I read the first three books in this series in less than a week, and I enjoyed them all. They are quite consistent, which is both good and bad. On the bad side, the same situations come up again and again. Snow walks into what he knows is a trap with a talkative villain who doesn't just kill him at a distance (which, believe me, he should.) Second, the plethora of details about what clothes Snow is wearing, everything he eats, everything he drinks, what music he listens to, and so on gets a little wearing, although it does build up the Detroit atmosphere and let us know the character better.

On the plus side, the action never stops. There are no boring bits. Also, the cast of characters is great, including both friends and adversaries. It reminds me in that respect of David Gordon's Joe the Bouncer series--but the August Snow series is even more implausible. But because of the characters and the satisfaction of seeing the bad guys get their due, I was hooked and read the first three in a row. I don't believe the fourth is available from Hoopla or Libby yet, so I'm pausing, but I'll pick it up when it's available.

The plot here--a rich Detroit heiress and benefactress apparently commits suicide, is sort of Chandlerish, but without the fog and with a lot more violence. The other thing I like about Snow is his attitude. And the author is always putting James Bond-like quips into his mouth when confronted by bad guys pointing guns (or worse) at him. So, just read the first one here. If you like it, keep going. ( )

I love a book you can instantly fall into, that swallows you up and when you finish you immediately look for other books by that author.
August Snow is just such a book. It tells the story of a half black half Mexican ex Detroit cop who brought the corrupt police department and mayor down and had to disappear for year before coming back to his old neighborhood Mexicantown in Detroit.
An old acquaintance asks for his help, which he turns down and the acquaintance is dead two days later.
Snow doesn’t believe it was suicide, and when he starts his own investigation, everything around him explodes.
This is A seriously great book. ( )

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. ( )

Excellent ( )

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. ( )