Book Review: When Last Seen Alive

"When Last Seen Alive" is by Gar Anthony Haywood, who is the Shamus and Anthony Award-winning author for crime novels. This private investigator storyline stars a wonderful character Aaron Gunner, who is in his fifth installment of his mystery series. This is a fictional mystery novel in narrative and descriptive writing style. Haywood uses different types of literary techniques, such as metaphor and simile, to show the reader insight to past African-American historical events.

The main characters in this novel is private investigator Aaron Gunner, and Gunner's two clients, Yolanda McCreary, who is looking to find answers of her brother's disappears, and Connie Everson, who wants Gunner to find out if her City Councilman husband is having an affair with another women. These characters are very interesting and have some hidden secrets.

Aaron Gunner is the main character of this novel, as he has always been in his mystery series. The majority of this novel is surrounding on the thoughts and actions done by Gunner. Gunner is a local actor, but also is a private investigator conducting his business out of an office in Mickey's Moore Barber Shop in South Central Los Angeles. Gunner is assigned two different types of cases, a missing person's case and a surveillance case. Gunner is a complex and exciting investigator trying to make his way through the rough underground world of Los Angeles. Gunner was divorced from his wife a couple years ago and gave up on love. Aaron became very lonely, short temper and does not trust anyone because of his divorce to his wife. He feels that he cannot love or commit to someone anymore, but later gives into buying a dog to fill his empty void.

Besides Aaron Gunner, Yolanda McCreary is another major character in this novel. McCreary is the sister of Elroy Covington, who apparently met with Gunner just before the Million Man March. Yolanda was unsatisfied with work being done by the F.B.I. and local police, and wanted Gunner to help find answers or solve the mystery of her brother's disappears. She believes that her brother might be still alive, and is just hiding from everyone he hurt in the past. Yolanda is tall and slender, just less than six feet and seems to be in her mid-thirties. She has rich, walnut-coloured skin, pitch-black eyes and a little girl's upturned nose, and dark brown hair.

Another main character is Connie Everson. She was Gunner first client in this mystery novel. Connie seems to be in her fifties, but is very good looking for her age and is also a dark-skinned woman. Connie hired Gunner to find out who her Los Angeles City Councilman husband was having an affair with. Connie told Gunner to catch her husband with a black, not white women, and younger looking woman who is probably a prostitute and a drug addict. After the surprising murder of Connie Everson, clues of a conflict between Connie and her younger sister Shelby Charles were revealed. When Shelby was in College, she was dating Connie's current husband, but after having a tragic car accident that nearly crippled her, Mr. Everson left Shelby and married her older sister Connie. This caused Shelby to go into a depression, which later led her to the streets, where she became a prostitute and an addict to drugs. Shelby was the women Connie was intending to catch having an affair with her husband. Mr. Everson always loved Shelby.

The majority of this mystery novel is conducted in Aaron Gunner's office, which is located in back of Mickey Moore Barber Shop. Gunner office has curtains that pass as a door and his office looks much more like an empty space than an office. His office has W.H. Johnson prints up on the walls, few floor lamps and second-hand desk, couch and two chairs that look dull and cheap. This indicates that Gunner is not a wealth or very well known private investigator. The author shows a rough modern social environment for the characters with unfriendly cops, shady hotels and street gangs in South Central Los Angeles. Haywood also places Gunner in a community of business owners who provide the private investigator with leads in his cases.
Gar Anthony Haywood, an African-American author, who helps convey the theme by writing this fictional mystery novel in narration and description style. Haywood uses different types of literary techniques, such as metaphor and simile, to show the reader insight to African-American history.
"And they see Tommy as an Uncle Tom?"(P.141). This metaphor indicates that this individual does not have the African-American pride. "Uncle Tom", refers to an African-American who emulates or adopts the same behaviour of the white majority.

Another quotation that portraits the writer style is,"Selmon's winning of the Pulitzer Prize had promised to free black journalists from the shackles of this myth forever, and when it was stripped from his grasp like the colors from the breast of a court-martialed war deserter, it was stripped from them all"(P.80). The metaphor, "it was stripped from them all" indicates that all African-Americans are being punished and have to reclaim their social class among white Americans. Simile is also used in this quotation, "stripped from his grasp like the colors from the breast of a court-martialed war deserter", colors represent the pride and courage that one has for their country and by taking this away, and it erases what he/she has earned.

"Gunner heard him scream like a madman in an asylum, his gaping mouth spraying the air with strands of saliva, then the chair and Frerotte both were coming at him like a brakeless Peterbilt charging downhill"(P.51). The simile "scream like a madman in an asylum" represents the pain and suffering an individual like Frerotte might be going through when wrestling with Gunner. Also another simile in this quotation is "the chair and Frerotte both were coming at him like a brakeless Peterbilt charging downhill", represents the speed and power of a Peterbilt, this heavy-duty truck is very strong and is hard to avoid when speeding. Gunner felt the same way when Frerotte came charging to him.

There are many themes in the novel "When Last Seen Alive", but the major themes that Gar Anthony Haywood uses are: mystery, and African-American history. All these themes are incorporated excellently throughout the dialogue and story line of this novel. Haywood mentions many times, Million Man March, Uncle Tom and Malcolm X which are all part of African-American History. This represents the pride, and as well as, the fight for freedom and equality for African-Americans. Haywood keeps your attention in both Gunner's cases, by melding issues and the plot in this entertaining mystery.

Work Cited

Haywood, Gar Anthony. When Last Seen Alive. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1997. 5-241.