Red Hot Steele

Daggers & Steele, Book 1

By: Alex P. Berg

Narrated by: Alex P. Berg

Detective Jake Daggers likes his murder investigations the way he likes his women - straightforward, easy, and with a killer body.

So when his older-than-dust partner throws his back out on a goblin raid, his captain assigns him a new running mate - a sexy young half-elf by the name of Shay Steele.

It seems like a match made in Daggers' imagination, but Steele's no pushover. She's a powerful forensic psychic, and she's got sass oozing out of her boots.

In a debut case teeming with fire mages, foundries, and a dead guy who's crispier than bacon, it's pretty clear Daggers isn't the only one getting a heaping helping of RED HOT STEELE.

©2014 Alex P. Berg (P)2015 Alex P. Berg

Loved this fun fantasy mystery book

What made the experience of listening to Red Hot Steele the most enjoyable?

Red Hot Steele (Daggers & Steele #1) by Alex P. Berg is a fun, snarky, clever book that I gulped down in one read. What fun! Witty, good mystery, great fantasy, crazy characters, snappy dialogue, and it made me smile a lot! Just what I needed! I listened to the audio version and the narration was perfect. Great job. I originally gave it a 4 star but I just kept thinking of it so if it was effecting me that much I figured it was worth a 5 star, esp. when I wanted the next book right away.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

it was and i did

More

I tried to buy his other novels but they are not in English. How do I find the others in an English translation? I loved this story.

Kinda grew on me.

I didn't care for the narration when I started the book so I put it away for a few weeks. I decide try it again and realized his quirky way of speaking fit right in with his main character! I liked the relationship he has with Daisy and found it intetesting the lack of technology involved.

Red Hot Steel is NOT So Hot

Story was O. K. The reader did a good job. The story line and plot were weak. It is an O. K. read for some, but I've read better (listened to) better books.

so the elven version of Psych?

I thought for a while that this was a children's book. It wasn't bad, just kinda like a tv show.

A lot of fun

Any additional comments?

I very much enjoyed Red Hot Steel. I look at three things in a mystery audio book: quality of the story, quality of the performance, and how well the mystery puzzle was presented to the reader.

I think the quality of the story was very good. The characters were engaging, the pace was fast, keeping me interested, and the dialog was a lot of fun. I was surprised by, but very much enjoyed, the '30s style noir feel of the writing, even though the story is in a fantasy setting.

The audio performance was OK. The book was narrated by the author and he did a good job of giving voice to the main character, but he had trouble doing the same for most of the other characters. The performance never bored me and I was never confused as to who was speaking (issues I have had with lower quality performances) but I think a professional voice actor would have put a much better polish on the performance.

The real fun of a mystery book is trying to guess whodunnit before the author's big reveal. I give bonus points if the author gives all the facts to solve the mystery throughout the book, but can still successfully mislead me. This puzzle was a decent one. Mr Berg did a good job of introducing the puzzle pieces in a subtle way, but he didn't get any bonus points. He made the mistake of strongly drawing the reader'/listener's attention to the murderer when he introduced the character and then ignoring them for most of the rest of the book, which made me wonder why he introduced that character at all.

I have recommended Red Hot Steel to friends and will definitely purchase more books in this series as my budget allows.

Good but not awesome

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The protagonist is difficult to like, often juvenile and borderline offensive. The attempt was made for a witty character but it was not entirely successful.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Pleasant if unsurprising.

What about Alex P. Berg’s performance did you like?

Each character had a distinct voice that was very well defined. This was my favorite part of the audiobook.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Not in theaters but I would rent the movie to watch after work.

Gum shoe Detective story

Love the old world slang and the witty charm and the gum shoe detectors story is something to at least listen to in the car or walking in a park. It would draw you in and the characters are believable funny smart mouth but would get to the facts at the and this is worth listening to.

Worst narration ever.

Both it and the story are amateurish. The author crammed descriptors and adjectives into the story and read it like a kid trying to get extra credit from the teacher.

I am going to sleep wake me when over

I must not be sophisticated enough for books like this. Characters that have powers, but don't have powers...what s concept ... I thought this was a book but alas on the end it wasn't a book just a lot of words thrown together in a book form or not. Keep on going find another book that at least has a little substance