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New Short Story!
from crimewav.com
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Cruel Poetry
Nominated for Edgar Award!
2008 Best Paperback Original
Also in May 2007:
Miami Purity
Foreword By Ken Bruen
Afterward By Megan Abbott
Published by
Busted Flush Press
Voluntary Madness
Miami Purity
Sky Blues
Read
"Boozanne, Lemme Be"
in
Miami Noir, edited by
Les Standiford
Published by Akashic
Cruel Poetry
published by Serpent's Tail, an imprint of Profile Books Ltd.
Renata is young, beautiful, and enjoys sex for money and kicks. Few are immune to her intoxicating allure – even her pet Burmese python, Pepe, seems captive to her charm. Richard, a poetry professor with a wife and two sons, refuses to give up his erotic fascination with Rennie, though it threatens his home and career. Julie, a shy wannabe-novelist, spies from her next door room, lusting for Rennie between bouts of frustrated writing. Both would do anything to save Rennie from her dangerous occupation and become her one true love.
"I loved this book. It’s a private ticket into a secret world of desire and sex and the raw edge between them. I don’t know why the book has chapters. I read it page to page with the fever of the addicted." Michael Connelly
“The authentic heir to James M. Cain, Vicki Hendricks is the high priestess of neo-noir. A fierce and fearless talent.” Dennis Lehane
“I never miss a book by Vicki Hendricks. No one on the current scene is writing supercharged, erotic, real noir novels like these.” George P. Pelecanos
“Cruel Poetry opens with a sex scene as hot as the scorching Florida sun and grips as tightly as the heroine’s pet python. Strap yourself in for another rollercoaster ride of sexual obsession and perversion from Vicki Hendricks, reigning queen of American noir.” Lauren Henderson
“. . . An enormous amount of damn fine sex in Vicki Hendricks’ take on the folie a deux—mad passionate beach-front lust, entertaining sexual practices, and an ever-welcome python. But more than this, in Renata she gives us a femme fatale with the courage to see herself honestly . . . enough blood to turn the Everglades red . . . a Thelma and Louise with the guts to stay alive.” Stella Duffy
“Vicki Hendricks is a true original. She is undoubtedly one of the most important noir writers of the past twenty years.” Jason Starr
“Frighteningly close to perfection.” Allan Guthrie
Other Praise
“Fook, you write like a demented banshee!” Ken Bruen
“She's fearless and writes high pulp like the smartest, coolest grindhouse softcore flick you've ever seen.” Anthony Neil Smith
Iguana Love
Attractive and perverse, Ramona Romano is a thrill-seeking redhead addicted to adventure.
Former President Clinton has it. Get yours.
Here's what the critics say about Iguana Love:
Hendricks's
second novel hijacks crime fiction and rides it on the
rapids of extreme sexuality, impulsive female violence,
and parodic pornography.
--Nick Hasted, Independent on Sunday,
London
In that
parallel universe known as noir, Vicki Hendricks has
staked her claim--with a spear gun.
--Steven E. Alford, Fort Lauderdale
Sun-Sentinel
A red-hot
tale of Miami vice with more lurid twists than a Florida
hurricane. . . Intense, sweaty and wonderfully lurid,
this is a roller- coaster ride through sin, drugs, and
sexual action like you've never seen or dreamed of
before.
--Time Out, London
Florida drift
culture in freefall. . . . It reads loud and fast, boasts
a voracious sexual appetite and, as things turn nasty,
develops the dreamy slow- skid feel of a bad car
crash."
--Chris Petit, The Guardian, Canada
Hendricks
writes in clear, crisp prose . . . will mesmerize
readers.
--Lisa S. Nussbaum, Library Journal
No one writes
better about white trash gone bad. If James M. Cain were
a woman and alive today, the postman would only ring once
on the doors of the sultry Miami condos inhabited by
Hendricks's characters in heat. Guaranteed to raise your
temperature, whatever the weather.
--Maxim Jakubowski, The Guardian, London
Hendricks's
first novel Miami Purity had James Ellroy 'baying at the
moon like a Florida coon dog.' This one will probably
have him humping her leg. Part thriller, part porn, part
redneck comedy, Hendricks's novel is gleefully immoral, a
style that relishes its own perversity and is seductive
in its brutality. This is noir gone comic strip -- an
anarchic romp among sex and muscle that unashamedly
brings the two together.
--Graham Caveney, Arena, London
A quick,
compulsive read.
--Silvie Simmons, Heat, London
A taut thriller . .
. I urge you to read this book if only to experience its
unseemly delights. Sordid, shocking, compulsive, and
despite all that, enjoyable in a perverted kind of way.
File under Scuba noir!
--Charles Waring, Crime Time, London
Serpent's Tail
ISBN: 1852426284
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Copyright © 2002 Vicki Hendricks. All rights reserved.