Why You'll Love This
A Vegas ghost job that detours into a cartel-tangled LA music heist is exactly as fun as it sounds.
- Great if you want: noir-flavored urban fantasy with a con-artist crew dynamic
- The experience: fast, punchy, and self-contained — reads in a single sitting
- The writing: Schaefer keeps the plot twisting without losing the wisecracking momentum
- Skip if: novella length leaves you wanting a fully developed novel instead
About This Book
Las Vegas has no shortage of problems, but a ghost haunting a casino penthouse is the kind of problem that requires a very particular set of skills. Daniel Faust—sorcerer, hustler, and reluctant problem-solver—gets pulled into a job that should be simple and immediately isn't. What starts as a cleanup errand spirals into something far more dangerous when it drags him into the Los Angeles music industry, where the predators wear better suits and the money leaves bloodier trails. Schaefer keeps the stakes personal and the danger visceral, wrapping a murder mystery inside a heist inside a world where magic is just one more tool for survival.
At under 160 pages, this novella is proof that tight writing beats padding every time. Schaefer's prose moves with the rhythm of someone who respects your time and still delivers fully realized characters, sharp dialogue, and a world that feels genuinely lived-in. The Daniel Faust universe blends urban fantasy and crime fiction with a confidence that never tips into self-parody—the magic feels earned, the cons feel clever, and the city feels dangerous in ways that have nothing to do with spellwork. It's compact, efficient, and never once feels small.
