This is part of a series and I honestly was nervous that I wasn’t going to understand as I haven’t read the previous 2 in the series. However, this book is set up so well that it can be read as a standalone. I really liked these characters and they make me want to go back and read the first two. They were so interesting and captivating. I also really loved this setting.

August Snow is a native Detroit guy. A former policeman, Snow is now retired and a millionaire due to a civil settlement leading from an injury on the job. Snow grew up in Mexicantown and one of his favorite places was Authentico Foods. Ronaldo Ochoa, the founder of Authentico was a friend from back when the restaurant was just starting. Now the restaurant has morphed into a company that supplies tortillas to restaurants throughout the area.
Ochoa asks Snow to come meet him. To Snow's surprise, Ochoa asks Snow to buy his company. Ochoa is older and ill and wants to assure that his company will survive to provide for his family. He has been approached by a shadowy figure to buy him out and Ochoa fears that the proposed purchaser wants to raze the company and develop the area for the professionals who are starting to return to Detroit. Snow isn't interested in buying but agrees to look around.

As he investigates, Snow starts to see that what Ochoa had feared is true and that violence isn't out of the question for the people behind the offer. Soon Snow and his friends are caught up in a maelstrom of violence with assassins gunning for them. Can Snow unravel the business and those behind it before he and his friends are killed?

This is the third August Snow novel. Readers may find the violence a bit over the top and the lack of police follow-up after multiple killings is a sticking point. I listened to this book and the narrator didn't really work for me. He seemed very generic and I expected more of a voice of a person of color. Outside of that, the author explores the topic of gentrification in a realistic manner with the results of such development on those who already live in the area and who are forced out. It is an interesting viewpoint from a detective of color and one whose roots in the black and Hispanic communities are deep. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

This audible copy of Dead of Winter made me chuckle with it's witty sarcasm. The narrator did a perfect job,
Love it! I'll leave a review on Amazon. Thank you for the opportunity to listen to my first audio book on Netgalley. :-)

This is my first Audiobook ever. Even though I didn't love it, I did enjoy it. Listening to this made me lose track a couple of times and there were so many people at play that it was a little confusing sometimes. I truly believe that this would be a great action movie, but it didn't quite connect with me through audio. The narration was good and the overal story was really exciting, dead bodies piling up everywhere. I loved that it had a happy ending!

Detroit ex-cop and Mexicantown native August Snow has been invited for a business meeting at Authentico Foods. Its owner, Ronaldo Ortega, is dying, and is being blackmailed into selling the company to an anonymous entity. Ortega is worried about his employees and wants August to step in. August has no interest in running a tortilla empire, but he does want to know who’s threatening his neighborhood. His investigation immediately takes a shocking turn. Now August and his loved ones are caught up in a heinous net of billionaire developers who place no value on human life, and August Snow must go to war for the soul of Mexicantown.

DEAD OF WINTER is a novel by Steven Mack Jones and the 3rd novel in the “August Snow” series that takes place primarily in Detroit in the well known and well loved neighborhood of Mexican Town that has for several generations been an important part of the troubled city, who’s strengths are primarily made up of the rapidly disappearing ethnic communities in Detroit that have made this city great in the past, and this neighborhood is one of the few remaining that keeps the city alive in spite of it’s difficult existence that results from the drugs and related criminal activity in and around the neighborhood.

August Snow is a successful businessman native to the area who is currently buying and flipping homes bought at a bargain and sold at a profit due to a recent increase in real estate values, and this is made possible through a huge settlement that was highly publicized and has earned him unwanted notoriety and unwanted attention and hostility by the police force that he was previously part of.

Several longtime acquaintances and a few lifelong friends respect August for his character in spite of the bad publicity and enemies he’s made along the way, and those who know him best value his friendship with a loyalty that would include risking their lives for him, which unfortunately becomes something August must rely upon in his current investigation that he reluctantly takes on at the request of an important elderly and successful businessman who’s family has been closely connected to the Snow family going back several years.

Can Alex prevail in this effort that includes local foes and one with a specific grudge along with a psychopath hitman from another country with a bizarre set of standards, and in doing so will he be not only risking his life but the lives of those closest to him including several elder members of the community drawn into this apparent suicidal mission Alex has involved them in?

Interesting story that involves an area that I’m well familiar with due to my employment that previously placed me in the specific neighborhood and homes this novel takes place in, which I was fortunate to experience for the better part of the ‘90s.

Sometimes it’s apparent to me upon reading a novel that is a later entry in a series that I definitely would have benefited from reading earlier novels in the series, and this is one of those times although it was still enjoyable and would be appreciated as an introduction to the series by those interested in the social and political issues presented here in a story where the first half of the book sets the tone, and the second half of the book contains the bulk of the action.

4 stars.

I was super excited about reading this story! The plot promised action and adventure.

August Snow sets out to find out who is trying to upend a friend who has a store/restaurant. It fell flat for me after that. The ending was fast-paced and action-filled yet awkward and inconsistent with the story.

I enjoyed the narrator and his voice fit the book perfectly.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Really cool to read books when you know all the places theyre talking about lol, i would consider reading more of this series tho this book was more of a 3.5 tbh

I have listened to the audiobook version of Dead of Winter, the third installment in the series about August Snow, In this book Snow is asked to save a Mexican food manufacturer. What follows is a spiral of sketchy real estate dealings, amoral billionaires, and corrupt city employees. This is gritty crime fiction with dry humor, interesting characters and lots of action.

The book was narrated by Luis Moreno and I really liked his clear and distinct voice. The audio quality was very good so I can really recommend this audiobook. I'll definitely go back and listen to the first two books in the series, also narrated by Luis Moreno.

Thanks to the author, RB Media and NetGalley for this copy.

DEAD OF WINTER, Stephen Mack Jones’ third August Snow novel, is at heart a long, violent love letter to the city of Detroit, warts and roses and all. Jones may currently live in a suburb of Detroit, but this latest installment displays an insider’s familiarity with a once-promising city gleaned from traversing streets where the busses don’t run and one is bound to rub elbows (and possibly more) with folks who many would wisely cross the street to avoid.

August Snow is an ex-Detroit cop who came out the winner of a wrongful termination lawsuit and uses his well-earned gain to play Robin Hood of sorts. He finds himself invited to a meeting at Authentico Foods, a Detroit institution known for manufacturing top-grade Mexican food items. Ronaldo Ochoa, the founder and owner, knew August’s deceased father and was his benefactor as a child. In the here and now, Ochoa is near death and is being pressured to sell his business to a shadowy entity with an old gambling debt leveraged against him. Ochoa wants August to buy Authentico Foods, knowing that he will keep the current employees working. Running a food manufacturing company is way outside of August’s considerable wheelhouse, but he’s concerned about its loss and the effect it will have on his neighborhood and city.

Ochoa’s daughter and a shady attorney do not share Ochoa’s plans to keep his business afloat after his death. They are more inclined to take outside money and let the chips fall where they may, so to speak. Thus they oppose any deal that would involve August. Things become personal for August when Ochoa dies, but not of natural causes, and his godfather is seriously injured in the mix. August does what he does best --- kicking down doors and getting information from both sides of the street. He learns soon enough that there are layers to the planned acquisition of Ochoa’s property that go as high as the Detroit city government, and well beyond the boundaries of the United States.

August has a deep bench of friends whose loyalty matches his, and some of them can bring a level of violence to a party that will paint the walls red. He is not bulletproof, but he will not hesitate to wade deeply into a situation to protect his own or go literally to the ends of the earth --- or a hemisphere, anyway --- to enact vengeance if he must, even at the risk of his own life.

DEAD OF WINTER is not just explosions and fisticuffs. Jones takes August on a culinary tour of Detroit, which will have some readers (including this one) checking their Waze app to see if a drive of a few hours to the city for lunch or dinner is feasible. If there is a downer to the book, it is the somewhat ham-handed “woke” sledgehammering that permeates it from beginning to end. Most of it comes from August, whose net worth of eight figures somewhat offsets any injustices that he might have endured. That said, one should come to this story for the action and stay for the scenery and the characters.

Unfortunately I could NOT download the audio copy!! Can I Have a ebook copy please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The reviews were so great for this book that I was very surprised that I really didn't like it. The shoot-out at the end seemed particularly bad. I am glad others like it, but it just wasn't for me. I kept waiting for a brilliant twist or even solution, but it never came.

Loved the narration of this hard boiled mystery. Luis Moreno was fabulous narrating many varied characters well and with distinct voices. The story was well plotted with fabulous characters. This was the third in the series, but it was not necessary to read the first two to pick up the thread here ( although I will certainly go back and pick up the earlier novels).