The Loot by Craig Schaefer Narrator: Susannah Jones
Series: Charlie McCabe#1
Published by Brilliance Audio on August 1, 2019
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Length: 10 hours, 13 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Audiobook
When Sergeant Charlie McCabe returns from fighting in Afghanistan, she hopes to leave the war behind. Instead, she comes home to a father whose gambling has put him in deep trouble with a violent loan shark. She finds work as a professional bodyguard, but to save her father, she needs to get serious cash together fast.
However, her father isn’t the only one who needs saving. When Charlie’s first client—a wealthy executive with a shady past—narrowly escapes a bomb plot, Charlie’s investigation leads her into the heart of Boston’s criminal underworld. Along the way, she stumbles upon clues about a diamond heist gone wrong that’s been unsolved for decades.
With the clock ticking and chaos descending, Charlie sees a solution to both problems, but it won’t be easy, and it won’t be pretty. A “normal” life may await Charlie on the other side of this mess, but part of her knows that the battle has just begun.
The Loot is the first book in the brand-new Charlie 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.
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 bombing 101 and is making Charlie feel nostalgic.
I like Craig Schaefer because he isn’t 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. I’m fine because I like when characters aren’t all good or all bad but somewhere in the grey area.
This is a solid first book in a series and I’m 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 don’t 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 I’ve 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 I’ll be sure to check the next installment out too.
“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?” she’d said.
“This mission is over,” he’d told her. “Go find a new one. Dismissed.”
“Auribus teneo lupum,” he said.
Charlie stared at him over the mouth of her bottle. “Meaning?”
“It’s 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, you’re screwed. You let go, you’re screwed.”
“Damned if I do, damned if I don’t?”
“Pretty much wolf chow all around.
Narration:
Susannah Jones is a narrator I know will always do a solid job on her performance and The Loot wasn’t any different. I always think of the Rock Chick series anytime I hear her voice, but I’ve listened to well over twenty books narrated by her and I’m never disappointed. I listened to this at my normal 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip:
About Craig Schaefer
Craig Schaefer’s books have taken readers across a modern America mired in occult mysteries, from the seamy criminal underworld of the Daniel Faust series; to the supernatural espionage and intrigue of the Harmony Black series; to the apocalyptic parallel worlds of the Wisdom’s Grave trilogy.
He currently lives in North Carolina, where he can be found haunting museums, libraries, abandoned crossroads, and other places where dark fantasy authors tend to congregate.
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I also enjoyed shaded characters it makes them more realistic than all good or all bad, since people have some of each. Great review Robin!
Thanks Anne
I’m big on character driven stories and I’d like to meet these.
Me too. The story can have a great plot but if the characters aren’t fleshed out it is just eh.