Lives Laid Away

Loved this, maybe partly because it's about Detroit, but also just because it's so well done.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S LIVES LAID AWAY ABOUT?
While August Snow is considering how to help out his neighbors in the middle of an ICE crackdown/intimidation campaign, his friend from the coroner's office brings him a case he can't get out of his mind. A young, unidentified, Hispanic woman was tortured, raped, killed, and dumped while dressed as Marie Antoinette. The police can't get anywhere with the case and are ready to move on. Falconi can't do that. So he comes to August for help.

Snow's not able to get the photos he's been shown out of his mind, either. So he starts looking into it—knowing the right people to ask, he's able to identify the woman within a day. This gets him looking in the right direction for answers—sadly, that direction is full of organized crime, disorganized crime, human trafficking, and corrupt government officials.

August gets backup in both his brushes with ICE and the murder case from new and unexpected allies. There's a lot going on in Detroit (and in his own past) that August had been previously unaware of, and he's likely going to wish he'd stayed in the dark before all is said and done here.

TOMÁS
We met Tomás Gutierrez, August's godfather, in the previous book and he provided some of the backup August required then. In this book, he's basically August's partner.

He fills the fairly typical modern detective sidekick role (Hawk, Joe Pike, Bubba Rogowski, Nate Romanowski, Nick Petrie's Lewis, etc.)—a little meaner, a little less bound by conscience, a little more prone to violence, has a better personal weapons stash, and so on. The big twist here is that he's so much older than August. I don't know if we're told his age anywhere, but he's no spring chicken—He's his godfather, was good friends with his parents, he has a grandchild. And while his age is mentioned every now and then, he seems too spry to be really believable in this role.

This might be because of the subjects of the book—his wife is being threatened, the dead woman was known to his wife, etc.—and in the next book, he won't be as involved in whatever is happening. If that's the case? I have no problem with it—but if he keeps acting as a partner, it's going to have to be addressed.

I like the character of Tomás and how Jones has been using him so far, I just don't know if he's a viable long-term option.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT PLACES LIKE THIS?
Back in 2019, I posted about M. W. Craven's Black Summer, and discussed how Craven's description of a seedy pub made me feel like I was there. I had a flashback to that moment when Jones described the biker bar Taffy's on the Lake here. It was so crystal clear and detailed that I felt like I was there. I don't know if it's me, and the one or two nasty bars that I've been in have stuck with me so much that when Craven or Jones describes one that I'm taken there, or if they're just so good that I'd feel the same way without personal experience.

I'm going to credit them with this, not just for the sake of my mental health. For example, in August Snow, Jones did a similar job with a small Mexican restaurant. In that case, his writing made me want to feel like I was there.

He's so good at describing places in a way that brings in all of your senses (there are other examples I could cite, but this one paralleled so nicely with Black Summer), that without ever stepping foot in Detroit (or the state of Michigan) that I can really get a strong feel for the settings.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT LIVES LAID AWAY?
Is this as good as August Snow? I don't think so. But that says more about how good it was than about the quality of Lives Laid Away. This was intense and exciting. You're kept on the edge of your seat while being given things to think about.

At the same time, while August Snow had enough action to satisfy any thriller reader, Jones stepped up the violence this time. I don't know if this is the direction of the series in general, or if something about these circumstances brought it out in August, but wow. I can think of Jack Reacher/Peter Ash novels that contain less violence and action—I wouldn't have expected that given the first novel. This is not a criticism, I'm just putting that out there for potential readers—it really worked for me (although I'm not sure I needed all the “enhanced interrogation” scenes).

Along those lines, I'm not sure I really realized how ominous, “I gotta see a guy about a thing,” could sound.

This isn't just a novel about a vigilante ex-cop on a crusade—it is that, but it's more—it's also about a city dealing with contemporary pressures, contemporary issues, and a troubled (to be nice about) past. What is Detroit becoming? How is it treating the people who live there? How should it be? These questions loom large while August is trying to figure out who killed these women and why. Lives Laid Away is a solid, action-filled thriller with a social conscience and heart. This is not a combination that you see that much, but I wish we'd see more of.