Yellow Medicine - Anthony Neil Smith

I found out about this novel through the crime/noir community on Twitter, which I have found generally makes good recommendations. I purchased the novel for 0.99 on Amazon, and read it on a mixture of my kindle and iPad.

Yellow Medicine is a novel starring Billy Lafitte, a deputy in small town named Yellow Medicine, Minnesota. Billy Lafitte is a crooked cop who lost his job in Louisiana after hurricane Katrina when he was taking kickbacks from citizens to help them recover/survive the hurricane. Oh yeah, he also murdered someone and covered it up with his partner at the time.

The novel starts out with Lafitte in federal custody, and then tells most of the story via flashback. The novel starts out quickly, and introduces a lot of characters sequentially, but logically, so it isn't too confusing. The character development of Lafitte is perfect, as is that of his muse, Drew a (female) bass player in a local psychobilly band. She asks him to check up on her boyfriend, who has apparently been involved in some sort of drug deal gone bad. The next thing you know, Lafitte is driving around with the severed head of a blonde girl in the back of his police cruiser, and things have just gone insane.

At this point in the novel, I was pretty pumped up. The plot was a little out there, but it has to be interesting, right? Next thing you know, Malaysians, Arabs and international terrorism are involved. This might have taken things slightly over the edge of believability, but the story remained entertaining. The ending of the novel is a little abrupt for my taste, but I will not reveal what happens, because I am anti-spoiler.

Overall, this book is a pretty wild ride and you are getting a lot more bang for the 0.99 than you will with a Donovan Creed novel! I would recommend reading this novel if you are a fan of crime fiction.

I have a few novels to read coming up. I'm probably going to take it vintage again with some Elvis Cole. I also have graphic novel and short story collection I want to start reading. Choices, choices!