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...