The shooting of two Black men by a white youth transforms pre-election Los Angeles into a powderkeg, and Aaron Gunner finds himself caught up in political intrigue, violence, and murder

A lawyer hires Gunner to help her prove that her gangland client is not a killer Darrel Lovejoy doesn’t owe South Central anything. By all accounts, he is lucky to escape this desperate corner of Los Angeles, to go to college and graduate into a well-paid advertising job. But something compels him to return. He dives into social work, attempting to mediate between the gangs which have brought hell to the streets he grew up on, and he makes slow but steady progress up until the day a shotgun blast cuts him down. After an unusually forthcoming witness swears she saw a car of Imperial Blues kill Lovejoy, the police arrest Blue soldier Toby Mills. Suspecting a frame-up, Toby’s lawyer hires private detective Aaron Gunner to vet the woman’s story. To find out why South Central’s favorite son had to die, Gunner will turn gangland upside down.

The apparent suicide of an unpopular, bigoted, former LAPD cop, Jack McGovern, has the most unlikely protagonist fighting racism, violence, and hostility to bring to light the truth about the ex-cop's death in the latest Aaron Gunner novel. Reprint.

Sticking his nose into other people's business is what Los Angeles private investigator Aaron Gunner does best, but one of the few times he refused to do so a pretty lady ended up dead. Gunner turned Grace Mokes away because he didn't feel comfortable saving her from the one-sided boxing match that was her marriage to his old friend Jolly, and when Jolly killed her less than a week later, Gunner knew he had made a mistake. A mistake he was determined never to make again. Naturally then, when Gunner's old love Nina Pearson is found dead in the kitchen of her South-Central L.A. home, allegedly murdered by an abusive husband of her own, Gunner can't help making it his business to track her killer down. No one really wants his help - not the police, not Nina's friends, not even Nina's grieving mother, Mimi - but Gunner finds the dead woman's husband anyway, only to be convinced he's found, and seriously wounded, an innocent man. Nina Person's real murderer is still at large and Gunner alone can prove it.

An encounter at the Million Man March sucks Gunner into an ice-cold missing persons case Elroy Covington should have run. He had traveled to the Million Man March in Washington, DC, looking forward to a new city and new faces. Then in a Dupont Circle restaurant, a twist of fate brought him face to face with a man from his long-forgotten past. Instead of running, Elroy said hello. He never made it home. Eight months later, Elroy’s sister shows up in the Los Angeles office of private detective Aaron Gunner, who traded business cards with Elroy at the march and promptly forgot they ever met. Elroy’s last known location was Los Angeles, and his sister thinks he was coming to see the detective. As he tries to warm up Elroy’s frigid trail, Gunner uncovers ties to a black militant group. The time for brotherhood is over, and finding the vanished marcher will mean getting tough.

The apparent suicide of a rap star draws private investigator Aaron Gunner into a dangerous investigation that also involves an ultraconservative talk show host and a mysterious silver car that seems to be following him everywhere.

Hard times are nothing new for private investigator Aaron Gunner. Working on the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles, he's seen more than his fair share of trouble. But when his cousin and confidante Del Curry commits suicide after allegedly killing his wife and critically injuring their daughter Zina, Gunner knows he's about to face the hardest times of all. He doesn't buy the LAPD's version of the shooting and isn't going to wait for Zina to regain consciousness to disprove it. Whatever drove Del to take his own life—-and possibly assault his wife and daughter—-Gunner's going to find it, even if it means learning things about his late cousin he'll wish he never knew. But first, he has a paying case to work, proving the innocence of an Afghan War veteran accused of murder. Plagued by seering migraines and occasional fits of rage, Harper Stowe III is counting on Gunner to fill the holes in his ruined memory that make him the perfect suspect in the killing of his former employer. With a new era of American racism and divided politics on the rise all around him, Gunner must seek the truth behind two fatal shootings now, and grieve for his beloved cousin later.