August Snow

This book set in Detroit brought back fond memories of my college years there. The plot moves along pretty well, and there is wonderful humor to break some of the tension.

I am not too impressed with August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones. Too much chatter about food and guns and killing and too little information on the psyche of the characters. August Octavia Snow once was a Detroit policeman, but he saw graft and injustice in city officials and the police department and blew the whistle. Snow received a $12 million settlement for his tattling, and the loss of his job, but who needs to work when you have $12 million? Snow returns to Detroit after time in Europe and heavily falls into an investigation into the death of Eleanor Paget and the mishandling of her financial empire. Food, drink, and killings follow Snow as he tries to uncover the person responsible for all the destruction. Yes, Snow does throw money to many people needing a boost, but this generosity seems insincere.

Lots of action scenes in this one, which aren’t my favorite but still a solid book.

This is this authors first novel and I think there are some first novel issues here. I could see the author getting a lot better in the future. The underlying mystery is solid but I thought their were a few pacing issues. A lot of elements were introduced to this mystery and a lot of them felt like the didn't really matter. Based on the summary, I wanted a lot more tech crime stuff I never felt like I really got that.

This book is also made up a lot of action scenes, as I said. There is basically nothing I hate reading more than fight scenes, it's why I don't really like fantasy with a lot of war. Because of that, I found myself skimming large parts of this book just to get past the action scenes. This might not be a problem for some readers but it was for me. It's really hard to right engaging action scenes and they just didn't hook me here.

The strength of this book is clearly the love and care with which Jones wrote about Detroit. You can tell that the author has a history with Detroit and a lot of love for the city. This is something I usually like to read and it is done well here. If you don't like lingering descriptions of food and a landmarks and neighborhoods, this will probably be another reason you'd dislike this book but for me it was a highlight.

I didn't find the reveal of this mystery to be very satisfactory. I don't know if this was because I didn't have much investment in the mystery throughout this book or because it was actually unsatisfying but I felt like there was build up for a certain mystery about the bank and no build up for the reveal of who the murderer was. But, because the reveal of the murderer was the final part of the book, it left me feeling unbalanced and uninterested in that plot thread.

I would read more from this author. I know there are other books in this series and I would consider reading them. There's a lot of room for improvement here and I would be interested in seeing how this author develops.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.---WHAT'S AUGUST SNOW ABOUT? "I'm looking into her death—" “A suicide?” O’Donnell laughed, even though I was beginning to think she thought very little if anything was funny. “Not much to look into there, bucko. Seems the Grosse Pointe police, the State police, the Detroit police and assorted sundry others have quickly concluded she took her own life.” “They're not as smart as me,” I said, taking a healthy swig of my beer. Michigan might be at the forefront of making quality craft beers, but so far none even approached a good Mexican beer, “Nor are they as righteously vigilant.”August Snow was a Detroit Police Detective until he was targeted by corrupted officials in City Hall as well as in the DPD and was fired. He didn't take that laying down and sued for wrongful termination—and walked away with millions of dollars of city funds. He spent a year drinking his way through Europe to get over that fight—as well as other tragedies.Now Snow has returned to the home that his African-American father bought for his Mexican-American mother so she could be close to her people, and is using his new wealth to try to help make the neighborhood safe for families again.A prominent citizen, Eleanore Paget, wants him to do a job for her. Years before, Snow was one of many who investigated the death of her husband and was the only one who impressed her. Now, she's convinced that one of the executives of her bank is up to something and wants him to look into it. Snow turns her down, but can't help wondering...The next day, she's dead. Supposedly by her own hand, but Snow doesn't believe that. He's just about the only one who doesn't, so he has to look into things on his own—without giving DPD cause for offense, after the lawsuit, he has very little support among them.We often think of "white collar" crimes as safe, or at least non-violent. And that may have been the case once upon a time, but as Snow looks into odd moves in the bank's finances, it's clear that there are powerful and violent people who are heavily invested in keeping Snow and his suspicions far away from anything to do with the bank.WE ARE DEFINED BY THOSE WE COULD HAVE HELPED AND CHOSE NOT TO...Yeah, it's not as pithy as "Everybody counts or nobody counts," but Snow's driven by this idea as much as Harry Bosch is his. Snow's father served as a member of the Detroit Police Department and raised his son to follow in his footsteps, and this was a lesson he drove into his son's psyche. Not just for while on duty, but to shape his life.Even now, this moves Snow to action. It's seen in the way he's working to revitalize his neighborhood—not so that people with a little money will want to move in and gentrify things, but so that it's better for the people who already live there.It drives him to help out the rookie drug dealer who just needs a viable legal option to make money.It even drives him to look into the death of a would-be client.DETROIT Neither time nor politics have been kind to Detroit. In Mexicantown, they've been downright cruel.After one novel, I'm not about to suggest that I'm an expert on Detroit—but Jones writes with such depth and clarity, his reader would be tempted to think they are one—at least on the way to being one.It's trite to say that "such and such" city or geographic location is "a character" in whatever novel/movie/etc., so I'll try not to. But August Snow is as much about Detroit—specifically, Detroit's Mexicantown—as it is about one ex-cop's investigation into the death of a prominent citizen.One aspect of Detroit that's discussed a lot is race (economics, police corruption are others). I'm not competent enough to expound about it—I'm also too white and Idahoan to really comment on it. But Jones seems to be writing very honestly, very insightfully about the state of the city. Snow's perspective is a great mix of idealism and realism—with a sprinkling of hope. A lot of people like to dismiss P.I. fiction as escapist, but Jones reminds his readers that the best of it has always carried social commentary along for the ride.THE FOODJones probably could've made a decent living as a food writer. Snow's not really a gourmet or gourmand, but man, he eats well. Jones isn't really in George R. R. Martin territory ("six page descriptions of every last meal"), but the way he describes food is dangerous to a reader's diet. It reminded me of early Spenser, or any Nero Wolfe.There's an extended description about a small Mexican restaurant that I had to pause and read a couple of times it was just so good. I could practically smell the place. Honestly, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have liked the food in the restaurant—it's not really my thing. But as I told my wife when reading it—I want to go there, like right now.SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT AUGUST SNOW? Later, sitting on my new forest-green leather sofa, I looked through family photo albums: My mother and father picnicking on Belle Island. Vacationing in Traverse City and Alabama and south of Mexico City. Their wedding. Me as a baby with my dad’s badge pinned to my onesie. Thanksgivings and Christmases. Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexicantown. High school and college graduations. My dad saluting me at my graduation from the academy. Family albums go better with scotch. Or a gun.Readers here know that one of my greatest weaknesses is a good P.I. novel—I cut my teeth on them (in both juvenile and adult fiction), and "discovering" August Snow was just a treat for me. There's something about this book—one of those ineffable things that just sang to me—that reminded me of the first time I read a Dennis Lehane Kenzie and Gennaro book, or Joe Ide's I.Q., or Crais' Elvis Cole. There's something just so right—so absolutely classic P.I. and incredibly fresh about the voice—that I felt at home.I also spent a lot of time castigating myself for not jumping on this when it came out—because I shouldn't have denied myself this pleasure—or the sequels—for so long.Snow's just a great character—he's got a lot of baggage, a lot of issues he's still working through—but when the chips are down, he's defined by those he chose not to help as much as those he chooses to help.This is the beginning of a series, but by the end of this book, you don't know how this is going to keep going. Throughout the book, I kept thinking "oh, so this character is going to play X role" or "this is how he's going to do Y from now on", etc. And in practically every case, by the end of the novel in one way or another, just about every one of those things weren't going to be possible. I have no idea what book 2 will look like—or those that come next. That's a little frustrating because I like to think of myself as a fairly savvy guy who can see what authors are up to. But it's largely a wonderful feeling—I love someone who I can't predict.From the atypical beginning with the prospective client that ends up without anyone being hired, through the morass of financial crimes and murder, to the explosive ending—with the increasing sense of dread and apprehension of an ensuring emotional gut-punch—August Snow is a fantastic series debut, a practically perfect novel. Stephen Mack Jones has found a home near the top of my must-read list.

A spicy PI novel set in Mexicantown, Detroit. I like this novel, mostly because I live in Metro Detroit and can identify with the scenarios in the storyline. But it also has an interesting plot line which works well setting the groundwork for a series. The story flows with such ease and description that you feel like your riding along as August's partner.

An exuberant tour of Detroit with warm nostalgia and a keen eye to the present. The City deserves this writer who loves it so deeply.

There are two main characters in Stephen Mack Jones' debut novel: the city of Detroit which was brought to its knees during the economic crisis of 2008, and ex-cop August Snow. While Jones' portrait of Detroit is powerful and memorable, it is the character of August Snow that garnered most of my attention. Snow is a man who is guided by his father's words: "We are defined by those we could have helped and chose not to." Due to his heritage, Snow is no stranger to bigotry, and it's his feeling of guilt over refusing to help rich, nasty, white Eleanore Paget that makes him investigate her death.As he investigates, he begins to gather around him a very interesting secondary cast of characters. Snow is not only looking into a woman's death, he is also working to revive his old neighborhood, and this secondary cast helps him to achieve both goals. Neophyte drug dealer Jimmy Radmon, Frank the security guard at Paget's estate, Carlos from across the street, and the elderly Carmela and Sylvia next-door all have their parts to play, and these characters' interactions with Snow form one of the strongest parts of the book.There are unexpected barks of laughter to be found in August Snow. This tale from a minority viewpoint is not all gloom and doom. Ultimately, it is pragmatically hopeful. I loved the story, and I loved Snow's voice-- so much so that I certainly hope I will be seeing him again in the near future.