting her impressive stamp on fiction in the erotic/suspense field, horror, movie novelizations, and crime/mystery. Her latest book is Money Shot, and it continues the line of Hard Case Crime novels with a story of crime, sex, murder, and revenge. There's no holding back here as Ms. Faust lets go with both barrels of the shotgun, demonstrating that women can write crime novels every bit as intense and edge-of-your-seat as the men, if not better.

Money Shot deals with Angel Dare, a former porn star who now runs a modeling and talent agency for women in the Adult business. The novel starts out with Angel tied up in the trunk of an old Honda Civic, contemplating her impending death. It seems that a local Hollywood crime boss, who runs a sex/slave ring consisting of foreign women who come to America with dreams of a good life, has had a briefcase full of money stolen from one of his men, and the woman who took it happened to pay a visit to Angel's office on the day that she died. The money has disappeared, and the crime boss thinks that Angel may know something about it. He has her tortured in order to find out what she knows. When he soon realizes that she knows nothing, he has one of his men drive her to the parking lot of a vacant warehouse so that a bullet can be put into her head. She barely manages to escape with her life and has to turn to a part-time employee named Malloy, who used to be an LAPD Homicide detective. Together, they try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys and to find the briefcase. Angel, however, wants more than just the money. She's after revenge for what was done to her and wants to kill everyone involved. Malloy knows from first hand experience that revenge doesn't always clear the air, and all he wants is to find the money and then get out Dodge with Angel before their times runs out. A lot of people are going to die terrible deaths before the climax is finally reached, and Angel is going to discover that even your closest friends can't be trusted when large amounts of money are at stake.

This is not a PG-13 crime novel. No, way! Christa Faust doesn't hold back or pull any punches in Money Shot with the language, the sex, and the violence. She tells it like it really is. Some readers might find this offensive, but for true aficionados of crime fiction this is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. She gives you an inside look at the porn industry in all its shades of black and white, takes you on a tour to the seedier sides of Los Angeles, creates some very believable characters that resonate with an evil all of their own, and delivers a genuine heroine who has to become what she hates the most in order to get even with those who destroyed her life and killed her friends. This isn't a novel for the weak of heart.

Christa Faust is definitely an author to keep an eye out for. Now that she's had a taste of being a hardboiled crime writer, there's no stopping her!

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