The thriller killer trilogy ends with The Get Off. Angel Dare’s adventures began with Money Shot and continued with Choke Hold, the latter I read on a train ride in Finland and was so captivated with its breakneck pace that I immediately read it again. It’s hard to believe that Christa Faust can get even more noir and grim with her heroine, but she does.

It’s tough to imagine Angel outside her grimy cityscapes but when you’ve been tagged as a cop killer, getting out of town is your only option. Too bad she picked up a freeloader for the trip: unexpected pregnancy. ‘The situation’ as she refers to it complicates everything. She’s dealing with hormones as well as an increasingly fanatical pursuit and ends up in the most unexpected place of all: the rodeo circuit. Faust’s research into this subculture shows without ever falling into the temptations of info dump. She brings this world to vivid life and offers a cast of characters you’ll find memorable.

It would be cliché to say Angel goes from the frying pan into the fire–what’s after fire? Hellscape, I guess. And some literal fire, too. Each twist in the tale manages to be both unanticipated and wholly believable. If you like your crime fiction brutal and fast moving I heartily recommend you take a ride with Angel Dare.