The Butcher's Prayer : Anthony Neil Smith
In addition to Paperback & eBook this title will also be available in a very Limited Edition Hardback edition of 50 copies.
250 Pages.
Called to a crime scene when a terrified woman raises the alarm on a horrifying murder, Detective Hosea Elgin finds the victim’s body has been dismembered with professional precision.
Very quickly, two small-time drug dealers are identified as the probable assailants and a manhunt is launched to bring them into custody.
With the two suspects on the run, the consequences of their actions continue to spiral out of control and it becomes clear that while one of them is focused on survival, the other wants only revenge.
As the net begins to tighten on the fugitives, Detective Elgin finds that the case begins to move very close to home and what began as just another murder investigation is developing into something much more personal.
The decisions he makes and the actions he takes may well solve the case and bring the criminals to justice, but in the process he might just tear his family and his church to pieces.
With The Butcher’s Prayer, Anthony Neil Smith shows once again he’s a writer at the very top of his game. This immersive piece of Southern Gothic Noir certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted but with the skill and nuance we’ve come to expect from Smith he dazzles with writing that is precise, measured and never gratuitous.
Praise for The Butcher’s Prayer
“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
Praise for Anthony Neil Smith
"More happens in the first two chapters of Slow Bear than in some literary novelist's entire output.Thrills, spills. Twists, turns. Heart, soul. As good as it gets." - Mark Ramsden, author of Mistress Murder, Radical Desire and Dread: The Art of Serial Killing
"Anthony Neil Smith mixes dark humor, menace, mayhem and a washed-out, one-armed hero in a noirish tale that never stops to take a breath." - Linwood Barclay, author of No Time for Goodbye and Too Close to Home
"Slow Bear is many things: a bull in a china shop; a raging lion; a stubborn mule; a fire-breathing dragon; a wise old bird. a drunken old skunk; and a murderous hyena. What's more, he's the kind of noir anti-hero who'll have you rooting for him all the way, which is good because, the way things are going, he certainly needs someone on his side. Another stunning creation by Anthony Neil Smith." - Nigel Bird
"Okay. So here's the deal. Only pick this book up and read it if you gravitate toward realistic, gritty, entertaining stories that will keep you on the edge of your seat and force you to read through the night, making you fall asleep the next day at work and get fired. If you value your sleep and your job, then by all means don't pick it up. Doc Smith has done it again—contributed to the unemployment rolls and helped increase the sale of triple lattes. This is a big-boy novel from a big-boy writer." Les Edgerton, Author, Adrenaline Junkie, The Rapist, The Bitch and others.
"Slow Bear is anything but a slow read. It's a blazing fast, brutal hurricane of a novella that'll leave you breathless and hollering for more. Anthony Neil Smith is one of those authors who must not be missed." J. D. Rhoades
"Funky and furious, SLOW BEAR is a low-blow shot of black humor and hard boiled noir. Anthony Neil Smith's laconic, one-armed Indian ex-cop protagonist lands a knock-out." - J. Todd Scott