All the Lucky Ones Are Dead [Hardcover]

Gar Anthony Haywood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2000

L.A. private eye Aaron Gunner investigates a notorious rap artist's suicide while protecting a controversial radio personality.

"The flash and funk of L.A. is vivid, and the cast of characters quirky and memorable," raved Publishers Weekly of last year's When Last Seen Alive. In All the Lucky Ones Are Dead, PI Aaron Gunner comes face-to-face with rap music's power brokers and some bitter enemies from his past.

Gangsta rap superstar C. E. Digga Jones killed himself, yet his father insists he was murdered. With a successful career and a beautiful wife, the Digga's life was picture perfect, but Gunner quickly learns that things aren't always as they seem.

Gunner is also keeping tabs on Sparkle Johnson, an ultraconservative talk radio host. The two don't get along, but when a car bomb explodes, it's clear their mutual adversaries mean business.

With a demanding caseload, and a silver car that's always two steps behind him, Aaron Gunner has his hands full in a top-notch addition to this stellar series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Gar Anthony Haywood's All the Lucky Ones Are Dead, African American PI Aaron Gunner investigates the apparent suicide of one of the most famous rap superstars on the West Coast, C.E. Digga Jones. The job doesn't exactly appeal to him. After all, Gunner prefers to work for folks whose politics he agrees with--and he's an upstanding citizen, unlike a certain foul-mouthed cultural icon who seduced young kids into a violent gang lifestyle. So Gunner is irked when the Digga's father begs him to suss out foul play in connection with his son's suicide. Meanwhile, his other current employment is equally unappealing: serving as bodyguard to L.A.'s most conservative and controversial African American shock-jock radio personality, Sparkle Johnson, whose life has been recently threatened. But when Sparkle's car gets bombed by a mysterious and deadly admirer, Gunner begins to uncover a complicated web of inconsistencies and oddities--one being the bomber's knowledge of her nickname. And when he gets the eerie feeling he's being followed, he senses that within one of the cases may lie a lethal trap--set expressly for him.

In this installment from this first-rate series, readers get a swift-moving, entertaining tour through the mean streets of L.A. and an inside glimpse of the glitzy, high-powered, and cutthroat rap-music industry. The characters are vividly portrayed, the plot is captivating, and Haywood fans will be very satisfied. --Teri Kieffer

From Publishers Weekly

"There was a threshold beyond which an investigation became more about his own hunger for the truth than his client's, and somewhere over the last 48 hours, Gunner had stepped across it." Aaron Gunner, Haywood's gritty Los Angeles African-American PI, not only steps over that threshold, he carries the reader with him like an eager bride. Despite his always precarious finances, Gunner declines a job guarding a threatened African-American talk show host, Sparkle Johnson, because he doesn't agree with her right-wing views, and she doesn't want the protection her agent is trying to arrange. Gunner also doesn't care to investigate the death of Carlton William Elbridge, better known as rapper C.E. Digga Jones. Police have written off Eldridge's demise as suicide and only the deceased's father seems inclined to dispute the evidence. Despite his reluctance, Gunner is drawn into both cases, meeting up with an old nemesis, the Defenders of the Bloodline (When Last Seen Alive), and encountering what Haywood depicts as the brutish universe of gangsta rap. Haywood juices his compelling mystery with sharp dialogue, and Gunner's savvy intelligence makes it a pleasure to follow the PI through a maze of betrayals and greed. As Gunner navigates the meaner, deadlier streets of L.A., Haywood infuses the hard-boiled genre with renewed vigor. (Jan.) FYI: Haywood also writes the Joe and Dottie Loudermilk mysteries.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (January 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399145400
• ISBN-13: 978-0399145407
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #754,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as ever, January 10, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All the Lucky Ones Are Dead (Hardcover)

Gangsta-rap superstar C.E. Digga Jones seems to have everything. His career appears at its apex and yet he seems to be rising even further into a mega-superstar. He is extremely wealthy and his personal life appears even more prosperous than his career. Yet at the pinnacle of personal and professional success, C.E. Digga commits suicide. Only the father of the popular rapper thinks someone murdered his son. He hires LA detectivre Aaron Gunner to elarn the truth.

As Aaron digs into the Digga case, he rejects serving as a bodyguard to Sparkle Johnson. Though he could use the cash, Aaron has ethics and the noted radio talk show host is hated by just about everyone, including the private sleuth. Sparkle rejects Aaron too until a car bomb makes both reconsider their mutual animosity. As he struggles to keep Sparkle safe, Aaron learns that Digga had several enemies and loved ones benefiting from the superstar's death. He begins to agree with his client that someone killed the rapper, which takes Aaron into the ugliest streets of Los Angeles in an effort to obtain the truth.

The sixth Aaron Gunner tale contains the elements that have made this an award winning series. Yet, author Gar Anthony Haywood imbues a freshness into the story line that makes ALL THE LUCKY ONES ARE DEAD feels like a debut tale. The dual story lines are both interesting though separate plots. The links are the mean streets of LA and Aaron. Mr. Haywood makes the novel work as his African-American detective brings the city to life in a way rarely seen in a novel including those well written previous tales starring Gunner.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Did He or Didn't He?, April 22, 2001

By 

rcarey22 (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All the Lucky Ones Are Dead (Aaron Gunner Mystery) (Paperback)

I waited a long time for the paperback edition of the novel to reach the bookstore and Gar Anthony Haywood's Aaron Gunner series are definitely still at the top of my list. I enjoyed this story of Aaron Gunner trying to solve the mystery of a rap star who "supposedly" committed suicide. Did rapper Digga Jones, an up and coming rap star, who had everything going for him, fame and fortune commit suicide or did one of his fellow rappers, his manager or his record label executives do the deed? All these questions are answered and when you find out the truth, you may be surprised. Check out this novel as Mr. Haywood is definitely the real deal.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intricate story!, February 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: All the Lucky Ones Are Dead (Aaron Gunner Mystery) (Paperback)

This is the first Aaron Gunner mystery I've read, but I will read the others! This intricate mystery involving several different cases is wrapped up in far fewer pages than the norm these days, and it was appreciated by this reader! Excellent plotting, spare writing: I recommend it highly!