You’d think it would be easier for Stephen Mack Jones to write about Detroit private investigator August Snow after completing three novels.
Or maybe not.
“That’s a tough question,” Jones says, laughing. The 67-year-old alumnus of J.W. Sexton High School in Lansing and Michigan State University is an award-winning playwright and recipient of the prestigious Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellowship.
“It’s both easier and harder,” says Jones, who lives in Farmington Hills with his wife, with whom he has two children. “We’ve all been in this situation of having a lifelong friend, and you think you know them inside and out — then they do something or say something that just surprises you, which makes you realize that’s another layer of who they are. That’s what I’m finding out about August: There are a number of layers to this character I want to explore and record. … I’m still intrigued by this character, and we both have a lot to learn about each other.”
In the 2017 debut novel, “August Snow,” August is a PI who was forced off the Detroit Police Department by a cabal of corrupt cops and politicians. He sued and won $12 million for wrongful dismissal, but earned many enemies.
“Dead of Winter” is Stephen Mack Jones’ latest August Snow thriller. Soho Crime
In his latest, “Dead of Winter,” Authentico Foods Inc. owner Ronaldo Ochoa is being blackmailed into selling his company to an unknown party. August investigates, taking on a real estate tycoon and a ruthless fixer out to destroy his Mexicantown neighborhood.
“Detroit is still going through a rebirth from the dark days of the (city’s) bankruptcy,” Jones says. “The bankruptcy really invigorated the way the city thought about itself, how it conducted business, what business should be. It came out of bankruptcy a lot stronger with some very innovative programs. Along with that, there was gentrification. Land was being bought for pennies on the dollar — it was just a big land grab!”
These events form the backdrop of his fictional narrative, Jones says.
“I started reading about how one person in Detroit whom I shall not name — but you know who it is — owns about 90 buildings. That’s a lot of real estate. I started thinking, ‘What is the natural — or unnatural — progression of gentrification?’ I came to conclude it’s the secret purchasing of large chunks of the city for nefarious reasons.”
Jones watched a documentary about international criminals who’ve evaded the FBI and other law enforcement agencies for years. Every so often, they’d appear in a $10,000/month penthouse suite before disappearing again.
“I started thinking there has got to be a network of such places. Since Detroit is on the comeback and a developer’s dream, that could happen here — those safehouses of safehouses. That’s where that came from. Rather paranoid thinking now that I hear myself speak,” says Jones, laughing.
Jones name-drops his friend Paulette Gassman in “Winter.”
“I’ve known (Jones) a long time,” says Gassman, of Farmington Hills. “His son used to train at Farmington Martial Arts, where I was one of the instructors. I always interacted with the parents afterwards and I found (Jones) quite fascinating.”
After finishing “Lives Laid Away,” the second book in his series, Jones was exhausted and took time off before beginning “Winter.”
“I wanted to test myself and test August,” he says. “I wanted to give it a little more gravitas because you can always find a hero and a flawed hero, but sometimes those flaws can be trite mechanisms to say, ‘Oh, look the hero’s human.’ I wanted to dig deeper into August because he’s a former Marine and a former cop. He’s had to have seen things and done things that have tested his soul to the extreme.
“It may have taken a little longer because I was thinking a lot deeper about the character — who August was,” Jones explains.
Jones was amazed to see “Winter” reviewed in The New York Times Book Review.
Better still, actor/comedian Keegan-Michael Key, an alumnus of Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak, has optioned Jones’ novels for a TV series, where he plans to play the role of August Snow. Key would executive produce, with Jones as a consulting producer.
“(That) means I get everybody Starbucks,” Jones says, laughing. “It’s a perfect fit on a number of levels. I couldn’t be happier. … (Key’s) one of the best examples of Detroit talent. You realize that talent isn’t enough. It’s hard work. It’s putting yourself out there. I think he exemplifies that beautifully.”
Jones is happy his books are resonating with readers.
“I think you know by now I’m not writing these things for awards or accolades, I’m writing to entertain myself, to inform myself, and to move myself emotionally,” he says. “It’s just really nice that readers have come along for the ride, I greatly appreciate that. … I’m just grateful having a book released. For me, I feel like a 5-year-old on Christmas Day.”
Visit stephenmackjones.com.
