Mr. Jones’s action-packed book has echoes of Raymond Chandler’s banter and bursts of Dashiell Hammett’s violence, with a tip of the porkpie hat to Walter Mosley ... delivers a bracing amount of rough humor and a whole lot of heart.
Seeing Detroit through Snow’s adoring eyes is sweet. But except for the bad guys, who go out in a blazing gun battle, the characters are too good to be true, from Snow’s sainted godmother and a priest who operates an underground railroad to Snow himself, who could use a few flaws to make him human.
The author includes enough well-described action and shoot ’em up scenes to keep Rambo fans satisfied ... In addition, Stephen Mack Jones gives us some of the most colorful characters in crime literature today ... Stephen Mack Jones' snappy, razor sharp writing is a delight to read. Lives Laid Away is movie material for sure.
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.
Jones effectively dramatizes the Trump administration’s approach to illegal immigration ... Snow, who is of mixed African-American and Mexican heritage, is an uncompromising crusader with a sense of humor reminiscent of Robert Parker’s Spenser. He merits a long literary life.
