The Vicki Hendricks Collection
"A private ticket into a secret world of desire and sex and the raw edge between them."
—Michael Connelly
Vicki Hendricks is the female version of Carl Hiaasen— and Carl would be the first to tell you.
She's a national bestselling author who specializes in Florida Gothic, thriller, and mysteries— that always have plenty of steamy sex. Hendricks is literary noir at its best. I remember discovering her first stories in the 90s and literally screaming in my bed as turned the penultimate page.
The Bright List has had the pleasure of producing Vicki Hendrick's top 5 books into audio:
The Bonnie & Clyde for the 21st century.
Punch is a beautiful man in his forties, dying from alcohol abuse and diabetes. Juliette is his adoring girlfriend, willing to do anything for him. Together they have made a twisted pact: to live a wild life in Key West for a year, before they end it all.
Punch and Juliette's craziness accelerates. She flashes her tits at every public occasion; he pretends to be blind in public. They break into Hemingway's house to have sex— surely one of the bucket list. But the games turn dangerous when a guard at the house interrupts them— and dies in the assault. Way out of her depth, Juliette has to decide whether she'll keep her part of her lovers' pact.
Narrated by Staci Anderson.
Renata is young, beautiful, and has sex for money and kicks. Few are immune to her allure—even her pet Burmese python, Pepe, seems to be her love captive.
Richard is one of Renata's clients, a poetry professor with a wife and two sons, whose erotic fascination with Rennie is threatening his home and job.
Set in Miami’s gaudy vacationland and the haunts of the Everglades, Cruel Poetry is a gripping story of fatal attraction that captures the Florida behind the postcards.
Narrated by Catherine Fairfax.
This volume contains eleven of Vicki Hendricks' best short stories, for the true Hendricks fan.
Chock full of damaged characters you'll love, mystical realism, and classic noir. Action that snaps as fast as switchblade silver.
Narrated by Christina Thurmond.
Hot and scrappy Sherri Parlay gives up her life of depravity, with best intentions. She's goign to find a respectable job as a dry cleaner.
Right!
Nature and nurture plot against Parlay when she meets the beautiful, tortured, and rich young Payne, who tempts her with the love and life she never thought possible. Even Brenda, Payne's domineering mother, can't keep the lovers apart when Sherri's animal passions take control.
Unfortunately, Payne is not only a different kind of man from those in Sherri's past, he's worse than any on her list of sordid affairs.
Twisted psychology and a pure heart lead her into the dark realm of disillusionment and crime, where she reaches into her deepest reserves for the strength to survive. This contemporary noir novel is reminiscent of James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, with a heavy dose of sexual realism that Cain might have enjoyed if his times would have allowed.
Narrated by Linda Borg.
Ramona Romano isn't into drugs. All the same, she has her addiction: adventure.
Separated from her husband, she tries scuba diving, then bodybuilding to feed her habit. Along the way, there's one man who grows to be more of a challenge than all her other endeavors: dark and smoldering Enzo. He leads her into deeper waters than she's prepared to fathom...
Narrated by Sarah Burnes.
--Aretha Bright
