The Jones Men

by Vern E. Smith

Overview

“The best street novel I ever read until now was Little Caesar. The Jones Men exceeds it in importance. The Jones Men is a work of art. —Richard Condon, author of The Manchurian Candidate

This streetwise novel chronicles the rise and fall of Lonnie Jack, a twenty-six-year-old Vietnam veteran and mid-level heroin dealer itching to knock the powerful Willis McDaniel off his perch as the number-one drug kingpin. It plunges the reader into the subculture of addicts, dealers, and corrupt cops as Lonnie Jack's bold and methodical challenge builds to a frightening climax.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393317077
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/17/1998
Series:	Old School Books Series
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Vern E. Smith formerly 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 Issue Topic. He also served as a principal reporter and blogger for the 2004 Voices of Civil Rights oral history project, which is permanently housed in the Library of Congress. His work has also appeared in Emerge, the London Sunday Times, Ebony, GEO, the Crisis magazine, Merian magazine, and the History Channel Magazine.

Editorial Reviews

This latest volume in Norton's "Old School Books" series plunges the reader into the world of drugs, corruption, and murder as it follows the downfall of "Lennie Jack," a Vietnam vet who attempts to take over the action of the neighborhood's biggest drug lord. (LJ 8/74)

Library Journal

A large accomplishment in the art of fiction ... written with terse, impersonal immediacy ... seen, heard, felt and reflected off the blue-steel barrel of a handgun. 

—New York Times Book Review

A fierce taut action tale ... It moves on crisply cinematic chase scenes and bloody murder rendered in karate-chop language that knifes through the gunsmoke and flashes over the blood puddles without a bit of false sympathy. 

—Newsweek

The best street novel I ever read until now was Little Caesar. The Jones Men exceeds it in importance. The Jones Men is a work of art. 

—Richard Condon, author of The Manchurian Candidate

From the Publisher