Sky Blues [Hardcover]

Vicki Hendricks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 2002

Desperate, lonely, and dying for a thrill, Destiny Donne is perfect prey for a risk-taking skydiver in sexy noir master Hendricks' best novel since Miami Purity.

Destiny-Desi for short-is a large animal vet in the sticks of central Florida who's about to give up on the rest of life to concentrate on her career. That is, until Tom Jenks walks in her door. Sexy and charming but clearly living life on the edge-he comes to her with a sickly lion cub he's keeping illegally-he brings with him a drug like none she's had before, and she's taken them all. It's called skydiving, and with one jump she's addicted before she can even think to say no.

Even though her head is telling her no, she quickly begins an affair with Tom and becomes enmeshed in his world of adrenaline and yearning sexuality. But when dangerous things begin to happen around them and the subject of murder rears its ugly head, she'll have to pull out of the dangerous tailspin she's fallen into before she ruins-or loses-her life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this straightforward thriller, the sex-starved veterinarian Destiny "Desi" Donne believes she can get through her dull life in the flatlands of Florida without a man, thank you, until hunky Tom Jenks prowls into her office. Jenks has an obviously illegal lion cub he wants her to check. She knows better, but takes that small ethical misstep he is so cute that sends her literally plunging into adventure and plans for murder. Jenks is a professional sky diver, with an inconvenient wife, and draws Desi into the thrills of this sport and ever deeper into a web of conspiracy. Occasionally, Desi realizes the mistakes she's making "I'm a much bigger fool than I ever expected to be" but one graphically described session in bed after another always seems to keep her under Jenks's, um, thumb. Desi, of course, is little different from her dumb male counterparts in noir films and paperbacks of 50 years ago, lured to their doom by some femme fatale. That women too can play the sap may not be news, but adds a nice twist to this time-worn genre. Hendricks (Miami Purity; Iguana Love) bases the skydiving scenes on over 300 jumps she has made herself, but they never reach the visceral pitch of the best extreme sports writing. As erotica, though, with a dash of mystery (vets have access to neat, potentially lethal drugs like rhino tranquilizers), the story is quite effective. Regional author tour.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In Hendricks' new noir novel, the doomed heroine falls for a sky diver and straps on a parachute to get her man; in her earlier Iguana Love (2000), the heroine falls for a scuba diver and straps on an oxygen tank for the same purpose. One jumps from a plane, the other from a boat, but the direction they travel is very much the same: down. And, yet, there are differences. Desi Donne, an exotic animal vet in South Florida, fights harder against her fate than did her scuba-diving sister and, thus, attains more of the tragic stature a noir hero needs to make the formula work; similarly, Desi's homme fatale, a gorgeous, smooth-talking sky-diving instructor with an elaborate plan to kill his wife, seems much more capable of turning a gal's head than did the steroid-popping diver in the previous book. As before, Hendricks writes with great power about her characters' obsessions. The sky-diving scenes ripple with a tension that is as much sexual as adventurous. Yes, Hendricks is something of a one-trick pony--call it daredevil noir--but she turns that trick with undeniable gusto. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (February 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312283466
• ISBN-13: 978-0312283469
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,168,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a Florida writer, published mostly in the crime field over the last fifteen years, with five noir novels, MIAMI PURITY, IGUANA LOVE, VOLUNTARY MADNESS, SKY BLUES, and a collection of short stories, FLORIDA GOTHIC STORIES. In 2008, my novel CRUEL POETRY was a finalist for an Edgar Award. If you like the works of James M. Cain, author of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, you will enjoy my novels; however, they contain graphic sex that was not allowed to be published in Cain's era. In addition, my interest in the Florida environment and participation in adventure sports, such as scuba and skydiving, are prominent in the subject matter of my fiction.
I have just recently put up most of my books on Kindle in addition to DANGEROUS SEX: TWO STORIES, some potent erotica with a focus on the danger of women.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Steaming up the sky, May 8, 2002

By 

Victor Gischler (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sky Blues (Hardcover)

My favorite TART, Vicki Hendricks, offers a tale simmering with my favorite noir one-two punch: Obsession and betrayal. SKY BLUES has the reader simultaneously shouting "Yes, yes, get naked" and "stop it you silly woman. Can't you see that man is evil?"

As a big, dumb man, it's nice to see that a woman's judgment can be clouded by burning loins too. But the novel's frank, well-handled sex scenes are not the only reason to read. Hendricks deftly potrays a woman whose common sense fights a bitter duel with her unquenchable desires. A protagonist tragically complete, a believable woman fighting a battle she halfway hopes to lose.

Passionate and riveting.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beastly good mystery ! Full of sex and tension!, April 16, 2002

By 

Carole A. Borges (Knoxville TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sky Blues (Hardcover)

This is one of Hendricks' best! All her classic elements are there---the bastard--the lust-filled heroine desperate for orgasm--the mystery--but what a romp this is! And, plot-wise it is a finely wrought thriller. After a seductive beginnning musky with desire and replete with animal feces and blood, she takes you on a high. She gets you wet with anticipation and she doesn't let you down until she wants to.

When Des, the vet, meets Tom (another of Hendricks' most deliciously smarmey but sexy bastards) she pulls the ripcord of her desire and lets loose with an adventure you're not soon to forget. Tom's a sky diving instructor who is as smooth in his dives into bed as he is in the air. He's one of those guys who has to manipulate everything he puts his sweaty hands on, and he wants to manipulate Des, but she bests him in this one.

The best part of this book is the evolution of Hendricks' characters. Always a master at noir, she jumps up a level here and creates a story any woman...can enjoy. One any any man with a desire for conquest can leap into...

Des, tensioned between her desire for the animal side of her nature and her struggle for spiritual purity, draws us deeply into her free-fall into hell. And, Tom gets his come-uppence in way that is both delicious and insidious. No one can create a more sexy story than Hendricks, but this book transcends mere noir, it's also a good mystery with very human and three dimensional characters.

Blue skies--freedom and spiritual purity--versus the earth below with its dark sex-jungle, its predatory lions and heavy footed hippos... what a fantastic metaphor for the inner wars we all wage against our primitive natures and something more... The settings in this novel drive the plot and make the characters soar.

The whole time I was reading this book, I keep thinking--movie! Movie! Of all of Hendricks' great adventures into the steamy and dark side of life, this one has the best potential to become a great movie...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tell it like it is, March 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sky Blues (Hardcover)

Being a skydiver I really appreciated the way she tells it like it is. Skydivers are a really close-knit community - sometimes too close for comfort!

The main character Desi is very believable. She makes you want to scream "Wake up!" but at the same time you know you would be making an equally stupid naive assumption about someone at that point.

I couldn't put the book down. I just had to see how she was going to extricate herself from the unholy mess she'd been sucked into. Great suspense from cover to cover.