Beware, it’s highly addictive!

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve read the first two books, The Long Way Down and Redemption Song in the Daniel Faust series, so my memories were quite a bit hazy. But between those and the third lone, The Living End, I’ve read one of Craig Schaefer‘s trilogies, The Wisdom’s Grave (reviews of Sworn to the Night, Detonation Boulevard and Bring the Fire are linked) and Ghosts of Gotham – all of which I enjoyed, so I think we can safely say he is definitely one of my favourite authors at this point.

Due to the long brake between books, it took me a bit of time to get back into the story and straight out who is who in my head. I guess I could just go and Google the summary of the first two books, but that would have been just too easy. Nonetheless, I picked the crumbs up and soon enough I was able to let myself be immersed in Daniel’s world once again. One of the main draws of this series on me is that I have great memories from my very brief Las Vegas trip in 2014 and I’m always happy to visit that place. Even if I only do so in my head. And through Daniel Faust’s eyes, which makes the city much more interesting – and probably more dangerous too. In a way.

The Living End picks events up not too long after the ending of the Redemption Song. Lauren Carmichael is on the run, Daniel and Jennifer try to stay away from Harmony Black FBI Agent, and Nick is not too happy about things going on in his territory. And if Daniel didn’t have enough problems yet, he is asked by a friend to look into the disappearances of homeless people. Which leads to even more trouble and some unexpected truths. But it wouldn’t be Daniel Faust if he couldn’t bullshit his way out of some really tight situations.

Plot-wise there is definitely a LOT going on. I’m not even going to try to cover them, because you have to experience it yourself. Plotlines seemingly not to do anything with each other weave into an intricate story but then again, that’s pretty much expected if you are familiar with Craig Schaefer‘s work. Simple and easy is definitely not his style. The story moves at a break neck speed, there is hardly any time to take a breath. More than once I ended up listening way more than I intended, because each ending of a chapter just made me go “okay, just one more, I need to know what happens next”.

We have old and new characters alike, but despite of the large set of them, they are always easy to distinguish from each other. It also has to be noted that the way Schaefer’s universe merge with the different characters is just awesome. We have Harmony Black for example who also has her own series, or Senator Roth makes an appearance here who is also a key character in The Wisdom’s Grave trilogy. But you don’t necessarily have to know about this in order for The Living End to be enjoyable as hell.

Back when I started reading the Daniel Faust series and Caitlin showed up to become Daniel’s partner, I remember rolling my eyes and thinking “oh no, is this going to be one of those series where the MC picks up a woman in each installment?” – I mean, come on, it was a real fear. To my immense relief this is absolutely not the case. In fact, one of my favourite aspect of this book was the way they interacted with each other, how we can watch their relationship building, how they deal with the consequences of their choice. And can I just say how f*cking much I loved the gambling part? And the concert scene afterwards? Holy sh*t. That was just so goddamn brilliant!

“Calypso’s hands played the guitar like it was a lover’s body. Like they only had one night left in the world together and every second, every aching, wailing note had to make up for a lost lifetime. This was the real blues, down-home raw and ragged, drenched with sweat and sex and the bloodied edge of a switchblade.”


The Living End did nothing but grew my love for both Craig Schaefer‘s writing and Daniel Faust. But if I had to criticise something, then it would be the somewhat anti-climatic ending. Don’t get me wrong, the twists were awesome and very well done, but felt like that despite the long build up the end game ended just in a heartbeat and didn’t brought that kind of adrenaline I was waiting for. But it might have been because I stopped listening at a weird place the day before and wasn’t quite ready to end yet. Anyhow, I definitely will continue with the series.

The Living End lives up to its predecessors, and then takes things to a higher level. The break neck pace, the characters, the stakes are going to drive your adrenaline level up and make you want more. The Daniel Faust series gets better by each book and I’m so here for the rest. It’s a must read for any UF lover out there. Beware, it’s highly addictive!

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Series keeps developing...enjoying this

The stories are developing nicely and each book so far has ended in away that seems to "fit"

The characters are developed enough to get to know them which for me is a make our break issue

The narrators accents haven't got any better (they're dreadful) but somehow it doesn't matter as his reading style is otherwise great

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1 person found this helpful

Awesome!

This third instalment in the Daniel Faust series was just as much fun to read as the first two books in the series were. Craig Schaefer has done a fantastic job of seamlessly blending some hilarious dialogue and happenings into a very dark and gritty Vegas set UF noir. The story was fast paced and filled with action, drama, and plenty of cool supernatural happenings!

Life is not proving easy for Daniel Faust, ex-gangster and sorcerer for hire, as he has a whole host of problems to deal with. His nemesis Lauren Carmichael and her crazed enforcer Meadow Brand continue to press on with their plans for world domination. FBI agent Harmony Black still wants both Daniel and his ex-boss the half demon gang kingpin of Las Vegas Nicky Agnelli, behind bars. Daniel's ex-girlfriend Jennifer is feeling twitchy about the whole FBI situation and is mustering her own forces as she senses Nicky might be vulnerable. Daniel's friend Pixie wants his help in tracking down a spate of missing homeless people, and just for good measure the smoke faced men are back!

Daniel himself is a likeable and witty lead who is super easy to root for despite the fact that he is no angel.

All in all this was a very enjoyable read.

The more I hear Adam Verner the happier I am with his narration. He gives another excellent performance with this one.

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