Lives Laid Away
Stephen Mack Jones
ISBN: 9781616959593
Published: January, 2019
Pricing
Hardcover $26.95
Paperback $16.95
More books by Stephen Mack Jones
Description
Detroit ex-cop August Snow takes up vigilante justice when his beloved neighborhood of Mexicantown is caught in the crosshairs of a human trafficking scheme.
When the body of an anonymous young Hispanic woman dressed as Queen Marie Antoinette is dredged from the Detroit River, the Detroit Police Department wants the ca...
Detroit ex-cop August Snow takes up vigilante justice when his beloved neighborhood of Mexicantown is caught in the crosshairs of a human trafficking scheme.
When the body of an anonymous young Hispanic woman dressed as Queen Marie Antoinette is dredged from the Detroit River, the Detroit Police Department wants the case closed out fast. Wayne County Coroner Dr. Bobby Falconi gives the woman’s photo to his old pal August Snow, insisting August show it around his native Mexicantown to see if anyone recognizes her. August’s good friend Elena, a prominent advocate for undocumented immigrants, recognizes the woman immediately. Her story is one the authorities don’t want getting around—and she’s not the only young woman to have disappeared during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid, only to turn up dead a few weeks later. Preyed upon by the law itself, the people of Mexicantown have no one to turn to. August Snow, ex-police detective, will not sit by and watch his neighbors suffer in silence. In a guns-blazing wild ride across Detroit, from its neo-Nazi biker hole-ups to its hip-hop recording studios, its swanky social clubs to its seedy nightclubs, August puts his own life on the line to protect the community he loves.
Media
“Jones’s action-packed book has echoes of Raymond Chandler’s banter and bursts of Dashiell Hammett’s violence, with a tip of the porkpie hat to Walter Mosley. What’s more, Lives Laid Away delivers a bracing amount of rough humor and a whole lot of heart.”
–Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
“Operatically violent and hilariously funny, with dialogue to die for. I'll read whatever Stephen Mack Jones writes.”
—Timothy Hallinan
“Superior . . . August Snow is an uncompromising crusader with a sense of humor reminiscent of Robert Parker's Spenser. He merits a long literary life.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review on Lives Laid Away
“Hard-driving noir, with a strong dose of neighborhood camaraderie; for read-alike comparisons, think Easy Rawlins and his close-knit L.A. neighborhood meet Jack Reacher.”
–Booklist on Lives Laid Away
“Hard-driving noir, with a strong dose of neighborhood camaraderie; for read-alike comparisons, think Easy Rawlins and his close-knit L.A. neighborhood meet Jack Reacher.”
–Booklist on Lives Laid Away
“Packed with local color and references, this book will have you on the edge of your seat. It’s an action-packed mystery novel that is both familiar and surprising.”
–Detroit Free Press on Lives Laid Away
“A clever, punchy tale set in one of today’s more romantic locales: Detroit. A city climbing back from ruin is a great backdrop for redemptive stories like this one, about a native who is renovating houses on his childhood street to try and rebuild the neighborhood he grew up in. Stephen Mack Jones is also a playwright and a poet, which means he knows how to make every word count... Heart and muscle aplenty.”
–The News & Observer on Lives Laid Away
“A giddy, heart-stopping read whose distinctive, vibrant characters come at you full throttle, no holds barred... A toast to Stephen Mack Jones, one of the coolest crime writers on the current scene.”
–Irma Heldman, Open Letters on Lives Laid Away
“It's hard to believe this is only the second mystery from [Jones] -- with a well tangled plot, excellent pacing, and the deft mixture of toughness and generosity in his protagonist, August Snow, this is a terrific new book and a great series.”
–Kingdom Books on Lives Laid Away
“A terrific story... The setup allows Jones to deliver some stinging observations about our current immigration policies, leavening his heavy themes with a judicious amount of dry humor. ”
–Adam Woog, The Seattle Times
“August Snow combines strength, vulnerability, and resolve — all necessary to the construction of a hero. Snow’s sense of honor is a liability in certain parts of Detroit — as it is most places — but the thought of abandoning it is never on the table. Razor-sharp characterization, an engaging style, and Jones’s intimate knowledge of Motor City culture give us hope for an enduring series and many years of entertainment.”
–Loren D. Estleman, author of the Amos Walker Novels
“August Snow brings diversity to the genre and the stories are both gritty and clever. The Detroit setting is beautifully done. He takes a seat right alongside other great Michigan private eye writers like (Estleman) and Steve Hamilton. I’m hoping this is going to be a very long-lived series.”
–Robin Agnew, The Oakland Press on Lives Laid Away
“Detective fiction needs a shot in the arm every now and again. That was the feeling of reading Stephen Mack Jones... The August Snow series is as promising as any crime fiction to come around in a long while, tapping into the iconoclasm and social justice streaks of midcentury noirs, but taking them in a modern direction, exposing human trafficking rings, abuses of immigrant communities, gentrification, and economic declines and revivals. It’s heady, exhilarating stuff.”
–CrimeReads
“An old-fashioned, guns a-blazing ripsnorter--and boy, are its pulp roots showing.”