Money Shot
I don’t know if the porn-star revenge novel had been invented before Christa Faust’s MONEY SHOT, and I’m too lazy to check right now, so let’s just give her the credit. Besides, even if she hasn’t, I doubt any predecessor would turn out quite the cold-blooded carnival ride. Marking the first time Hard Case Crime has published a female author, the novel proves the girl can hold her own with the big boys, and even outdo them.
Angel Dare is a legendary porn star, now retired from performing and enjoying running her own business of a modeling agency for the triple-X set. One day, she gets a call from an old friend, the director Sam Hammer. He’s in the middle of shooting a feature with rising newcomer (two puns!) Jesse Black, and is without a bangee for his leading man. Would Angel do him a favor and do Jesse?
Sure, she would. After all, it’ll be an easy $2,500. Well, if not for the fact that when she arrives, there’s no actual movie. Taking its place? A brutal rape and good ol’ fashioned ass-kicking that leaves her black and blue. When she regains consciousness, Sam is dead and evidence is planted to make her look like the murderer.
To clear her name and find out what the hell is going on, Angel enlists the aid of her hulking yet stoic security guy Malloy. Because their mission requires peeking into porno businesses, Angel has to disguise herself as a dude. The whole mess involves a briefcase full of cash, and before the story is over, there’s gonna be a pussy in a box. (And by that, I mean a cat – what were you thinking?)
Whether it’s coining new phrases like “Hispamick” or “girl boner,” Faust has a sly way with wordplay – the dirtier, the better. Consider Angel’s admission that “My throat hurt worse than the day I shot SWORD SWALLOWERS 14 with Axl Rodd and Dix Steele.” Or Faust’s description of a cheapo motel desk clerk tweaking “like a puppet made out of beef jerky.” Or, however profane, Angel’s recollection that a former co-star “ate pussy like a dog playing tug-of-war and left me raw for days.”
Interesting that despite its setting, subject and slutty talk, when the time arrives for an actual sex scene for our heroine, Faust chooses to cut away, as it were. That’s just another unexpected turn in a delightfully raunchy narrative full of them. MONEY SHOT isn’t perfect, but it tingles in all the right places. Methinks Faust won’t have to rely on SNAKES ON A PLANE tie-in novels to butter her bread anymore. –Rod Lott
Yeah, it’s a great read. I was surprised too when she suddenly cuts away from the only actual sex scene in the whole novel. A scene that had been teased and building for most of the story. But it was a good surprise. My one complaint is the car chase where Faust quickly sums it up in a single, vague and short paragraph and relies on the easy cliche description “it’s nothing like what you see in the movies.”
Faust’s Control Freak is also really good.