Cruel Poetry

by Vicki Hendricks

Book Overview

"I loved this book. It's a private ticket into a secret world of desire and sex and the raw edge between them . . . I read it with the fever of the addicted."--Michael Connelly "I never miss a book by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0990536521
• ISBN13: 9780990536529
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: Winona Woods
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A fne thriller

In Miami Beach if you are male and can crawl let alone walk, you are attracted to the happy hooker Renata. Men cannot help themselves when it comes to this charming siren who has mesmerized even Pepe her snake and her pimp Francisco knows he should keep his hands off the merchandise, but cannot. Even women are intoxicated by this femme fatale. Client Professor Dick is beyond infatuation for her as he has a permanent wet spot whenever he comes to see Renata; make that even when he thinks of his Renata, which means he is diligently wet 24/7. Next door is Jules the writer who hears her sexcapades through the thin walls when she entertains clients, but is frustrated so he settles for fantasy time with her. Rennie is not a nasty person though she can be tough. When Francisco wants more of her time with him, she calmly tells him they need her income to have any time together. When Richard vows to obtain a divorce and quit his job to be with her, she diligently tries to convince him his family needs him for then her. When Jules desires much more from her; she tries to persuade her they both need their friendship more than becoming lovers. However some men cannot be reasoned with using logic as they make decisions with their lower head in charge. Thus trying to make their fantasy come true, Richard and Jules will do anything including murdering her clients, family members, and perhaps the partner to get Rennie out of her occupation and permanently into their respective lives. Though this character driven thriller rotates perspectives between Rennie, Dick, and Jules, the story line centers on the prostitute as much as of what the others do and think about her. The story line is fast-paced as sexual fantasy becomes homicide nightmares. Fans of Florida Noir will enjoy this sex and murder thriller in which blood flows more freely than scum. Harriet Klausner

The cruelest poetry--and a blast to read

Vicki Hendrick's latest, Cruel Poetry, is a surrealistic noirish journey through the seediest sections of Miami's South Beach and an exploration into the destructive nature that artists/writers face. Renata is the ultimate femme fatale--beautiful, oozing sexuality, and in her own way a force of nature every bit as dangerous as one of the hurricanes that blow through South Florida. Emotionally unavailable, she lives for kicks and sensual pleasure. Jules is a struggling novelist desperate to write a book and hoping to finally win her father's approval. Sexually repressed, she latches onto Renata for inspiration, living next to Renata in the same seedy South Beach Hotel so she can listen in through a hole in the wall to Renata's sexual escapades with both her boyfriend and customers. Renata knows about this and encourages it, glad in her own way to be able to help the creative process. Richard, a poet and professor at a local University, has become one of Renata's regulars. He has also latched onto Renata, desperate for the inspiration he believes her beauty and sensuality can give him to create again. Both Richard and Jules are caught in a downward spiral, both making one mistake after the next. Both are stifled creatively, both are seeking Renata as their muse and cure, and both are stripped bare at the end, literally and figuratively, by their compulsive need to create. Hendricks pulls no punches--with the sex and the noirish descent these character fall into. Dreamlike, thematically rich, this is the real deal. Noir at it's best. So whether it's that you like your crime fiction populated by dark, twisted souls on a one-way ticket to hell, that you're looking for something out of the norm that's beautifully written, or you just want to read one of the best crime novels out this year, I highly recommend Cruel Poetry.

The Queen is back!

Renata is an empirical existentialist with a perfect ten body. She lives for pleasure full throttle and makes no excuses; she hooks for a living because it fits. Richard is a poet, professor, husband and father obsessively in love with the above mentioned hooker. He's lost in his job, his marriage, his creativity and his quest for Renata's love. His attempts at coexistence with a normal life are spiraling out of control. Julie is an aspiring writer paralyzed by insecurity and fear. Her need to prove herself with a tome worthy of daddy's praise places her in the path of a hurricane (both figuratively and literally). She's not quite sure if she's a lesbian or just another victim of love (love for Renata). Francisco is also a hooker (the male version) and a small time drug dealer; a Florida version of a knockaround guy minus the traditional mob, although he does have business associates who make being around him dangerous. He's also Renata's lover of choice (as in she doesn't charge him), but is street savvy enough to understand the term "lover" as it applies to those who can't love; he's a convenience much the same way his job is a convenience to those requiring his services. Pepe is a baby four foot python ... enough said. Fans of Hendricks' special brand of noir erotica have been waiting five years for her latest sizzler and they'll be more than happy with Cruel Poetry. Spot on dialogue and an ability to absorb readers into her characters' dark worlds (worlds we can all relate to--whether they are dominated by obsession, jealousy, a failed marriage, a walk on the wild side, snakes or just an overwhelming need to feel complete) place Hendricks' noir at the forefront of the genre. The poet's insatiable desire for Renata to love him has made a mess of his life. How his world comes apart piece by piece is fascinating and all too real. The good girl playing with dangerous people faces frightening consequences she can't imagine. Renata's emotional bond with Pepe (the cobra) reminds one of another of Hendrick's noir tales, Iguana Love. Renata can't feel love for people the way she can respect a snake (Pepe is genuine). Although she cares for people (Julie, Francisco and to some extent, even Richard), it will take a hurricane and a neatly wrapped surprise ending before she ever gets the chance to feel what everyone else around her seem so constrained by. Vickie Hendricks remains the first Queen of Noir. Her much anticipated latest, Cruel Poetry, will draw you in with visceral, erotic and psychological obsessions. The ending will rock your world. Long live the Queen.

This book sizzles

Elvis may have left the building, but "the Queen of Florida noir erotica," is standing solid at center stage. Like the King, her performance sizzles from start to finish. Cruel Poetry, the long-awaited fifth novel of Vicki Hendricks, is a hunk of burning love, lust, passion, obsession, sexuality (perverse and otherwise), betrayal, and murder that builds to such a fever pitch as it reaches its cataclysmic ending, that you can't turn the pages fast enough to see what happens next. At the centerpiece of a group of complex and compelling characters is Renata. Sexy yet deadly, Renata would like to think she believes in nothing. She is early described as having no feelings: "But she has none--no love, no pain . . . Life is safe when nothing matters." A prostitute who gives her body for money, and enjoys what she does, whether it is with a male or female, she still allows herself to be drawn into a kind of black hole from which none of the characters may escape. Francisco is described as "her lover and business partner," but even he wants more from her than the incredible sex they experience. Her next door neighbor, Jules, an aspiring writer who listens at the hole in the wall to Renata's sexual encounters, is drawn into Renata's life and may lose herself. The most haunted is Renata's obsessed poetry professor, Richard, who wants to take her away from all this and will risk everything and descend to any depth to have her. Throw in assorted private eyes, greasy lawyers, an angry wife, angrier drug dealers, hungry alligators, an impending hurricane, and a four foot Burmese python (just a baby) named Pepe that also loves Renata and mix them into the dark underbelly of Miami Beach that tourists seldom get to see or even imagine and you will be staring into a maelstrom for which the word noir doesn't seem dark nor hot enough. You will find yourself reading this book more than once.

Sex and obsession on Miami Beach

I have read all of Vicki Hendrick's novels and this might be the best one. The story of Renata, Richard and Jules, with its strange mix of love, obsession, and indifference, is Vicki's darkest and most complex work to date. As usual, her style is smooth and flawless. Well worth reading.