Voluntary Madness - Softcover

Vicki Hendricks

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852426292 ISBN 13: 9781852426293

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2001

Synopsis

Beautiful, sexy Juliette is madly in love with Punch. She’ll do absolutely anything for him. She also loves getting buck-naked on dark Key West byways and flashing strangers by moonlight. Punch loves Juliette ... sort of. He loves even more the booze he drinks like a fish, Juliette’s inherited money on which he’s happy to live, the image of himself as a wannabe writer, and the idea of flaming out in a joint suicide when his novel is done and the money runs out. Together Juliette and Punch have come to Key West in a desperate quest for something vital, something eloquent in their lives—some antidote to their hollow loneliness. One day Juliette wanders into a pawnshop and buys a “cute” little Beretta .25 caliber pistol—like a snake in the Garden of Eden. Then the real trouble starts. Voluntary Madness is a crazed, unputdownable motorcycle ride to either perdition or salvation that has become a noir classic in its own time.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Voluntary Madness is that rare creature, a book you don't want to finish, but
when it does, it leaves you with an ending that doesn't disappoint."
--Time Out (London)

"Voluntary Madness is my favorite Vicki Hendricks novel. Sexy, gritty and raw,
yet at the same time intelligent and touching, Voluntary Madness proves Vicki
Hendricks is the queen of noir ...This is a hardboiled book, with vivid, tough
prose and crime elements that build as the tale progresses, but the genius of the
story is the novel's struggle to differentiate between art and life, and the conflict
inherent when these terms become mutually exclusive. A quick and frank read
with the ability to cull weak readers from the literary herd."
--Victor Gischler, author of Gun Monkeys and Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse

"Voluntary Madness is a loosely updated and modern Bonnie and Clyde story
taking place on the Florida Keys. This is a masterfully written novel, a noir erotica
classic! The writing is tough, gritty, graphic, and leaves you disoriented. This is
one of those books you can't put down, and it takes you on one hell of a ride."
--Dave Zeltserman, author of Fast Lane and Bad Thoughts

"Voluntary Madness seems less noir than an homage to On the Road. There is
that total hedonistic mission [its protagonists] Punch and Juliette have, where
even their deaths are intended to be an act of rebellion. And yet, unlike Sal
Paradise [narrator of On the Road], Juliette realizes there's something else. It's a
long, hard journey to that point."
--Jim Winters, author of Edged in Blue

"In Voluntary Madness Hendricks spins a tale of excess and eroticism in this
darkly slanted slice of life on the edge."
--Kirkus UK

"Vicki Hendricks is the high priestess of neo-noir. A fierce and fearless talent."
--Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River

"Hendricks may be the least commercial but most literary of Florida crime
writers. Her stories evoke Flannery O'Connor and Erskine Caldwell."
--Booklist.

"Vicki Hendricks' novels ... are all Florida noir thrillers, absolutely steeped in
scorching sunshine, sweat, sex and murder. There's no one else like
her."--welovethisbook.com

"Hendricks writes like the love child of Henry Miller and Anais Nin."
--Ft. Myers News-Press

"Vicki Hendricks is one wild dame. She goes places the rest of us have never been,
don't even know the way to; and she comes back with stories that prove that
everyone's lonely, everyone's trying, and everyone's human."
--S.J. Rozan, Edgar Award-winning author of The Shanghai Moon

About the Author:

Vicki Hendricks is the author of the novels Miami Purity, Iguana Love, Voluntary Madness, Sky Blues, Cruel Poetry, an Edgar Award Finalist, and Fur People. Her short stories are collected in Florida Gothic Stories. She lives in Hollywood, Florida, and teaches writing at Broward College. Participation in adventure sports and knowledge of the Florida environment is reflected in her plots and settings.

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1852426292
• ISBN 13: 9781852426293
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224