Another of the Aaron Gunner series. A detective solves a murder while the author gives a view of the life in South Central LA.
With When Last Seen Alive, Gar Anthony Haywood plumbs the shocking all-too-real world of South-Central Los Angeles. Having more clients than he can use isn't generally Aaron Gunner's problem, but it happens that the PI is already on a case when beautiful Yolanda McCreary appears on his doorstep to offer him a second one. Her brother, Elroy Covington, apparently rubbed elbows with Gunner at the Million Man March in Washington DC, several months earlier, then neglected to do something almost every other attendee did afterward: come home. Gunner can't remember Covington, but takes on the case - unprepared for the cold trail the man left behind. At last, Gunner begins to suspect that a black extremist group calling itself The Defenders of the Bloodline is behind Covington's disappearance. The Defenders want Gunner to join them. The FBI wants Gunner's help in bringing them down. And neither party has any intention of taking no for an answer. With When Last Seen Alive, Gar Anthony Haywood explores the harsh realities of contemporary Los Angeles with grim accuracy and deep emotional insight, providing once again "a first-rate story, melding sharp social commentary with lively plotting and somersaulting dialogue"
