Sweet and Vicious

July 26, 2004
In the much anticipated follow-up to 2001's Kissing in Manhattan
, his highly acclaimed story collection, Schickler tracks a pair of gloriously wacky, star-crossed young lovers on the lam from a gang of goons. Driving across the Great Plains in a stolen pick-up truck, loner thug Henry Dante and flame-haired temptress Grace McGlone are bent on giving away a set of seven famous stolen diamonds in a series of impetuous, extravagant gestures that are every bit as improbable as their relationship itself. From the omen-laden day that they first meet—when Grace walks through a car wash to introduce herself to Henry—Schickler rewinds to relate their vivid and bizarre backstories. Myriad off-kilter characters are entwined in the trajectory of Henry and Grace's month-long romance, including Grace's club-footed, treehouse-building classmate; the smarmy radio evangelist who deflowered her when she was 15 while whispering "God's will"; and the vengeful Chicago mobster who happens to be Henry's boss. Delightfully but believably nutty, Grace and Henry each have a precisely modulated moral code and a sense of honor forged in the weirdness and tragedy of their respective pasts. Though their largely innocent misadventure—think Bonnie and Clyde
as it might have been written by Tom Robbins—comes to a somewhat disappointingly tidy conclusion, the ride is more than worth the price of entry. Agent, Jennifer Carlson
.

Violent, profane, and profound--listeners need a book like this from time to time to remind them just how effective an audiobook can be. Nick Landrum brings just the right tone to this twisted Robin Hood love story between Mob enforcer Henry Dante and ruby-haired Grace McGlone. Henry has stolen seven diamonds from his boss, Honey Pobrinkis, and he knows there will be a showdown to decide who gets the ice. SWEET AND VICIOUS is as sweet as Honey's berries and merlot and as vicious as Henry Dante's brass knuckles. R.O. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine