Yellow Medicine [Hardcover]

Anthony N. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2008

Deputy Billy Lafitte is not unfamiliar with the law--he just prefers to enforce it, rather than abide by it. But his rule-bending and bribe-taking have gotten him kicked off the force in Gulfport, Mississippi, and he's been given a second chance--in the desolate, Siberian wastelands of rural Minnesota. Now Billy's only got the local girls and local booze to keep him company.

Until one of the local girls--cute little Drew, bassist for a psychobilly band--asks Billy for help with her boyfriend. Something about the drugs Ian's been selling, some product he may have lost, and the men who are threatening him because of it. Billy agrees to look into it, and before long he's speeding down a snowy road, tracking a cell of terrorists, with a severed head in his truck's cab. And that's only the start.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Deputy Billy Lafitte's ethically-flexible approach to law enforcement has led to his dismissal from the force in Gulfport, Miss., and the break-up of his marriage in this well-written if grim contemporary noir from Smith (The Drummer). Through the intercession of his brother-in-law, Lafitte has found a new job in remote Yellow Medicine County, Minn., but his continuing corrupt ways land him in all sorts of trouble, with a trail of bodies following in his wake. His involvement with some meth dealers leads him to cross paths with some Malaysian terrorists, who are plotting to strike at America's heartland. The terrorists frame Lafitte for some gruesome murders, using the knife he'd gotten from his father to decapitate some of their victims. Smith deserves credit for taking a risk by creating a character like Lafitte, whose private code of honor-if any-is far more obscure than an antihero like Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a wiseacre southern deputy with vigilante overtones got himself transferred, thanks to Hurricane Katrina, to the frozen wastes of the Minnesota prairie? Probably not, but Smith, himself a Gulf Coast migrant to the northern flatlands, is determined to find out in this series debut that stars Deputy Billy Lafitte, a troubled transplant with a plethora of personal problems. His ex-wife and two kids, whom he professes to love devoutly, are sequestered by his in-laws Down South, leaving him no choice but to dally with a singer named Drew, who is unhappily but madly infatuated with a boyfriend of her own. That boyfriend ends up not only murdered but decapitated, and the last person with whom he can be placed is the deputy himself. Intent to clear himself, Deputy Billy is soon tangling with a drug mob and—not again!—terrorists (in Minnesota!). All in all, though, Smith has a powerful voice and delivers quite a romp, offering along the way a sort of Tony Hillerman glimpse into a part of the country that is not often the subject of crime fiction. --Steve Glassman --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Bleak House Books (April 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932557725
• ISBN-13: 978-1932557725
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

More About the Author

I write crime novels. Well, I call them that, but there's a lot of other stuff going on in them, too. PSYCHOSOMATIC, THE DRUMMER, YELLOW MEDICINE, and HOGDOGGIN'.

My e-original CHOKE ON YOUR LIES was published in January 2011.

ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS from Blasted Heath Press was published on Nov. 1st, '11.

I publish the online noir zine PLOTS WITH GUNS (www.plotswithguns.com), currently edited by Sean O'Kane.

I'm the Director of Creative Writing at Southwest Minnesota State University.

I'm hungry a lot. I like tacos. I like steaks. I like red wine. Usually cheap red wine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Psychobilly Madness Coming Your Way!, June 13, 2008

By 

Kent Gowran (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Yellow Medicine (Paperback)

It's no secret that I am a big fan of Anthony Neil Smith's YELLOW MEDICINE, and a fan of his other novels and stories, too. And then there's the PLOTS WITH GUNS online noir fiction zine he edits...

Face it, the dude simply does not disappoint.

With this, his third novel, Smith delivers what I've come to expect from him, and then amps it up some more and drives it home with this slambang full-throttle tale of crime, corruption, wannabe terrorists, and psychobilly madness.

Deputy Billy Lafitte, in many ways, is like a character outta a Harry Crews novel, except Neil takes Lafitte outta the South, drops him into the frozen wastelands of rural Minnesota, and then lets this guy speak for himself. It quite a ride. One every lover of crime and noir should want to take.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gritty, dark crime fiction at it's best., September 6, 2009

By 

Jennifer "Editor, EXPLETIVE DELETED" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yellow Medicine (Paperback)

Many protagonists have straddled the fence between good and bad guy but none so much or so well in recent years as Anthony Neil Smith's Deputy Billy Lafitte. Not exactly amoral, Billy cares about what he wants and does what he has to do to get it. But, in the end, even he has a moral line that he will not cross.

One of thousands displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Billy sowed the seeds of his own destruction in a few dicey games of bad cop, worse cop. Displaced from the warmth of the Bayou to the cold Minnesota tundra, he is separated from all he once cared about (ex-wife and kids). All that draws him to action is affection for a

Psychobilly singer named Drew. When he tries to "help" Drew's boyfriend, Ian, a slow and powerful chain of events is set off. This isn't just meth mixing madmen. This isn't just a psychotic man with a fast draw. This is bad guys gone international. And Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota is just as good a place to start a jihad as any.

When it comes to fiction, Smith does it cleaner, darker and harder than anybody. He creates a story that runs to extremes and is utterly real. A character that seems despicable is not lovable nor empathetic yet utterly engrossing. And a book that has you racing to the end, regretting having read it so damn fast when you're done. Can't wait for the next one!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Minnesota Psychobilly Noir, December 23, 2011

By 

Michael Fishman (Minneapolis, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yellow Medicine (Paperback)

Billy Lafitte is a bad man. Flawed, self-destructive, corrupt, larcenous, mean. Yes, Billy Lafitte is a very bad man. However, in flawless genre form, Lafitte is also loyal and he gets the job done and he's the perfect noir hero. What is a noir hero? Here: "The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time." - Frank Miller

First things first. If you're going to get into the ring with Anthony Neil Smith, know going in that he's going to hit you and he's going to hit you hard and short of putting the book down, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. So if you're looking for noir that knocks you around for a couple of hundred pages then stop reading my comments and buy the book.

Yellow Medicine has a complex, intricate and nuanced plot and I don't feel I can review it without giving too much of that plot away and I think doing that would spoil the fun. So, in short, Billy Lafitte is a deputy in Yellow Medicine, Minnesota. Unhappy living in the north, he's pretty much up against the wall. He needed a break after losing his wife, family and job in Gulfport, Mississippi after Hurrican Katrina, and when his ex brother-in-law offered him the deputy job in Minnesota, he relocated and took it with the hope of making a new start. Of course, this is noir and things don't turn out as planned. I apologize for the understatement; things really don't turn out as planned. I apologize again; this isn't noir, this is classic noir, and you're going to have go a ways to find anything as good as this being written today. And that's the truth.

The truth according to Deputy Lafitte? "The truth is only as real as what you see in front of you, and here it is: truth waivers. The only constant is change. Even in faith - people want what they want and believe they can have it in spite of what their faith tells them. So they either justify what they want or change their faith to fit in."

This is good stuff.