Redemption Song

Daniel Faust, Book 2

By: Craig Schaefer

Narrated by: Adam Verner

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 half-bloods 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.

©2014 Demimonde Books (P)2015 Demimonde Books

Exceptional

Excellent story with perfect narration, an interesting plot that keeps you on your toes, and memorable characters.

Excellent Continuation of the Series

This was an excellent follow up to the first book in this series. It's easy to fall in love with the characters and root for them.. the action is fun and its's a good paced story.. there is a lot of room for growth and development of these characters... I look forward to the next one in the series!

How is Daniel going to pull through this?

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely! The combination of Adam's voice with Craig's writing is a great pairing to keep you listening and curious as to what will happen next or how Daniel will get through this.

What did you like best about this story?

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!

What about Adam Verner’s performance did you like?

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.

Any additional comments?

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.

Oh, I've enjoyed Craig's writing and creation here. I'm totally on to the series!

still interesting

it’s a neat world. slightly predictable, but there are surprises. it scratches the same itch as my favorite Jim Butcher, Jonathan Maberry & Drew Hayes books, i like the world & many of the supporting characters, so i plan to listen to the whole series.

I like it

When I read the reviews I thought I would give it a shot and am pleasantly surprised. The story is engaging and keeps you in there. I am a fan.

Good & Spooky Mystery

Any additional comments?

Another good listen. The story/mystery element of this installment was much more fluid and rolled right along, you couldn't miss much without falling behind. Adam Verner does a nice job, but the only complaint I have is his snobbish villain voice, IMO makes the bad guy sound cartoonish. While there was little actual magic used, the story more than made up for it..... a good book is just a good book!

great, but one hang up

This book was very close to getting a 5 star review. But there was one issue that I just couldn't get past and its the author's lack of gun experience. the judge is NOT a combat pistol. it barely qualifies as "lethal" when the target is more than a couple of yards away. its good for shooting birds and thats about it. Any 9 mm would have been more accurate, lethal, and have a larger capacity. In fact almost any gun would have been better than the "famous" shotgun pistol. the thing literally shoots birdshot 🙄. anyways other than that great story. love the main character's morality. and the romantic subplot is great. love when the couple is human male and supernatural female. always have.

Can't wait for the next book.

Any additional comments?

The story picks up where it left off in The Long Way Down and it is still just as interesting as before. There isn't a whole lot I can say that I havn't in my first review for the series accept if you liked the first one here is more of the same.

Move over Dresdon,

Great book, reminds me of the Dredson by Jim Butcher which is anther series I enjoy. I hope they put out the other 2 books soon.

Fun and keeps you guessing

This is the second book in this series. If you liked the first book you will like this one as well. I really enjoyed this book and the series as a whole. I only have two minor complaints.

First, more Caitlin would have been nice. I understand the reasoning but the author needs to have more developed supporting characters in his stories and she's about the only major character in the book other than the protagonist.

Second, the series is most definitely low magic in nature. I don't mind that, but I would like to see the main character use his magic more. There were reasons for this as well, but it was the same in the first book so I am sensing a pattern here. It would be nice to see what the guy is really capable of doing. Also, while he is doing a great job of describing infernal issues and politics we really have no good explantaion as to how magic works in this world and what it can do. I am hoping he explores these issues in more detail in future books.

Other than that this is a great series and lots of fun to read. This is very dark, adult story so leave the kiddies at home for this one. This is much closer to a Mike Hammer protagonist than a Harry Dresden and that is good. The main character is more real, flawed and interesting than alot of the more recent batch of heroes in current urban fantasy novels. I like a small number of pop culture references but some series are getting out of hand. Mr Schaefer avoids this and some of the more cutesy items you see in other series. Good for him as it helps the reader focus more on the characters and what is happening.

The best part is this book has a lot of twists and turns to it. I read alot so often the plot of a book is clearly evident and you know where things are going to end up. It is nice to have a book that keeps you a bit more off balance. While this book does stand alone you will definitely benefit from checking out the previous book first if you haven't already done so. This one is worth a credit for certain.