GAR ANTHONY HAYWOOD “And Pray Nobody Sees You.” PI Aaron Gunner. First published in Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes, edited by Paula L. Woods (Doubleday, hardcover, 1995). Reprinted in Shamus Winners, Volume II: 1996-2009, edited by Robert J. Randisi (Perfect Crime Books, softcover, 2010). Winner of PWA Shamus Award for Best Short Story, 1996.

   Private eye Aaron Gunner, whose cases may take him elsewhere, has an office of sorts in a back room of a barber shop in one of the less savory sections of Los Angeles. Most of his cases have been told in print in the form of full length novels, the first of which was Fear of the Dark, which won the 1988 SMP/PWA Best First P.I. Novel Contest. In terms of shorter work, he’s appeared appeared in three short stories, two of which have won PWA Shamus Awards.

   Gunner, for those unfamiliar which him, is also black. He’s hired in this case he find a car that’s been hijacked, a classic 1965 Ford Mustang. Gunner makes short work of the job, for a hefty fee, but when he finds the car, it starts him thinking. And this is the crux of the affair: what he finds and what he does about it.

   Haywood has a smooth enjoyable style of writing, but it’s also the kind of case that’s deceptively subtle when it comes to the ending. It’s a kind of conclusion that can make the reader suddenly sit up straighter and say to himself, What was that? What just happened?

   Not to worry, though. The story’s solidly constructed, and if you go back and follow along maybe a littler more carefully, you’ll find the ending is perfectly well set up. I’m happy with it, in any case, very much so, and I think you will be, too, should a copy ever land in your hands.