Collect The Loot (Charlie McCabe, #1) Written By Craig Schaefer E-Text
on The Loot (Charlie McCabe, #1)
Alert: Kindle Deal Alert sitelink,
This review was originally posted on sitelink Books of My Heart
,Really There is No Supernatural in this Stars
The Loot is the first book in the brandnew sitelinkCharlie McCabe series by Craig Shaefer.
Charlie MacCabe just got out of the army, She is used to high pressure situations having been part of the bomb squad in Afghanistan for the last eight years, but it seems like it is easier to diffuse a bomb than talk to her father.
“I want you to remember something: no matter what they tell you, you might stop wearing the uniform, but you never stop being a soldier, And a soldier needs a mission, ”
“Sir” shed said.
“This mission is over,” hed told her, “Go find a new one, Dismissed. ”
Charlie needs to do a few things:
Adjust to not being in constant danger, Oh, oops scatch that, keep your guard up at all times, Check.
Figure out how to come up with twenty thousand dollars in ten days, Remember daddy dearest, he has a little gambling problem and owes the mob some money, Check
Find a new mission in life, or at least a new gang to hang out with, Check Double Check.
Try to stay out of trouble with the mob, Well, that one might be a little harder than the others,
Charlie thought that once she left the army, she was done defusing bombs, She is so so wrong, Her new job has a contract to protect a dirt bag with skeletons in his closet and plenty of people with a reason to kill him, One of those people just so happens to have a few skills in bombingand is making Charlie feel nostalgic,
“Auribus teneo lupum,” he said,
Charlie stared at him over the mouth of her bottle, “Meaning”
“Its Latin. It means holding a wolf by its ears, ” He set the cloth down and curled his hands in front of him, pantomiming, “You hold on, youre screwed, You let go, youre screwed, ”
“Damned if I do, damned if I dont”
“Pretty much wolf chow all around,
I like Craig Schaefer because he isnt afraid to have his characters make some choices that straddle the line between right and wrong, Charlie is put into a situation where she might be able to come up with the money to save her dad, but it means some bodies could need to be disposed of.
She is going to have to make a few calls that might not sit well with the reading audience, Im fine because I like when characters arent all good or all bad but somewhere in the grey area,
This is a solid first book in a series and Im interested in Charlie and her new job as a professional bodyguard for a company having some cash flow problems.
The other characters we get to spend some time with, Beckett and Dom seem to have some good backstories happening, We dont get to touch on them much, but I like the direction this is heading,
The only disappointment I really had for this was there is no magic, monsters or things of a supernatural nature that go bump in the night, This is straight up real world who done it type mystery, Because Ive read a lot of Schaefer books, I was both a little surprised and disappointed, Still it's a really solid start to a series and Ill be sure to check the next installment out too,
Narration:
Susannah Jones is a narrator I know will always do a solid job on her performance and The Loot wasnt any different.
I always think of the Rock Chick series anytime I hear her voice, but Ive listened to well over twenty books narrated by her and Im never disappointed, I listened to this at my normal,x speed.
Listen to a clip:
sitelink com/brillianceaud Oh, I thought, I'll just dip into this, just read the first few pages,
Famous last words,
Charlie McCabe is demobbed and looking for a job and a miracle the former because everyone needs a job, the latter because her gamblingaddict father is in deep with the local legbreakers and even a job isn't going to pay the kind of money she needs.
. . in ten days.
The story got started fast, and didn't slow down,
Schaefer is an author I follow, and he's made the jump from urban fantasy to thriller extremely well, Although he appears to be following in the footsteps of sitelinkZoë Sharp who also writes about a female exsoldier called Charlie who finds a second career as a bodyguard, Schaefer's Charlie is her own person and seems to be primed for a slightly different career trajectory to Sharp's Charlie.
Charlie is a sympathetic character who is easy to like a competent professional who is neither too hard to care nor too soft to step over a line, and is clearly being set up for more than one book.
Secondary characters Beckett and Dom have their own backstories and it's pretty clear that we're seeing the birth of a team here,
The plot moves quickly, and it's clear that Charlie McCabe's world is going to be one painted in shades of grey there are no angels here, Even Charlie and her team tapdance along the line, It makes me wonder where they're going to end up,
I read this in pretty much one sitting it's a fast, entertaining read, and I'll certainly be waiting for more Charlie McCabe books, Craig Shafaer, author of “ The Loot” writes in his afterword to the novel, that is the first crime/thriller he has written, though there are books in other genres to his credit.
Well, “ The Loot” is an outof thepark line drive,
The blurb does not hint that the reader will be hooked from the first
pages, Think of the story as a trip to the gym for a good cardio workout, A calm introduction, ramped up by stages until a breathless climax where everything hangs, almost literally by a thread, then followed by a cool down,
Sgt. Charlene Charlie McCabe is returning home after eight years in the Army, most of it spent fighting in the dangerous sand piles of the Middle East, She is headed to her family home near Boston, MA, not really knowing if a welcome awaits, What she finds there is her Boozy father , sprawled on his recliner nursing a cold beer and swollen black eye, His story is on old one to her he is in hock to his bookie for a lot of money,k worth, and was just visited by the bookies enforcers.
He doesnt have that kind of money, nor does Charlie, What she has is a duffle of old clothes, a few bucks of “ goodbye and thanks for serving cash “ and no marketable skills, Not Much after years of disarming IEDs alongside cratered roads and bullet pitted villages, Worried about her coming up with that kind of money for her father and what future waits her , she talks to an old friend who runs the local pub, who steers her to his friend who runs a private security firm who might need someone.
She is hired, provisionally.
If this sounds mundane with a predictable plot of her saving some rich dude from terrorists , falling in love with him and rescuing the day , that is not what awaits Charlie and the reader.
It is just the first few chapters of a plot that is exciting , compelling and unpredictable,
Charlies first job is as a part of the team to protect the exec of a mining conglomerate at a scheduled business conference, One of his mines has had an accident that killed a number of miners, and company negligence was blamed, All goes well at the conference until a death threat is made, The businessman has something to hide, a secret that just might get him killed, The danger to everyone expands exponentially,
Charlie is a strong character , resourceful and sensible, but not a Wonder Woman superhero type, She uses the skills learned in war of how to be aware of hidden dangers and stay alive and “ complete the mission, ” The plot of the book is not what I expected, but went in an entirely different direction, Mr Shafaer writes well, wastes no words and no time in getting and Keeping the reader into the storyline,
“ The Loot” describes the basis of everything, and I highly recommend that you read the book and enjoy a very good novel,
Notes: I do not recall any bad language, No sexual episodes. There is danger and violence,
This was somewhere betweenandfor me,
Note that I'm a big fan of Craig Schaefer's writing and loved the Daniel Faust series and the Ghosts of Gotham standalone, I also liked the Harmony Black series, though not as much as the aforementioned,
Also note that there is technically nothing wrong with "The Loot", It is Schaefer's first foray into the "mundane" world, meaning there is no magic, no demons or anything like that, But that is not a problem, because "The Loot" is still a well crafted crime thriller that has a lot of the things I like about Schaefer's books even without the fantasy part: an unpretentious and on point writing style, a vivid sense of locality, an overall gritty atmosphere and a cast of diverse characters that don't exactly see the world in black and white and make some questionable choices.
What it lacked was the subtle sense of humour you can find in most of his other books, And I wasn't into the whole exmilitaryturnedbodyguard setting, You can see that Schaefer did his homework but I must say that I'm not really into that kind of stuff and that kind of characters, I also didn't think the plot was especially engaging and while Schaefer's great writing style and sense of pacing kept me going, there wasn't a great feeling of suspense, That might sound a bit contradictory, I know, It's like when the story doesn't bore you, but it also doesn't exactly keep you on the edge of your seat,
Furthermore, I didn't really care about any of the characters, I didn't like or dislike any of them with a passion and I kinda think that's what a good story needs,
All in all, this is a good thriller, but not a great one, For that it is just too by the book, Started off quite promisingly and once the main cast of characters was assembled it looked like it might turn out to be something very decent, Then, probably a little after halfway, I started to get a little concerned, The cast, who up to that point had been portrayed as conscientious, moral people dealing with personal and professional issues, quite quickly become amoral and ready to comfortably contemplate any number of felonies to meet their own needs.
I had lost count of the tally by the end possibly murder, accessory after the fact, handling stolen goods, conversion, weapons and explosives charges, A half arsed prosecutor could probably double that, Do excop and exmilitary really abandon principles and training that quickly Then there is the plot issue, the scumbag business man who has been kidnapped, The gang should no longer have the level of hatred for him once it has been established beyond all doubt that he did not murder a member of the gang and did not steal their cut but the plot plays out as if he did both of these things.
Apparently it's also OK for him to walk on the historical murder and robbery charges as well, One of the best, new thrillerseries debuts, It has everything. Bombs, gunfights, sniperonsniper clash, kidnapping, blackmailing,
This is a debut of a new crimethriller and nonfantasy series with a tough woman lead, I enjoyed the storyline and various subplots, the quick pace, interesting new information for me about the private security business, and best of all, the characters that brought the story to life.
Charlene “Charlie” McCabeexsergeant US Army and bomb disposal expert in Afghanistanis now a security company newbieintraining, Her first assignment: protect the mosthated man in AmericaSean Elliswhose mining company skimped on safety and caused the death ofminers, Charlie is an intelligent, strong and likable protagonist, as are her coworkers/mentors/coconspirators: Beckettthe companys MVP and quintessential security expertand Dominica “Dom” Da Costa, sniper par excellence, Charlie has moments of soulsearching, questions about moral flexibility, and killing as a civilian,
Most characters have backstories, not all revealed: Dutch whos morethanabarkeep gambling boss Jimmy Lassiter who has Connections with a capital C gun and explosives “merchant” Saint, whos not and worst of all, Charlies gambling addict father who blames everyone but himself for his debts.
There are: Beatemup/shootemup actionscenes Cwired to blow up everything within twenty feet a longmissing haul of diamonds violent excons out for revenge sleazy coworker looking for anyone to sellout plus miscellaneous blackmailing and other morallyambiguous dealings.
.upped to, because Ill read it again for info about private security, Plus, Im sure Craig Schaefer will write more books in this series,
,stars
I've read all of Craig Schaefer's previous books and I love them, This novel is the little different, mostly because of lack of the supernatural elements, But it is still a gripping book with interesting characters,
Our protagonist is Charlie recently retired soldier who try to make a life as a civilian, She gets a job as a profesional bodyguard where she fast prove herself and meet some interesting people, I loved that she was EOD Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician wchich mean that she knew how to disarm bombs,
It's obvious that Crag know what he's writing about, there are a lot of technical details about bodyguards work and, of course a lot of action, I may not like this as much as his fantasy books, but I think it is a worthy read, Really enjoyed the first book of this series, Charlie McCabe is like no other female detective I have come across, She is not loud with something to prove and just so bright and down to earth,
Charlie's father has a bad gambling addiction which is highlighted in the synopsis and the action she took in confronting/handling his misogynistic, arrogant bookie was perfection! Legendary and shined a bright light on just how clever and resourceful she is.
Made my day and sealed the deal that I will be be moving one to booklooking forward to finding out how the loose ends carry over, .