Cool Detroit Crime Fiction from Stephen Mack Jones, DEAD OF WINTER

Maybe Detroit has something in the water that affects authors. What, you think that's a joke? You haven't heard about Flint, Michigan? They're not so far apart ...

Think Loren Estleman's Motor City mysteries. Jane Haseldine's Julia Gooden series. A couple of titles from Elmore Leonard. Steve Hamilton and Jon A. Jackson place crime fiction in Michigan, too. And then there's Stephen Mack Jones, with his third Detroit crime novel.

DEAD OF WINTER samples Detroit's worn and reworked neighborhoods through August Snow, a former cop who's accepted a huge settlement for the way the city, his employer, treated him in the past. With that money Snow's been rehabbing his neighborhood. Honoring both his African-American father and his Mexican-American mother, he's enjoying a mixed heritage of good food and great friends -- especially his godfather Tomás, who's ready to put his explosive defensive skills to work for Snow whenever needed.

There's blackmail and some kind of real estate scam going on nearby, though, and the family of Authentico Foods owner Ronaldo Ochoa seems pretty strange about whether Snow should step into the dangerous mess, or leave them to make money from it. Good thing August has allies in the police force who thought he'd done the right thing way back when. Then again, there are a few who'd like to keep punishing him, by leaving him to the dangers of a net of billionaire developers creating luxury "safe houses" for international crime.

Meanwhile, Snow's equally international lover, Tatina, is pushing him to straighten out his life and stop feeling (rather alcoholically) sorry for himself.

Watching her dump the remaining half of a fifth of WhistlePig rye down the drain was painful, but I finally, in my confession, was addressing the things that were and had been tying my guts into a million strangling knots.

"People get hurt around me," I said. "That's the way it was in Afghanistan. The way it was at the DPD. And now . . ."

"People are saved because of you, August," Tatina said. She'd stopped pouring my booze down the drain. What a party that would be for the sewer rats of Detroit. "And don't think for a minute I don't know who you are, what you have done and can do. You're not that good of a liar, and I'm not that naive. Neither of us has any rightful claim to innocence."

Snow's crisis of conscience and the way his buddies boot him through it provide an extra strand of interest for a plot that features outsized shooting sprees, abundant threats, and sometimes absurd resolutions (when you finish reading it, tell me what you thought about the deer thing). All of which can't take away from the lively pleasure of reading Jones's enthusiastic and suspenseful storytelling from the point of view of a rich guy who loves the neighborhood. You won't need to read the other two August Snow novels before this one. But you'll probably want to buy them afterward, if they're not already on your shelf (August Snow and Lives Laid Away). They're too much fun to miss.

This one comes out May 4, from Soho Crime, an imprint of Soho Press.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Detroit Crime Fiction from Stephen Mack Jones, LIVES LAID AWAY

Uh-oh. I just had to add Stephen Mack Jones to my list of "must read everything by this crime fiction author." The list is getting out of hand. That said, at least Jones has only one earlier mystery, August Snow (an award nominee), to round up for my new shelf space, in which LIVES LAID AWAY is getting great exposure.

It's hard to believe this is only the second mystery from this author -- 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.

August Snow is an ex-police officer living in a rundown section of Detroit, determinedly saving his old neighborhood, one structure and worthwhile neighbor at a time. That means that when crime crosses his path, he's obligated to do something about it, unless he wants to lose what he's built. And he's still got some connections to work the case.

Snow is as shocked as anyone else when the body of a young Hispanic immigrant turns up in the Detroit River, dressed in costume and clearly sexually abused. Snow's close friend Elena, who works with both legal and illegal immigrants to help them find their way to healthy American citizenship, can ID the young woman. And in that moment of recognition, she and August face a commitment to all the immigrants in the neighborhood whose persecution has become some criminal's new game. Of course, criminals aren't the only threat -- so is the law at times.

"ICE agents were inquiring about Catalina," I said. "And Manny,"

"Jesus," Carlos said. Attempting to hold onto a thread of hope, he said, "Señora Elena's been looking into citizenship paths for--"

"Right now, my friend," I said, "there are no paths. Only landmines."

"Is she -- are they safe? My boy? With Father Grabowski?" Carlos said I might as well have punched him in the gut. At least that would have left him with a bit of air in his lungs.

I knew Detroit a bit, before its collapse. I wouldn't have wished this on any city. That said, the economic and social disaster of the city is forcing top crime fiction just as surely as sunshine forces a plant out of the earth. Count Stephen Mack Jones way onto the plus side of the ledger.

A Soho Crime book, new in January.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.