STEPHEN MACK JONES

If the meaning of life is a puzzle awaiting assembly, then writers are purveyors of its pieces.

- John B. Valeri

“I think the human brain is hardwired to pursue the solving of puzzles. Jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, sudoku, the Higgs boson particle, why roofing and double pane window sales people always call during dinner or sex...” So says critically acclaimed wordsmith Stephen Mack Jones, who has spent decades constructing meaning through poetry and prose.

“I think most novelists—crime and otherwise—pursue the multitude of life’s mysteries, its beauty and horror, its warmth and bitter cold, oddities and conundrums,” he says. “Crime and mystery novels are puzzles for readers and sometimes the only way you can solve a mystery is to find meaning in the characters that populate the story. Characters and settings that are, I believe, little puzzles constructed often from sociopolitical and cultural ambiguities and personal experiences.”

This is certainly true of the author’s own award-winning books featuring vigilante hero August Snow, who returns in Dead of Winter—a socially conscious thriller that epitomizes its tagline: Gentrification has never been bloodier.

“Doesn’t matter if its Joyce Carol Oates or Attica Locke,” Jones continues. “It’s the puzzle of human beings colliding, dancing, howling alone, or weeping together that brings readers together in an effort to feel connected and understood.”

Jones’ first exposure to books, and the ideas contained within, came from his parents.