The most anticipated NOIR novel of the year...
By Anthony Neil Smith
THE BUTCHER'S PRAYER, Crime Fiction/Noir, Fahrenheit 13, 275
pp.
Rodney Goodfellow watches his friend kill a man, and then
volunteers the unthinkable – to carve up the body with his butcher’s
knives in order to get rid of the evidence. But the victim’s
girlfriend escapes halfway through the butchering, sending Rodney
and the triggerman, Charles, on the run.
Charles is unhinged, flying high on meth. When it’s clear that
escape isn’t a realistic possibility, he chooses chaos. He goes back
looking for a little revenge, with Rodney and the girlfriend first
on his list.
Hosea Elgin is a fallen preacher turned police detective…and
Rodney’s brother-in-law. When he realizes Rodney is involved, he’s
sickened, but he’s got to keep searching for his fugitives. He
weighs loyalty to his job against loyalty to his family.
Rachel Goodfellow is Rodney’s wife and Hosea’s younger sister. She
worries that Rodney might come looking for her in his time of need.
He’s the father of her two children. Could they ever be a family
again? Will her love for him overcome her revulsion, or will she be
the one to turn him in?
And what about Hosea’s father, a Pentecostal pastor, and older
brother, the pastor’s right hand man? Would they choose family over
justice and give Rodney refuge in spite of Hosea?
Hosea and his partner are on the prowl, trying to find Rodney and
Charles before they can kill again, but he never expects his own
family to stand in his way. Ties are strained, faith is tested, and
there has to be a breaking point.
PRAISE
“The Butcher’s Prayer is wine-dark noir, with a hammering and
bloody heart. This is Smith at his bleak and soulful best.” — Laura Benedict, Edgar-nominated author of The Stranger
Inside
“Anthony Neil Smith is a massive talent. One of the very best
crime writers I’ve ever read.” — Allan Guthrie, author of Kiss Her Goodbye and Hard Man.
“Visceral, propulsive writing that cuts like a razor. Think Elmore
Leonard with an injection of Southern Gothic. Heady
stuff.” — Dan Fesperman, author of Safe Houses.
“Crime-fiction veteran Anthony Neil Smith wields a smooth yet
serrated style that’s carved him two decades worth of fierce
material, now being re-discovered by a younger upstart audience of
modern noir enthusiasts. He possesses such an acute, vivid feel of
time and place in his subjects, his stories immediately burrow into
my memory and remain long, withstanding the static storms of our
contemporary attention-deficits. It’s challenging stuff, yet wholly
accessible; with spiking dark humor that confirms sure you still
have a pulse.” — Gabriel Hart, author of Fallout From Our Asphalt Hell
June 8th, 1996
Forgiveness was out of the question. Not after what he’d
done.
No matter he’d been filled with the Holy Ghost, spoken in
tongues, washed in the sweet blood of the Lamb.
Rodney Goodfellow was fucked.
Four in the morning. He fled the scene in his pickup soon as
they saw the girl had escaped. He left Charles behind, let him
find his own way out.
Blood on Rodney’s clothes. His butchering tools abandoned in
Charles’ garage on a vinyl boat cover, the work they’d done
once the meeting went bad.
Rodney’s truck was steamy, no A/C. His glasses fogged up. He
rolled down the window. The June air on the Mississippi coast
rushing by at seventy miles per hour was as cool as it was
going to get all day. Most of his sweat was from fear,
though.
They were coming for him. Bet the call had already gone out:
Rodney’s name, description, make and model of the truck. Armed
and dangerous? He was neither, but that’s what they’d tell all
those cops out there, itchy with adrenaline.
Supposed to go different. Supposed to be a simple
negotiation.
Charles’ fault. Charles had pulled the trigger. Charles had
ended the man’s life. All Rodney did was…
So, yeah, no forgiveness. God himself was like, “Dude,
sick.”
Anthony Neil Smith is an English professor and crime novelist, born and raised in
Mississippi, now teaching at Southwest Minnesota State
University. The Butcher’s Prayer is his fifteenth novel. He loves cheap red wine and Mexican
food.
You can visit his website at http://www.anthonyneilsmith.com or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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