5th and Vanguard is set in a seaside town called Berle and narrated by Julie Page, an ex-junkie and writer who had retired her writing (and other addictions) for a more conventional life. But inspiration pays a call one windy night in front of Bob's Liquor Palace as a glamorous, disfigured old woman emerges from the backseat of a Cadillac and offers Julie one more chance at taking chances. This darkly comic mystery explores the pock-marked inner and outer world of its heroine as she faces her demons in an effort to recover her muse. 5th and Vanguard is a story of chemical, emotional, and artistic addiction, and the price paid to feed each habit.