For me, part of the point of working hard (and creatively) is the pleasure I can take later, collapsing into a fictional world that's totally apart and full of eventual triumph. So a well-plotted crime novel with characters I can care about, well, that can be quite a gift. And it's a thrill to let people know about the award-winning fiction coming from a "Michigander" like Stephen Mack Jones.
You haven't read his August Snow series yet? Wow, you've got a big treat in store! This ex-cop in Detroit lives at the edge of multiple ethnicities — especially Hispanic and Black — in the Mexicantown neighborhood he and his friends have been steadily rehabbing.
When the local Franciscan priest, Father Michael Grabowski, suddenly retires and appears to be dying, August is convinced there's more at stake than physical illness. Father Grabowski's abrupt withdrawal from friendships and his 40 years of community care signal a spiritual collapse that's got to be related to another nearby priest's suspicious death.
When August starts probing, he meets his match in a fierce (and armed) investigator from the Vatican who wants the local priest to take all the blame for a string of other abuse and deaths. And that's where the crimesolving rips into action.
Still, the deep pleasure of DEUS X is in Jones's rich descriptions of the neighborhood and of August and his allies, like Tomás: "Tomás handed me a mug. Like me, it was dangerously dark, slightly bitter, yet oh so satisfying." Yes, there's a woman in August's life, Tatina, who feels that way about him, but in this adventure, she's mostly off scene ("Somali and German, living in Norway").
Which is just as well for Tatina's sake, considering what August and Tomás are up against. The Vatican has its own enforcement team? Who knew? Is there a rational explanation for how some of the related menacing men seem to vanish when cornered? Although August tries to reassure himself that real deaths involve physical results, even he is worried about whether there's a scientific or technological explanation: "If not, I'd have to seriously reassess my position as an agnostic Mexican-American Catholic with African-American Baptist metaphysical leanings."
Jones takes this fast-paced crime novel across several boundaries of old magic and traditional healing, as well as Catholic priesthood abuse issues. So it's a compelling page-turner, excellent for a winter weekend of escape and questions, framed in sturdy friendships with plenty of firearms and other defenses. You don't need to read the other three books in the series first, although if you do, this one will resonate more—but you can pick them up afterward, because chances are, August Snow's fierce urban loyalties will leave you wanting more of his adventures.
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