Gar Anthony Haywood

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Gar Anthony Haywood is the Shamus and Anthony award-winning author of twelve crime novels and numerous short stories. He has written six mysteries featuring African-American private investigator Aaron Gunner; two starring Joe and Dottie Loudermilk, retiree crime-solvers and Airstream-owning parents to five grown Children From Hell; and four standalone thrillers.

Haywood's first of six mysteries featuring African-American private investigator Aaron Gunner, FEAR OF THE DARK, won the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus award for Best First Novel of 1989, and his first Gunner short story, "And Pray Nobody Sees You", won both the PWA's Shamus and World Mystery Convention's Anthony awards for Best Short Story of 1995. His short story, THE FIRST RULE IS, was featured in the 2010 edition of Best American Mystery Short Stories, and THE LAMB WAS SURE TO GO, his most recently published Gunner short story, garnered him his third Shamus award in 2011.

Haywood has written for both The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, and for such television shows as NEW YORK UNDERCOVER and THE DISTRICT. His two most recent novels are the urban crime drama CEMETERY ROAD, which Publisher's Weekly called "a beautifully crafted novel of unintended consequences" in a starred review, and ASSUME NOTHING, which was published by Severn House in December, 2011. Learn more.