The Jones Men by Vern E. Smith Review

The Jones Men Author: Vern E. Smith  Bill Campbell SPECIAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION A 1974 New York Times Notable Book and 1975 Edgar Award Nominee Before There Was Street Lit, There Were The Streets ... And The Jones Men Ruled Them "It was The Wire before there was The Wire." --Gar Anthony Haywood DETROIT, 1974 To become the King, you have to take the crown. It won't be given up lightly. Heroin kingpin, Willis McDaniel, has been wearing that particular piece of jewelry for far too long, and youngblood, Lennie Jack, thinks it would look really good on his head. When a junkie tells Jack about a big delivery, the young Vietnam vet makes his move. Feeling his empire crumble, McDaniel puts the word out to find whoever's responsible. The hunt is on, the battle is engaged, and the streets of Detroit run red with blood. In 1974 Vern E. Smith took the crime fiction world by storm with his debut novel, The Jones Men. Heralded as "a large accomplishment in the art of fiction" by The New York Times, The Jones Men went on to be nominated for an Edgar and became a New York TImes Notable Book. The art of crime fiction has never been the same since.

About the Author:

Vern Smith's work as a journalist, author and screenwriter spans four decades. His 1974 novel The Jones Men, a New York Times Recommended Book, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America and has been reprinted in several foreign editions. He joined Newsweek as a correspondent in the Detroit bureau in 1971. His report on “Detroit’s Heroin Subculture” won the Detroit Press Club Foundation Magazine Award in 1973 and was the inspiration for The Jones Men. From 1979 until 2002, Smith served as the Atlanta Bureau Chief and as a national correspondent for Newsweek. As a principal reporter with Newsweek's Special Projects Unit, he contributed to four cover stories later published as books. One of the stories, “Charlie Co.: What Vietnam Did to Us,” won the 1981 National Magazine Award for Single Topic Issue. In 2004, Smith contributed six chapters to the book My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience, published by Sterling Publishing. Smith also served as a principal reporter and blogger for the 2004 Voices of Civil Rights oral history project, considered the world's largest archive of firsthand accounts of the Civil Rights Movement. The collection of personal stories is permanently housed at the Library of Congress. Smith's work has also appeared in Emerge, The London Sunday Times, Ebony, GEO, The Crisis, Merian Magazine, and The History Channel Magazine. His screenplay adapted from The Jones Men was presented in a staged reading at the Castillo Theatre in New York in June 2012 with a cast of 25, including actor Jamie Hector of HBO’s The Wire. The reading was directed by producer/director Woodie King Jr., who is planning a film. Smith co-authored with Sylvester Monroe the screenplay Brothers, optioned by Warner Brothers, and based on the book of the same name published by William Morrow. The story first appeared as the cover story of the March. 23,1987 issue of Newsweek. His latest screenplay, Agile Mobile Hostile, based on the book,Jake Gaither: America's Most Famous Black Coach, by journalist George Curry is currently out to production companies. He has served as a guest essayist for PBS’ The News Hour, and has appeared as a commentator on CNN, CNBC, C-SPAN, ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “BET-Tonight,” and “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” on the ABC Radio Network. A native of Natchez, Miss., Smith is a graduate of San Francisco State University, and the Summer Program for Minority Journalists at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He began his journalism career as a reporter for the Long Beach, Calif. Independent Press-Telegram. He blogs at vernesmith.wordpress.com, and is on twitter at @VESstories.

My Review:

This is a very interesting book that was written before its time. It takes readers to the 70's and the writer has a different background then other writers of this time.It was definitely interesting to read about drug lords and Detroit at that time. I also liked that the characters talked as if they were talking in real life. Rather than "big words" to make a point. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own.