Eleven crime novels that explore tensions between police & communities

Molly Odintz is the Associate Editor for CrimeReads. She grew up in Austin and worked as a bookseller at BookPeople for years before her recent move up to New York City for a life in crime. She likes cats, crime novels, and coffee.

At CrimeReads she tagged eleven "crime novels that take us into the tensions between policing and communities, and between the wants of individuals and the cruel prejudice of an uncaring system," including:

Stephen Mack Jones, August Snow (August Snow series) 

Stephen Mack Jones’ August Snow series features an ex-cop-turned-private-detective who, after winning 12 mill from the city of Detroit and traveling the world, settles down in his community ready to transform the city for the better while fighting both gentrification and rampant institutional corruption. In the first in the series, August Snow is hired by a socialite with a secret and follows a trail of corruption and debauchery all the way up to the top; in the second, Snow gets involved in a cross-border case tied in to the nefarious activities of ICE when a young immigrant woman is found dead after crossing over from Canada to go to a party.

Read about the other entries on the list.

August Snow is among Jodie Adams Kirshner's six novels that capture Detroit, past and present.

--Marshal Zeringue