Miami Purity

by Vicki Hendricks, Megan Abbott (Afterword), Ken Bruen (Foreword)

A noir-ish tale of an aging former stripper whose attempt to go clean leads her into a murderously perverse affair.

Genres: Noir, Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Novels, Thriller, Mystery Thriller

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Vicki Hendricks' acclaimed erotic debut novel takes it's cue from noir godfather James M. Cain and is a clear homage to his The Postman Always Rings Twice . In this one, after exotic dancer Sherri Parlay "accidentally" kills her abusive husband, she decides to start over fresh. One way to do it is to get a legit job working at the indie dry cleaners Miami Purity. Here she quickly falls for the owner's son and his "Jagger-lips," but his controlling mom stands in the way.

Hendricks' noir voice is smooth and assured, totally spot on. Her writing is one of the best examples I've seen of truly evoking the pulp paperback era but never feeling forced. There are not many things in the story that really date it, so it has a timeless feel and there are many times that I forgot that it was published in 1995. Along with the Miami humidity, the dry cleaners is a perfect setting for this steamy book and all of the illicit going-ons, a place where people take all their dirty things to get them cleaned and "purified." And Sherri is a great protagonist, unapologetic about her sexuality, strong in going after what she wants at the same time she's weak in her self-control.

Now while there are lots of great things in Miami Purity, especially the final act, much of it's beginning and middle is bogged down by monotony, where it falls into a soap opera slump, with not much going on except for Sherri pining over Payne, and the two of them having hot sex and trying to hide it from his mom. In this way, it's also similar to another Cain book, Mildred Pierce, which I had similar feelings about: well-written but weakened by it's eye-rolling soapy elements. So if you imagine James M. Cain, but with a lot more vagina and penis, you'll get an idea of what to expect from this book. And it's cool seeing how many awesome authors have blurbed lovingly about Vicki Hendricks and her work, from Dennis Lehane, to George Pelecanos, to Joe R. Lansdale, and this edition even sports a thoughtful Afterword by Megan Abbott.

[Cathy DuPont · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a first time novelist, the author, Vicki Hendricks is gutsy and her writing is, in my estimation, courageous and amazing.

There are no innuendos in this book. Written in the first person, Sherry Parlay is a professional and talented exotic dancer recently retired from the profession. So the language Sherry uses is the language which she knows. So fair warning to the faint of heart or if you’re shy and reserved and easily offended, pass this book up. Otherwise, jump in because it’s a great read from beginning to end.

While men who are authors are free and easy (and imaginative maybe) about describing what sex is like for a woman, women writers, it seems to me, tend to romanticize sex with soft, warm and fuzzy words. None here...so pick up another book if you can't handle the sexual encounter descriptions which are, should I say, quite descriptive.

Sherry will probably never get an invite to any ladies’ tea party because she’s no lady. She’s from the other side of the tracks but now wants to change her life, leave the entertainment industry to find a life in the sunshine, in the daylight, a nice little nine to fiver in Miami. She's not too picky either because she’s not trained for anything, and applies to a laundry/dry cleaning ‘mom and son’ business because it had a 'help wanted' sign in the window.

Getting used to the daytime hours though is a constant challenge since she loves sex, drugs and probably rock ‘n roll, and did I say sex? Oh, forgot, exhibitionism; say hey, she was a dancer with horny men watching her eight hours a night. Of course she’s an exhibitionist.

Meeting the son half of the business, Payne,she comes on to him immediately. It doesn't matter to either that he's 28 and although she looks 30, she's more worldly and 36. Sherry’s looking for and believes she’s found a solid guy, with good looks and a business owner. And if he doesn’t smack her around once in a while, that’s even better. But moms can get in the way though and this is one protective mother.

After getting past the initial shock of the gritty in your face language, I settled in for a great story, told just like Sherry would if you or I were talking to her. She wants so badly to be loved, to be cared for and she’ll do whatever it takes to get to that place of the ‘warm and fuzzies.’ Perhaps, though, good looking Payne isn’t all that he seems, which is a solid part of the story.
I really enjoyed Vicki Hendricks' writing. She has no pretense whatsoever in her voice and it shows by her use of the language. She writes just like Sherry would talk.

I give this writer a lot of credit for taking all the ‘fluffy’ stuff away from her writing if it was ever there to begin with. It’s crude, it’s basic, it’s real, it’s life, folks. Take it or leave it, it’s someone’s life out there. Fortunately, for me, not mine but I really enjoyed reading this unusual first novel. I believe it’s considered noir which is my favorite book genre anyway.

At the very beginning of the book Sherry who comes from Cleveland (most everyone in Miami is from somewhere else) says “If Cleveland was the armpit of the world then Miami must be the eyes, clear, blue sparkling eyes with plenty of promises. It was all there for me.” This is just an indication of the hope felt by Sherry and so begins the reader’s hope for Sherry Parlay. And who writes like that anyway? No one I can think of. Ms. Hendricks is a one of a kind in my book.

******************

Should be meeting VH this am. Florida Heritage Book Festival w/ Robin Cook; Dr. David Coburn, FL poli-scientist written a number of books on civil rights including one on SA; JDMacDonald, my hero, a memorabilia display from University of Florida; and a Civil Rights Roundtable Discussion..not a minute too soon on that one.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book about dry cleaners, this is pretty... dirty.

Okay, now that I have my sunglasses off and the soundtrack has appropriately gone "YEEEEEAHHHHH," let's talk Miami Purity, which is a steamy, rich, atmospheric Postman Always Rings Twice homage, this time with a tough female chump who can't stop thinking about a troublesome guy's luscious lips. Sherri has been stripping and dancing for years, but a recent spell in jail for accidentally killing her abusive husband has got her in the mood to go on the straight and narrow, so she washes up at a dry cleaners called Miami Purity. Her boss is Brenda, an alcoholic always a little wobbly with drink, and then, of course, there's Brenda's son, Payne, owner of the aforementioned pouty mouth. Sherri falls hard and fast for Payne, who is good enough in bed to compensate for his complete lack of personality, and Payne starts talking about how awful things are between him and his mother--who, of course, holds the purse-strings.

You see where this is going, of course: the pleasure here isn't in the plot but in Hendricks's portrayal of Sherri, who has an unapologetic and utterly genuine earthiness female characters usually aren't allowed. Her soulfulness adds great depth, too, so she doesn't come across as a character in her own right and not just the result of a simple noir gender-swap. Payne doesn't come off quite as well--I'm fully qualified to evaluate the fatal/fatale appeal of des femmes and des hommes, and Payne never seemed like anything but a sulky bore to me, but Sherri's love for him was so innocent, even as they bang each other like drums on every flat surface, that I still bought how engrossed she was in him. (Choose Amiable Surfer Guy Brian, though, Sherri, for sure.)

Hendricks's noir voice is pitch-perfect from the opening sentence on. If the focus on sex can veer a little towards the tiresome from time to time, the evocative language and the eye for detail compensate for it: the world here--from the deep rose of the dry cleaning bags to the glittering, lidless eye of the ocean--is lushly and vividly rendered. As a fatalistic tour of a low-down Miami, this can't be beat. The Cain homage, too, is enhanced, with just a slight wink, by Hendricks's procedural guide to her dry cleaning setting, which has the feel of the chicken-and-waffle restaurant in Mildred Pierce.

Mild, non-plot-relevant spoiler in case anyone wants to know the kind of detail that might be a potential dealbreaker: There is a brief scene when Payne's dog licks Sherri's exposed crotch, and she allows/encourages it for a minute or so. I cringed a little. That was not a moment in which I had the same high appreciation of Hendricks's ability to evoke sensory details, but it's over quickly.

I'm definitely going to read more Hendricks, and this novel will stay with me, especially Sherri's voice and some of the imagery.

[Halley Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this book is sort of genius but also very much insane.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sherri Parlay has recently put her old man in the grave with a sharp swing of her radio to the forehead. Well, he was asking for it. Having escaped a potential murder charge (he threw the first punch) she takes on a job at the local dry cleaning place. An ex-stripper, Sherri has an insatiable appetite for men, and it’s not deep and meaningful conversation she’s after. She’s in luck, the shop manager is the handsome Payne Mahoney and it isn’t long before our anti-heroine gets her claws into him. But there’s a problem in the shape of Payne’s jealous mother. Mother and son, it seems, get up to more than channel hopping during their evenings at home together.

This is Vicky’ first book and having read a couple of her subsequent efforts I pretty much knew what to expect. It’s a noirish tale of sex and murder that rattles along and might just provide the ideal beach read - as long as you can cope with a little incest and some mild bestiality, that is. Yes, this one definitely belongs on the top shelf. It’s pretty good fun though and hard to take too seriously. I picked it up as a freebie as a result of signing up for a cheap Kindle Unlimited trial, but I’d probably be prepared to pay a couple of quid for this short read with an unlikely plot but an atmosphere of brooding menace.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pitch-black classic of 1990’s Miami noir. A pole dancer with a heart of gold decides to get out of the business, but she’s got a sex drive that knows no limits, and things get sordid and sleazy quickly. I loved Vicki Hendricks’ fearless approach and full-on commitment to her protagonist’s bleak outlook, although some scenes really creeped me out.

[🐴 🍖]

killer narrative voice is the main draw; it's like one of the chars on the margins of a hoke mosely novel boosted a dictaphone from radio shack and just let 'er rip. there's somewhat of a narrative doldrums after the 1st big act of violence but it sure comes roaring back near the end

[Craig Pittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW. This book has been on my to-read list for years, and so when I saw it on the shelf at a Miami-area bookstore recently I bought it and started reading. It's so short -- just 152 pages -- I figured I'd finish it in a day or so. I was wrong. From its stunner of an opening to its grim conclusion, this book floored me. I had to keep stopping to scrape my jaw off the ground and absorb just what had taken place.

That this was a debut novel seems amazing now. South Florida writer Vicki Hendricks tells the story of Sherri Parlay, who is exceedingly well endowed and constantly hot to trot, but who likes the booze a little too much and can't pick a good man to save her soul. At the start of the book she's been dancing at a Miami strip club but is ready to try something more respectable, and that's how she winds up applying for a job at a dry cleaners called Miami Purity. Of course, she learns before long that things aren't so clean and pure at Miami Purity.

Parlay, who's narrating the story, falls for the company's sole male employee, manager Payne Mahoney, who is darkly handsome and yet very much under the thumb of his mother, Brenda, who owns the dry cleaning business. She and Payne soon hook up, and she has romantic notions that this will be where her life takes a turn for the better. But this is classic noir, transplanted to the 1980s, and her uncontrollable desire and the secrets that Payne is keeping soon lead to murder and worse.

This is strong stuff, and some of it can be hard to take. You shouldn't read it while on a church picnic. Hendricks pulls no punches with her narrative, coming up with more and more bizarre stuff that I won't describe because 1. It's gross and 2. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the book. Suffice to say that Payne is aptly named and Sherri puts up with a lot more than most girlfriends would, although she's no angel either.

The whole time Hendricks manages to keep readers off-kilter. I didn't quite understand why until I read the excellent Megan Abbott essay in the back of the book, in which she explained that Hendricks didn't just flip the genders of the noir genre, so that there's a homme fatale instead of a femme fatale, but she also subverted its conventions at every turn.

The ending, although you can see it coming, still packs a punch, and leaves you stunned. It's tempting to read it again, but I want to wait a while and try to forget some of it, so it will seem almost as fresh the next time I pick it up.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, the first suggestion to readers of Miami Purity is if graphic sex depictions - and a lot of them - offend you or are not your cup of tea, then this novel is not for you. But if you like rip-roaring, pedal-to-the-metal noir of an adult nature (and when I suggest "adult nature" I do not the type found in Triple X porn or over-the-top unnecessary graphic violence, but instead mature themes for adults handled in an adult way), then this novel is for you.

Sherri Parlay is a semi-retired, head-turning stripper that goes after what she wants like a heat-seeking missile with no apologies while using all of her ravenous skills. Her motto could be Melanie Griffith's from the movie Working Girl - how she has a mind for business and a body for sin.

Sherri meets the mother/son owners of a dry cleaning business and develops an uncontrollable desire for the son while at first not realizing just how close the pair are and how the mother is more than pathological in her death grip on her son.

Murder and mayhem in the finest noir fashion then occur, with an expected ending most expect from noir with the only questions being who will make it out in the end and how much carnage will litter the road to getting there.

Now, while this is a pulp-fiction-hard core noir tale, the writing is very well done and enjoyable for noir fans and highly recommended to those that enjoy down and dirty writing when it comes to their crime fiction. Also, while there are plenty of gratuitous sexual depictions, the depictions are genuine to the characters of the novel and especially to Sherri Parlay.

Those that enjoy this type of fiction are also encouraged to read the crime fiction of Christa Faust as well.

[Jackson Burnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vicki Hendricks writes what James M. Cain leaves out except from a female point of view. With Miami Purity, Hendricks pushes hard-boiled fiction to the next level. A very powerful novel from a very powerful writer.

[Scott E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raunchy and delicious. Near perfect rendering of tough noir that isn't too dark (i.e. Bruen is dark to the point of boredom).
Rating: 4.4

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my god.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miami Purity = Pure Noir

Purity generally carries the sense of cleanliness. That’s not the case in this book. If there’s any purity in Vicki Hendricks Miami Purity it is pure trash noir – and I mean that as a tremendous compliment. I found this book (like so many others) due to it being mentioned in a Ken Bruen novel (Bust, co-authored with Jason Starr). I read Miami Purity in one day, virtually in one sitting – it was that good.

Miami Purity is told from the first person POV of Sherri Parlay, a topless dancer who kills her abusive husband in the first paragraph of the book. In the second paragraph she is in jail, and by the third paragraph she is in the hospital, having been beaten within an inch of her life. Released from the hospital, she decides to clean up her act, to—in her words—“Really try to make myself a life, for the very first time. It was a big mistake.” And that big mistake plays out over the remainder of Miami Purity.

For Sherri Parlay, making herself a life means going to work at the local dry cleaners down the street from the bar she danced at. And there she meets Payne, the man destined to be the love of her life, and his overbearing mother, Brenda.

As this novel is set in the Noir tradition, you know things are not going to go well. Sherri’s tragic flaws are her love of drink and her poor taste in men—usually in that order. I’m not going to spoil the plot, but what ensues is reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice but from a contemporary, female perspective. Vicki Hendricks proves herself to be a Noir master. She sets all the pieces in place with care, and once she starts knocking them down in her methodical manner, you cannot look away.

This novel was brilliantly written, thoroughly entertaining, and one that I cannot recommend highly enough. One bit of caution, Hendricks presents everything on the page. There are no cutaways when things get too graphic. Nothing occurs off stage. What goes on is explicit, but it is pure fun nonetheless. If you love Noir, this one is worth your attention.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sherri Parlay just wants to turn her life around, hitting mid thirties she's had enough of taking her clothes off at a strip club for a living and wants something a little less risky and little more 9 to 5. That's how she ends up at Miami Purity, a family owned dry cleaning business headed up by a mother son combo. The son, Payne, in particular, is all the drive she needs to leave the life behind and start afresh and in no time at all she's up to her neck in garments, Payne and normalcy. Being a Vicki Hendricks novel this doesn't last as Sherri's other brain (not dissimilar to the one blokes have) leads her back to her former haunts and party girl ways. Somehow, Hendricks, makes accidental murder seem OK - as each body feel I thought to myself 'well sure I could see how easily that could happen' - the noir in this is that no murder is accident, and Sherri herself is cool, calm and calculated in the quest to achieve what she so desires. The Foreword by Ken Bruen and Afterword by Megan Abbott were nice editions and added a little something retrospectively to the think tank - 4 stars.

[Rory Costello · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one didn't really connect for me. For a story that's loaded with sex to the point of being porn, I didn't find it very erotic -- unlike, say, the movie "Body Heat". Plus, for a rather short book, it takes a pretty long time to get to its major twists -- though those are good ones when they finally arrive. The dry-cleaning backdrop was also different and interesting.

[D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that is not for the squeamish. It's a contemporary noir story set in Miami involving sex, murder, and lots of kink.

[Viktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most disgusting book I have ever read. A well-earned 5*.

[Daniel Sevitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark-hearted, female-driven noir. That's probably what I Googled before the interwebs spat this back out at me. Miami Purity is sexy and nasty and even if it goes a bit too bonkers by the end, it's not as if it wasn't already pretty bonkers right from the get go. I believe it was Chekhov who suggested that if a gun appears in one act then it has to go off in the next. Turns out that when it gets hot and sweaty in Miami, there ARE things you can do with a gun that the Russian never dreamed of.

[Adam C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reworking of Postman Always Rings Twice with a woman as main character. Sexually unrestrained and provocative. A really interesting book that doesn't entirely have the narrative drive to back it up. Or fleshed out characters aside from the POV character. But it's interesting. There are strong moments and settings in it. Curious to read some of her other novels.

[Katy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A recommendation. Trashy is an understatement. I didn’t know what I was getting into.

I wasn’t able to predict what was going to happen, so that was a silver lining.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, don’t buy into narratives that the female-driven noir thriller is somehow a recent novelty. It’s not a comeback. Vicki Hendricks carries on a proud tradition with this James-Cain-by-90s-Miami sizzler. Kept me hooked til the very end and hit all the right noir notes.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five Round Burst Review (pointblankpodcast.com)

Miami Purity by Vicki Hendricks

All right, so the second book I'm reviewing this episode is Miami Purity, which was written by Vicki Hendricks and published in 1995. Hendricks got her MFA from Florida International University in 1992.

This is taut neo-noir loosely modeled on James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice.

The main character is Sherry -- a down on her luck working class gal who makes poor decisions and finds her self in trouble on a regular basis. She has worked the strip clubs and bars of south Florida scraping together a living., and she recently got off for the death of her husband.

The start of the story finds her scoring a job at a dry cleaning establishment called Miami Purity. The place is run by Brenda and her son Payne.

Centered around Sherry's affair with Payne, this story blends hardboiled noir with hyper-eroticism. There is sex, violence, incest, manipulation, sex, betrayal and sex. There is a whole lot of sex in this book.

The cool thing is the sex is from the perspective of Sherry and mostly woman positive, but this is a gritty book about lowlifes making terrible decisions.

I liked it. It inspired Megan Abbott and helped usher in a wave of great women noir writers at the turn of the century.

Let's call it a near-fatal conk on the head followed by a tumble in a large hot dryer.

[Chris Devlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vicki Hendricks is on a short list--women who write noir fiction. Miami Purity is her first book and she does a fine job carrying on in the tradition of great crime writers like James Ellroy and James M. Cain. Her main character is a down-on-her-luck ex-stripper who loves all the wrong guys and is looking for a fresh start. She thinks she's found it when she gets a job at Miami Purity Dry Cleaners, but Sherry has brought all of her old ways along with her. Boozing, letting men chase her until she catches them. Hendricks doesn't write delicately or spare the raunch--Sherry is every bit the down-and-dirty loser of classic noir. Her homme fatale is the pretty son of her hardboiled boss, and following along with Sherry as she tries to navigate out of her league is a twisty, sleazy, sexy ride. A good read even if you do want to take a shower afterwards.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the heart of the novel is more than just a tragic woman caught in a downhill spiral of booze and uncontrollable lustful desires. Sherri is a broken person who is set to find a new life beyond the stripclubs and the abusive husband she got away with killing (that's all on page one). She is out to literally cleanse and purify her life with a job in a dry cleaners called Miami Purity where she falls head over heels for the boss's son, a pure Catholic boy, but also a twisted little mama's boy who wants to be punished. Sherri has no choice like any noir character. She is out of control and mad with desire.
Somehow Hendricks managed to create a novel that pays homage to noir's underpinnings and yet turn them upside down and put them through the spin cycle. What's great about the book is that it is steeped in dime store tawdriness as much as literary tradition.

[Geoff Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as it was recommended this month by the guys on the Point Blank podcast. It's the story of Sherri, a reforming stripper who falls for the son of a dry cleaning impresario. Sounds good, right?

And it is good, but, well there's no way around this - it's very, very sexy. I knew there would be, but there was even more than I thought, it's kind of a twist on the billionaire romance thing (except Payne isn't quite a billionaire), with a bit of hard-boiled crime thrown in.

I liked the writing. It was easy and fun to read and the character of Sherri - passionate, devoted, weak-willed, demanding, and nihilistic, was really well managed.

So overall, this is sexier than I really want my fiction to be, but Hell Sherri, it was great while it lasted.

[Pamster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dirty, pervy Florida noir with a fuckup woman protagonist. Lots of fucking and bad decisions.

I read it because I saw her (I think newly reprinted) books on the shelf at the feminist bookstore, looked her up and realized she's a major writer in contemporary noir, constantly compared to James Cain (Postman Always Rings Twice). This was her first book, and I'll read more.

I really liked the sex except for 2 things: first there was this guy who she was constantly remarking had perfect PLEATS in his pants, saying it like that is something sexy. No. But the worst was a very, very brief woman/dog monstrosity of a moment that I am convinced will rot at my brain until the day I die.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

At the end of reading this book, I felt as if I'd just been forced to watch the 2011 movie Killer Joe all over again.

Plenty of other people like Miami Purity, though, and certainly it's readable in the same way that it's difficult to turn away from accident scenes, so go look at other GR reviews of it.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rough, ragged, and brutish, but perfectly amped-up noir. In the best tradition of Cain and Chandler, Hendricks achieves a lot with a startling economy of words - she captures that down-at-heel, low-hope world perfectly.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected a Hitchcock twist but never got it. Sex sells this book. Good writing and character development but a more complex plot would have made me happier.

[Annette McMillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

murder in miami with sex off the charts, who can ask for anything more?