Gar Anthony Haywood (born 1954) is an American author of

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

. He was born in Los Angeles in 1954, and worked as a computer technician for over a decade before he started publishing novels. ''Fear of The Dark'' (1988) won the

Shamus Award The Shamus Award is awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) for the best detective fiction ( P. I. = Private investigator) genre novels and short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a sing ...

for best first private investigator novel. It also spawned a long-running series that featured the protagonist Aaron Gunner. The Aaron Gunner books are

hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

detective fiction, inspired by

Ross Macdonald Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar (; December 13, 1915 – July 11, 1983). He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featur ...

's Los Angeles novels. Haywood has also written several standalone thrillers, as well as a pair of light, comic mysteries. Haywood has also written numerous screenplays for television, including an episode of ''

New York Undercover ''New York Undercover'' is an American police drama that aired on the Fox television network from September 8, 1994, to February 11, 1999. The series starred Malik Yoba as Detective J.C. Williams and Michael DeLorenzo as Detective Eddie Torre ...

'' and the TV movie adaptation of ''

Bad As I Wanna Be Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. Renowned for his defensive and rebound (basketball), rebounding abilities, his biography on the official NBA website states that he is "arguably the ...

'', the autobiography of basketball player

Dennis Rodman Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. Renowned for his defensive and rebounding abilities, his biography on the official NBA website states that he is "arguably the best rebounding forw ...

Aaron Gunner mystery novels

*''Good Man Gone Bad'' (Prospect Park, 2019) is Heywood's seventh mystery novel, featuring Aaron Gunner, 60-year-old African-American private investigator.

References

1954 births American crime fiction writers Living people American male novelists Novelists from Los Angeles American male screenwriters American male television writers Television writers from California 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Anthony Award winners {{US-novelist-1950s-stub