{"id":3210,"date":"2019-06-15T06:48:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T13:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3210"},"modified":"2019-06-15T07:51:59","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T14:51:59","slug":"stephen-mack-jones-lives-laid-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/stephen-mack-jones-lives-laid-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Mack Jones: Lives Laid Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This book came out around the time we closed the store and I didn\u2019t read it at the time, being deep into comfort re-reading of Agatha Christie and Patricia Wentworth.\u00a0 However I thought the first book, August Snow, <\/em>was wonderful and a great and much needed injection of diversity and vitality to the private eye genre.\u00a0 This second book is even better, more intense and focused.\u00a0 I recently interviewed Stephen who mentioned Robert B. Parker as an influence, and I can sure see it in this tight, funny, fast moving story.<\/p>\n

The books are set in the Mexicantown area of Detroit, which ex-cop August Snow is rehabbing one house at a time, settling scores and dispensing justice as needed.\u00a0 In this novel, it\u2019s ICE that\u2019s on his radar, especially as he notices their black SUVs cruising his little block.<\/p>\n

Jones is expert in creating a world \u2013 in this case, a more or less back channel world of a community working together to fight \u201cthe man\u201d \u2013 which isn\u2019t a corny saying but a necessity.\u00a0 August works loosely with a rogue FBI agent, a donut shop owner, and a priest, among others, to keep his community safe and the cops and ICE agents in his neighborhood on the up and up.\u00a0 Like all simple sounding tasks, it’s of course a complex one.<\/p>\n

When a girl dressed as Marie Antoinette plunges off a bridge and dies \u2013 considered a suicide \u2013 August gets outraged when he finds out she\u2019s a young Latina who was raped before she died.\u00a0 He\u2019s sure her death is no suicide.\u00a0 He shows her picture to a community activist friend who identifies her and white knight August is on the loose, filled with righteous anger.<\/p>\n

These novels have a loose tone justified by a tight story structure and a great array of rich and luscious characters.\u00a0 The loose tone comes from the world weariness, tempered by an amount of hope and humor that inhabits August, and I\u2019m assuming, the author himself.\u00a0 There\u2019s a good amount of humor within the quick paced action scenes, and like Jones\u2019 idol, Parker, there\u2019s also some cooking.\u00a0 While August doesn\u2019t look into an (almost) empty fridge and produce a miracle as Spenser frequently does, he does enjoy cooking and he makes the experience mouthwatering for the reader.<\/p>\n

After you read this novel you might want to head to your own fridge for a cold brewski.\u00a0 While the topic Jones is addressing is a serious one, he\u2019s also telling a great and involving story.\u00a0 This young series is a real stand out and if you enjoy private eye novels \u2013 or books set in Michigan with a plethora of Detroit references and locations \u2013 don\u2019t hesitate to dive in.\u00a0 These books are the real deal.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book came out around the time we closed the store and I didn\u2019t read it at the time, being deep into comfort re-reading of Agatha Christie and Patricia Wentworth.\u00a0 However I thought the first book, August Snow, was wonderful and a great and much needed injection of diversity and vitality to the private eye … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[164,163,15,7,166,165],"class_list":["post-3210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-august-snow","tag-detroit","tag-michigan","tag-p-i","tag-soho-press","tag-stephen-mack-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3210"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3215,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3210\/revisions\/3215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}