All the Lucky Ones Are Dead

Aaron Gunner #6

by Gar Anthony Haywood

Investigating the alleged suicide of a hip-hop star, Gunner uncovers a murderCarlton Elbridge, better known as C. E. Digga Jones, was too nice for gangsta rap. When he allegedly shot himself, he had millions in the bank, his face on the cover of Time magazine, and a nation of fanatics to mourn his death. He was found in a locked room, gun in his hand and bullet in his brain, and the police assumed it was suicide. Only the rapper’s father thinks otherwise. Suspecting that his son was killed as the result of a hip-hop feud, Carlton’s father hires private detective Aaron Gunner to investigate the death. As Gunner tries to juggle the case with security work for a conservative black talk-show host, he learns that for some in the hip-hop world, the thug life is much more than an act.

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

aka Ray Shannon.

Gar Anthony Harwood also writes as Ray Shannon. He has won the Shamus and Anthony Award for his mystery fiction. He writes stand-alone novels and short-stories as well as series. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, written scripts for television drama series (e.g. New York Undercover and the District) and Movies of the Week for ABC. He is a member of the Mystery Writers of America.

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy reading an old-school hardboiled private eye novel, this series might be a good bet for you. My reading of this title was a pleasure.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaron Gunner turns down a job protecting a talk radio personality, a conservative black woman, who believes the death threats are just business as usual. He’s immediately hired by the absentee father of a millionaire rapper who killed himself. These two threads are the book with Aaron trying to connect the unconnectable. Lots of twists and turns with a violent black organization, the DOB, coming back to visit Aaron. Fast paced as always.

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished 4t september 2024 good read three stars i liked it kindle library loaner and the first from haywood aaron gunner #6 entertaining story that looks like one of the fabled locked-room mysteries and gunner is tasked with solving the murder that some are convinced happened. will look for more from haywood. happened on it by chance digital library, in there, sniffing books, when i saw the cover and title page took a chance. onward and upward.

[Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gar Anthony Haywood is an author I have always enjoyed, this story included. But Aaron Gunner, for me, has become a character stuck in another time and another place. The time 1972 the place, if you can think of it as a place, "Super Fly", the movie. If you want to revisit again? You will enjoy this one.

All I got to say.

[Ice · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Joe Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A popular rap star is murdered, or is he? Who is the extremist group following Detective Aaron Gunner, and could they have anything to do with the incident?

It was a good book. It's not as good as Not Long for this World, but it definitely lives in the same neighborhood. There's one glaring flaw in the story. I won't spoil it for you, because Haywood mostly does a good job of keeping the story moving despite the split attention. You won't be disappointed if you're into detective and mystery, and you need not worry about missing out on the first books in the Aaron Gunner mystery.

[Bob Bouyea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read.

[Thom Yaras · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Harry Bosch