Title: August Snow

Author: Stephen Mack Jones

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Why I read it: Blind Date with a Book from my library

Well, this isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read. No, that isn’t a compliment.

August Snow is a mystery and thriller based in Detroit that follows August, an ex-Detroit Police Officer, as he sticks his nose where it doesn’t belong and almost gets himself killed over it—multiple times. 

The book is officially described as a “fast-paced tale of murder, greed, sex, economic cyber-terrorism, race and urban decay in modern Detroit.” Which, technically, is correct. My qualms aren’t necessarily with the story itself, as the plot is interesting; rather, they’re more with the execution and the lens through which the story is told. 

There are many reasons for me not being a fan of this book, and the first one I’ll bring up is how unlikable August Snow is. He means well (I think?), but for a 34-year-old man, he sure has a lot of character flaws that need sorting out. The biggest of which is his misogynistic tendencies. Throughout this 300-page book, I don’t think there was a single female character that was spared some unnecessary comment about her body or her fuckability. Please excuse my French.

We started strong with my favorite quote from the book on page 14, “Tank Girl wrote down her phone number, address, email, bra size and locations of her latest piercings on a napkin and stuffed it inside my jacket pocket.” Excuse me, but what? “Tank Girl”? And what male fantasy are we living in that a waitress in a diner supposedly provides all of this information after nary a two-second conversation, in the middle of the day, and then follows it up with this banger of a sentence, “Text me, I’m sick of my boyfriend.” The best part? We never heard from her again.

I’ll spare you the other insane instances of over-the-top male bravado, but your key takeaway is that this book was definitely written by a man, for men. The male gaze could not be more prominent in everything from world-building to character dialogue. Maybe I’ve had my head in the clouds because I’ve been reading male characters written by women, and by golly, I hope that this is not an accurate representation of how men think about women. Or talk about them. I’ll choose ignorance for this one and save myself from the nightmares; I prefer to live in my naivety. 

In case that didn’t convince you that this was written to boost the male ego, August takes every opportunity to remind the reader of how “good looking” he is. When introducing another male character, he would say something to the effect of “he’s good looking, but not as good looking as me” or when he got beat up and was chatting with a woman he just met, he said, “I’m more attractive than my current face would lead you to believe.” Don’t get me wrong, I am ALL FOR confidence in a male main character. In fact, I’m confident that I would have been on his side, had it not been for the objectification of women I mentioned earlier. 

As I sit here writing this review, I am struggling with why someone like August would present in such a misogynistic way. He’s ex-military, an ex-cop who exposed dirty cops, the prominent figure in his neighborhood who truly cares for and takes care of his neighbors, so why was he portrayed as such a self-centered, woman-objectifying jerk? I don’t understand why the author made that choice. The only thing I can think of is that he was trying to make August seem “cool.” Instead of engaging in locker-room talk throughout the book, I think it would have been just as effective for August to portray that “coolness” through other means. I would have even accepted if he just dated models and we relaxed on reducing every woman he came across as someone worthy (or not) of his attention based on their physical appearance.

All of that aside, which I know is a lot, I actually did enjoy the plot of this book. There are a lot of twists and turns, I didn’t see the ending coming, and it kept me engaged, even if I have to shamelessly admit that one of the main drivers for finishing this was to see if the writing got any better. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. If you can overlook bad writing, this book presents as a run-of-the-mill cop and FBI thriller, with plenty of action and a satisfying ending. There is a lot of violence, but it was described artfully and got the point across without being too gory. I’ll give props to the author for walking that fine line.

I agree with many reviewers that the representation of Detroit and its history was lovely. As a resident of south-eastern Michigan for the better part of a decade, I feel I have a lot of catching up to do on Detroit and its vibrant neighborhoods, and this book did give me a small jump start in that direction. I was shocked that this book had so many favorable reviews until I realized that many praised the Detroit representation, rather than the content itself. 

On a final note, I’ll leave you with my second favorite quote, at the start of the 24th chapter, “There should be a Senate subcommittee investigation into why the FBI’s coffee always tastes like lukewarm ass.” Dear reader, I hope as you read this that you are having a lovely day, and that your coffee doesn’t taste like “lukewarm ass.”

TL;DR: Would I recommend it to a friend? No, because I know my friends would not enjoy this.