Lives Laid Away

(Hardback)

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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 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.

Reviews

Shortlisted for the 2019 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
A National Bestseller
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2019
A CrimeReads Most Anticipated Crime & Mystery Novel of 2019
A BookBub Most Anticipated Mystery Novel of 2019

Praise for Lives Laid Away

August Octavio Snow is a big Detroit booster . . .Stephen Mack Jones picks up his gung-ho protagonist where the author left him in his first novel,August Snowcleaning up his beat-up neighborhood in Mexicantown.
The New York Times Book Review

Joness action-packed book has echoes of Raymond Chandlers banter and bursts of Dashiell Hammetts violence, with a tip of the porkpie hat to Walter Mosley. Whats more, Lives Laid Away delivers a bracing amount of rough humor and a whole lot of heart.
Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

Man, if you havent read Stephen Mack Jones Detroit crime novels about an ex-cop named August Snow, you ought to.
Mike Lupica, The New York Daily News

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

Packed with local color and references, this book will have you on the edge of your seat. Its an action-packedmystery novel that is both familiar and surprising.
Detroit Free Press

Jones proves hes just at home writing crime fiction in Detroit as Loren D. Estleman and the late Elmore Dutch Leonard . . .Get ready for a different kind of snowstorm.
Dearborn Press & Guide

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.Im hoping this is going to be a very long-lived series.
Robin Agnew, The Oakland Press

A clever, punchy tale set in one of todays 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 Raleigh News & Observer

August Snow combines strength, vulnerability, and resolve all necessary to the construction of a hero. Snows 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 Joness 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

Operatically violent and hilariously funny, with dialogue to die for. I'll read whatever Stephen Mack Jones writes.
Timothy Hallinan

An old-fashioned, guns a-blazing ripsnorterand boy, are its pulp roots showing.
Mystery Scene Magazine

This is noir as it was meant to be: incisive, socially conscious, distinctly situated, and told with real style.
Literary Hub

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. Its heady, exhilarating stuff.
CrimeReads

"Some of the most popular detective novels of the last two years (Kristen LepionkasOnce You Go This Farand Stephen Mack JonessLives Laid Away, to name only two examples) turn a sharp eye on systemic and institutional injustices. They build on the many fictional detectives, especially those created by women and writers of color, who have been speaking truth to power and focusing on collaboration for decades."
Zocalo Public Square

Terrific.
Seattle Review of Books

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

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

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

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

Praise forAugust Snow

Winner of the 2018 Nero Award
Winner of the Hammett Prize for Crime Fiction
Finalist for the 2018 Shamus Award
Strand MagazineCritics Awards Best First Novel Nominee
A 2018 Michigan Notable Book
AMilwaukee Journal SentinelBest Book of 2017

August Snowis one of my favorite books that Ive read recently, and Im not just saying that . . . This book is so good, I actually put it down, and I briefly entertained the notion of moving back to Detroit.
Nancy Pearl, NPRsMorning Edition

[A] witty, mayhem-packed first novel . . . Snows own voice has echoes of Raymond Chandlers.Be assured that when the showdown comes, Snowan action-hero with the heart of a menschand his crew prove up to that task.
The Wall Street Journal

Stephen Mack Joness rock-solid debut,August Snow, is powered by the outgoing personality of the title hero and his deep affections for his hometown of Detroit. [Jones] proves himself a natural entertainer.
ChicagoTribune

Jones, a Detroit-area poet and playwright brings the city, its environs, and its eateries to vital life in a mystery coiled around the contemporary crime du jour of cyber-finance meddling. His is that rare tale that, despite its thriller-level violence, maintains a fiercely warm heart at its coreand ends far too quickly.
The Boston Globe

[A] polished, gripping debut. Poet Stephen Mack Jones novel bristles with energy, compassion, humor and a page-turning plot.
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Author Bio

Stephen Mack Jones is a published poet, an award-winning playwright, and a recipient of the prestigious Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellowship. He was born in Lansing, Michigan, and currently lives in Farmington Hills, outside of Detroit. He worked in advertising and marketing communications for a number of years before turning to fiction. His critically acclaimed debut novel, August Snow, has been nominated for the Hammett and the Strand Awards.