Country: USA
Genre: Noir
Pages: 260 (Paperback)/443 KB (Kindle)
The concepts of law and justice have a similar connotation in the minds of many. What's legal isn't always fair to everybody. In fact, most of the time, it's not fair at all. Billy Lafitte struggled with the notion of justice before, but after Katrina washed away his house, after he lost his job in a scabrous disappearance case, his wife left him and took away his kids, Billy Lafitte made peace with his doubts. He bounced back in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota and started dealing law in his own personal way. The way it made sense to him and his (few) loved ones. That would include Drew, the young bassist from a psychobilly band called Elvis Antichrist, with who Billy is deeply in love. When her no-good, loser, meth dealer boyfriend Ian gets in trouble with what seems to be Asian dealers, Billy opens the proverbial Pandora's box with his violent methods.
Billy Lafitte is a bad guy. That, you can understand from looking at his mug on the novel cover. He loves being feared and calling the shots. But he's also human and one day, he swore an oath to protect and serve. It's to protect Drew that Billy takes on him to shield Ian from a menace he first thought to be benign. But nothing comes easy when you deal with criminals on your own terms. Behind drug dealers are another kind of criminal, who finance their activities with drug trade. Like the loose cannon that he is, Lafitte gets involved against this unknown menace, dishing out his personal law. People still care of him, outside of Drew. His boss and ex-brother in law, Sheriff Graham is looking out for his interest, as well as this curious man Rome, working at the casino. They go out of their way to help out Billy, but they get swallowed in a case too wild for their own understanding.
Yellow Medicine is a mish-mash of the American myth of the self-made man, post 9/11 and post Katrina paranoia and a cynical point of view on the justice system, delivered in a stick of dynamite. There is nothing more American that someone who lives by his own rules, like Billy Lafitte, but in a time of doubt and paranoia in rural America, nothing is black or white. He is an offspring to Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry, cast in the wrong era and outside of Hollywood's rules of engagement. His lack of subtlety is what makes him such a memorable character and yet, that's also what casts many dangers over his colleagues and friends. And when nobody knows what to believe and who's the real bad guy, everybody goes after the guy who's not too subtle. Because he's easy to decipher. I was a little scared that this novel would end up as a typical rebellious cop versus bad guys routine novel, but rest assured. There is no law and no justice in Yellow Medicine. Just a bunch of assholes, trying to choke the life out of each other.
I loved every second of Yellow Medicine for it is a doorway to a real vision of contemporary America, without innocence and illusions. Yet it's full of highly colorful characters who will glow in the ambient darkness and stay with you for a long time after you finished the novel. Billy Lafitte is a great creation and your worst nightmare as a beat cop. But let me tell you something. As great as Yellow Medicine is, it is merely a prologue to Hogdoggin', the second chapter of Lafitte's adventure (both could be read independently), which blew my mind and kept me glued to its pages. Please, do yourself a favor and get Yellow Medicine in paperback or better yet, on kindle, for ninety-nine cents. If you have to download a dollar ebook this month, let it be this one and gear yourself for Hogdoggin' next month. It will leave you beat up, bloody and crying to your mother.
