Angel Dare's latest appearance in The Get Off starts with a bang (literally) and doesn't let up for 256 pages. Get ready for a wild ride. Christa Faust has quite a story here. My fingers were scorched just flipping the pages. Or is that just the scorching summer heat here in Missouri?
Our tale begins with Angel seeking revenge on a gangster who harmed her. She stalks him for weeks, and as she's about to deliver the Coup de grâce with a fatal injection, something terrible happens. Another gangster kills her gangster. And this is just the beginning of a terrible day.
In the ensuing battle, several people get shot, including a police officer, and suddenly every law enforcement officer in the country is looking for Angel...and not as a witness. Oh, and in her attempt to seek medical assistance for wounds received in the battle, Angel gets a surprise. She's pregnant!
She makes her way to the home of an old friend who arranges passage for her to a remote area of the Great Northwest, sort of a modern version of the Underground Railroad. Along the way she encounters various rural rednecks who turn out to be complex, fully developed characters, with the same hopes, dreams, and flaws as the people she left behind in L.A.
Who'd have thunk?
In many respects, they're better than Angel, and many of them (but not all) really seem to care about her. It helps that Angel has given them the impression that she's a blameless victim of domestic abuse (which is a bunch of hogwash). But hey, a few white lies never hurt anyone, right?
Doing double duty as the protagonist and the villain, Angel can be hard to like. But she's so brutally honest about her own flaws, that the reader can't help but admire her. And I do. Also, I wanted to find out what happens! That kept me reading, and it will keep you turning the pages as well. Have fun!
Find out more about Christa HERE. And enjoy this interview she did with The Poisoned Pen Bookstore.
