Cruel Poetry by
Vicki Hendricks
pbk out January 07
(Serpent's Tail)
at £7.99
Once upon a time authors vied for the title of Queen of Crime. In an era of sub-
categories, Vicki Hendricks has been dubbed 'the Queen of Florida noir erotica' by
Maxim Jakubowski. I'm not sure how competitive the field is, but on the evidence of
this highly readable thriller, it is hard to believe that anyone could surpass Hendricks.
I haven't read Hendricks' earlier novels (an omission I mean to repair) but she has
spoken on her website of her admiration for Cain's classic 'The Postman Always
Rings Twice' and, for all the many differences, there are very distant echoes of some
of Cain's preoccupations in this black comedy of errors. Sexual obsession drives the
four main characters. The gorgeous Renata has an ambiguous past and has taken up a
lifestyle which 'requires her to spread herself thin and charge a price, but she's good
at it.' Amazingly good, to judge by the way Richard, a poetry professor and client,
falls for her, destroying his career and family and ultimately jeopardising the lives of
those around him in the process. Meanwhile, Jules, a would-be novelist who occupies
the room next to Renata's in the Tropical Moons Hotel, becomes fixated on her
neighbour, and increasingly desperate to prise her away from the fourth member of
the quartet, Renata's lover and business partner Francisco. In the first of many well-
intentioned blunders, Jules kills a client who was getting rough with Renata and the
task of disposing of the body, which falls to Francisco, sets in motion a crazy
sequence of calamities. As events spiral out of control beneath the baking Florida sun,
the question is not so much whether this will all end in death and disaster, but what
precise form catastrophe will take and who - if anyone - will survive. Very
entertaining.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
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Cruel Poetry by
Vicki Hendricks
