ANTHONY NEIL SMITH
crime novelist
THE BOOKS
PSYCHOSOMATIC
Because Lydia didn’t have arms or legs, she shelled out three thousand bucks to a washed up middleweight named Cap to give her ex-husband the beating of his life. But the beating turns to murder, and the murder into lust and desperation between Lydia and an underworld clean-up man. Meanwhile, overgrown frat boy car thieves take up cop killing as a side hobby. When these paths cross, a horror show of violence unfolds as they all slide into a hell of their own design, surrounded by the neon and noise of the casino strip on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Violent, vivid, life at hyper-speed.
Psychosomatic is the debut novel from Anthony Neil Smith and it is a noir nightmare that asks how much is too much in a relationship, and what is the cost of leaving?
THE DRUMMER
“A fun read about drugs, rock and roll, brawls, and banging (drums, groupies, and otherwise).” —Publishers Weekly
“If you had any connection with—or nostalgia for—the ’80s heavy-metal rock scene, Anthony Neil Smith’s The Drummer should be right up your dark alley. Smith writes with force and clarity.” —Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune
YELLOW MEDICINE
The first of the Billy Lafitte Saga.
“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 anti-hero like Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.”— Publishers Weekly
“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, Booklist
HOGDOGGIN'
The second of the Billy Lafitte Saga.
“Smith’s version of Minnesota is no Lake Wobegon; the inhabitants are refreshingly made up entirely of the deranged, the damaged, and the doomed. If you can picture the intellectual and physical mayhem that might have resulted from a Jim Thompson and Harry Crews collaboration, you’d be on the right track. But Anthony Neil Smith is his own writer—and a very fine one, indeed.” —Booklist
“The book’s brutality is exemplified by the blood sport that provides the title, which matches vicious dogs like Rottweilers against helpless pigs. Fans of darkest noir will be most satisfied.” —Publishers Weekly
THE BADDEST ASS
The Third of the Billy Lafitte Saga
“It’s gonna get bad up in here and it’s gonna get sad and it’s gonna get just plain nasty. Right now, this sits at the top of my ‘Best Thrillers of 2013.’” —Les Edgerton, author of The Rapist, The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping and others
“There are going to be the hardcore crowd who fucking love it, and there are going to be people who will never buy Smith’s stuff again…I think it’s a tremendous novel, the kind of book that would never be published by NY, one of those nasty little underground books that people hold onto with both hands.” —Ray Banks, author of the Cal Innes novels and the Farrell & Cobb books
HOLY DEATH
The Fourth of the Billy Lafitte Saga
Cult crime-novelist Anthony Neil Smith is like a modern-day Charles Willeford. He doesn’t just step over “the line,” but drag-races past it and keeps on going. With this fourth novel in the Billy Lafitte’s series, Smith raises the stakes once again for his damaged ex-cop turned stone cold killer. You’ll root for Lafitte all the way, and wish you hadn’t, and hope to hell he survives so you can do it all again.
ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS
Winner of the 2012 Spinetingler Award for Best Novel (Rising Star Category)
“Written with a sureness of hand and a depth of character that are impressive. A highly accomplished crime novel exposing an often unseen world.” —The Big Issue
“All The Young Warriors will grip readers who enjoy the chance to slip into a foreign culture and also those who want a page-turning thriller” —Spinetingler Magazine
“All The Young Warriors is a pretty rare beast, a clever page-turner. It deserves to be a bestseller and has film adaptation stamped all over it.” —Loitering With Intent
“A courageous novel that raises a lot of pertinent questions” —Dead End Follies
ONCE A WARRIOR
“A complex book with likeable, complete characters who I was rooting for despite their many faults. THIS is the kind of thriller that should be on every airport bookshelf.” —Chris Rhatigan, author of Wake Up, Time to Die
“This is a book that can make a long trans-Atlantic flight pass as if it’s barely been minutes since take-off. It would be perfect for the beach on a lazy holiday. It’s just what you need to take your mind off the cold outside when you’re sitting by a fire in mid-winter. It’s a great read start to finish wherever you happen to be and whatever the situation.” —Nigel Bird, author of Southsiders
“The novel takes on some of the most urgent social justice issues of our times: sex-trafficking (making young girls into slave-prostitutes, to be blunt), drug and gang violence, the disillusionment of unwelcome immigrants, the chaos and despair that comes in the blend of terrorism and ungoverned Middle East/African nations and territories...I don’t have answers to those questions, and I’m not sure Smith does, either. But he raises the questions, and that may be the more important thing.” —Dana Yost, poet and essayist
WORM
“Years from now, Smith will be viewed as one of the best writers of our generation—he’s just not capable of writing anything but a fantastic novel.” —Les Edgerton, author of The Bitch, The Rapist and The Genuine, Plastic, Imitation Kidnapping
“Worm is a tremendous achievement in the portrayal of duplicity and greed in the oil boom. Smith hasn’t lost his fastball and he’s aiming it right at the reader’s head again, the way it should always be.” —Benoit Lelievre, Dead End Follies
“Smith pushes the characters hard and their flaws are ruthlessly exposed...it brings forward unlikely heroes who emerge from the mire when it becomes deep enough.” —Nigel Bird, author of Southsiders
“Smith’s prose is memorable and cutting; the term you serve in this book with these men is one of pure pleasure.” —Rusty Barnes, author of Reckoning and Rednedk
“Be entertained, but also be warned. There is a definite human cost to every barrel pulled out of the ground, something Smith makes clear with every blow in Worm.” —Ben Sobieck, author of The Invisible Hand
THE DEAD MAN: COLDER THAN HELL
“Colder than Hell is not just another chapter in The Dead Man series. By leaving his noir stamp of stylish mystery, Smith has made this story much more. The author’s strength in creating compelling characters with flaws from real people with real lives and real problems makes all the other mystic and horrific elements seem genuine. This natural story telling ability allows the reader to experience the action without being reminded it is just a book.”
-examiner.com
Choke on Your Lies
“What a fantastic rip roaring read. Anthony Neil Smith makes a great case for going to college. If I had known it was so filled with sex, more sex, violence and wicked drama, I might have gone. Really. It is a subtly complex novel that treats its characters with respect even when they are acting completely awful.” —Josh Stallings, author of Young Americans
“Anthony Neil Smith set his best book yet in one of the country’s best known cesspools of corruption and wickedness: academia. There’s enough viciousness, backstabbing and sexual depravity among Smith’s small-college faculty to make Caligula look like an episode of The Little Rascals. Smith pulls off one of the hardest tricks in all of writing: he fascinates you with characters who, for the most part, are completely unlikable. And yet, you can’t look away. Great book!” —J.D. Rhoades, author of the Jack Keller series
“What a great book! Anthony Neil Smith riffs on the old Nero Wolfe novels, but completely makes it his own. This book has everything someone looks for in a crime novel. It’s the kind of book that makes you want to take a shower after. You’re going to cringe, laugh, and be blown away by the plot twists at the end.” —Dave White, author of the Jackson Donne series
“Choke on Your Lies is a finely-plotted and deftly structured story of a cuckolded husband reluctantly evening the score with an uber be-atch of a wife. The prose sings and the story rings true as the fully-rounded characters slide in and out like an insane chorus of the ill-intentioned. Anthony Neil Smith is shaping up to be one of the sharpest exponents of American noir. Not to be missed.” —Tony Black, author of the DI Bob Valentine series
CASTLE DANGER: WOMAN ON ICE
Nordic crime - American style
When a dead woman is fished out of Lake Superior, Manny Jahnke is there to discover the baffling truth: The "woman" in the ice is biologically a man. Before he can learn more, the corpse sinks back into the water, pulling Manny's partner along with it. Both disappear under the ice, never to be seen again. Now Manny has a missing victim, a new partner he likes even less than the old one, and a case no one wants solved. Or so it seems. Manny grows obsessed with the "woman on ice" whose secrets prove to be as vast as the Great Lake itself - and whose enemies turn out to be powerful enough to keep those secrets hidden. Only one thing is certain: if Manny survives, he'll never be the same man again.
CASTLE DANGER:
THE MENTAL STATES
The CASTLE DANGER saga continues in THE MENTAL STATES as Manny and Joel work together doing what they do best: getting into deep trouble.
State Senator Andrew Marquette looks like a shoo-in for the governorship - appealing to votes across the political spectrum - and he's brought Manny and Joel aboard to help steer the ship. But when one of Marquette's most trusted advisors goes missing, our heroes can't help but play detective once again, in spite of everyone around them trying to block their path. Is there more to this disappearance than meets the eye? It will take a harrowing journey around Minnesota's backwoods, the back alleys of the Twin Cities, and the mysterious "dark web" online, where some sick individuals pay a fortune to see their most depraved wishes come true.
THE CYCLIST
A failed marine, Judd can't believe his luck when Catriona falls for him. He lives in Minnesota; she's from Scotland. They work for the same company, they've messaged online for ages. But when they finally video chat, she turns out to be gorgeous. They may be thousands of miles apart, but they share a deep love of cycling and a passion for life. It's love at first sight.
Judd throws his meager savings to the wind and flies across the Atlantic to meet Cat in person. Together, they plan a bike trip through the desolate Scottish Highlands. Perfect for cycling. Camping out. Being alone. But soon Judd discovers there's more to Cat than meets her alluring brown eyes.
What Judd doesn't know is that someone is following them. Someone with sinister plans. Their lonely journey through the Highlands turns into a game of cat and mouse. Someone is making them ride for their lives. But who exactly is the hunter, and who is the hunted?
XXX SHAMUS
As "Red Hammond"
“XXX Shamus is the most transgressive PI novel ever written. It’s also one of the best.” —Allan Guthrie, author of Two-Way Split
“Okay, you tough readers. You like it so raw? Time to put up or shut up. Stick your face into the pages of XXX Shamus. Turn away before the last page and I’ll kick your fucking teeth out. Take it. Take it all.” —Victor Gischler, author and Marvel Comics writer
“Danger. Keep your head and hands inside this ride at all times. Then wash them afterwards. Wish I woulda wrote it.” —David James Keaton, author of Pig Iron
“Five stars with the proviso that this is an extreme book, and definitely not for those readers of delicate sensibility.” —Pearce Hansen, author of Street Raised
SLOW BEAR
“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
"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
“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
"I think you’ve have an exquisite fuck-up in Slow Bear. I really, truly, thoroughly enjoyed this story and gasped at several points." - Nikki Dolson
SIN-CRAZED PSYCHO KILLER! DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!
A rip-roaring tale of a secret American submarine mission in the Pacific during World War Two! It's a trip straight into the the Heart of Hell! Join Seaman Jimmy Sticks and the crew of the USS Victor as they journey into a war over their heads that will stain their souls forever. But watch out: this isn't your dad's submarine story. Prepare to be triggered by gruesome violence and desperate sex! Enter this transgressive bizarro nightmare with your eyes wide open! Don't blame the author for stoking your fears and shaming your senses!
Anthony Neil Smith has written a short novella taking us back to the horrors of war, and the insanity of serving on a claustrophobic death trap as Jimmy Sticks fights for his country, his fellow sailors, and his very soul.
Don't say we didn't warn you.
THE BUTCHER'S PRAYER
A butcher in the wrong place at the wrong time. A madman intent on breaking everyone and every thing that stands in his way. A fallen preacher turned police detective, hunting both of them. It's a sultry swamp noir filled to the rafters with fire and brimstone.
“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.