Vicki Hendricks's VOLUNTARY MADNESS Named Top Five Favorite Crime Fiction Titles of 2015

A few days ago Steven Nester -- well-know host of "The Poets of Tabloid Murder," a weekly Internet radio show heard on the Public Radio Exchange (PRX) -- picked his five favorite crime fiction titles of this year. Along with The Killing Kind by Chris Holm, The Redeemers by Ace Atkins (he writes the new Robert B. Parker books), Serpents of the Goldby Thomas O'Malley and Douglas Graham Purdy, and The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue by master novelist Frederick Forsyth, he also choseVoluntary Madness by Vicki Hendricks.

Here's what Nester had to say about Vicki's book:

* Voluntary Madness by Vicki Hendricks (New Pulp Press): Punch and Juliette are a spontaneous couple with a plan in this well-serving reissue, and that is to live their lives to the fullest in Key West, Florida, until their money runs out--and then they'll commit suicide. Well, the dough does disappear, sooner rather than later, and to keep the high life going these two co-dependent lovebirds move from burglary to armed robbery to accidental murder. In the meantime, life is a work of art to the multi-racial Punch, who is allegedly writing a novel, as well as to Juliette, a wisp of white trash from Tennessee, who plays a willing enabler and sidekick to Punch's exhibitionist and outlaw ways.

"I could see myself as Sundance, if I knew how to shout," Juliette says, and in an ominous development of character, she soon learns to howl. The pair focus on robbing restaurants for cash and dinner, and become media-darling desperadoes in a town that celebrates nonconformity. For Punch -- diabetic and a committed alcoholic -- death wouldn't be too far removed, even if he walked the straight and narrow, but he keeps upping the ante. Juliette doesn't really want to die, and she knows that keeping Punch sober will also keep him busy at the typewriter, and that the chance of literary fame should cause him to stick around for at least a while longer.

But Punch, being a highly attuned anarchist ("Nothing's right or wrong, good or bad," he says. "Just more or less interesting."), seems as assured of his death wish coming true as he is of finding coal in his stocking.

Vicki Hendricks says, "I'm a Florida writer, published mostly in the crime field over the last twenty years, with five noir novels -- Miami Purity, Iguana Love, Voluntary Madness, Sky Blues, Cruel Poetry, a collection of short stories, Florida Gothic Stories, and a mainstream novel, Fur People. 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 more contemporary style with 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."

Hendricks was a featured panelist at this year's 2015 Mystery Writers Key West Fest. She even shocked bestselling mystery writer Jeffery Deaver when she described sex in one of her titles involving an iguana lizard. And you can be sure that Deaver (The Bone Collector, et al. ) is not a writer easily taken aback.

New Pulp Press is proud to publish Vicki Hendricks'

Voluntary Madness. If you'd like to purchase a $4.99 ebook edition, go to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or KoboBooks to instantly download your copy. For the $14.95 trade paperback, go to Amazon.

Or visit the New Pulp Press website for this and other award-winning noir mysteries.

NPP publisher Shirrel Rhoades adds, "Vicki is a modern master of noir. This is the kind of writing destined to be among the classics of the genre. We salute Vicki and Voluntary Madness!"

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