Shareef Crawford has a built a publishing niche as a male author of romance novels. His readers know what to expect and love what he delivers. But Shareef is frustrated, wanting to expand his writing wings and hopefully, to reach more male readers.
When he connects with Cynthia Washington at a Harlem book signing, it seems he may have hit upon just the subject for a new type of book: the life story of an imprisoned drug dealer.
Except it seems that no one other than the drug dealer in question wants this story to be told. And telling the story might cost Shareef his life.
Readers who like a good urban story, even if they're not regular purveyors of street lit, will enjoy THE LAST STREET NOVEL. A gifted storyteller, Omar Tyree writes a page-turning story that lifts the reader and drops him smack down in the middle of Harlem. Those familiar with the landmark uptown neighborhood of New York City and those who have never visited Harlem will get a realistic, authentic feel for the place. All of the characters, both people and places, are smart and wicked. If fans of the movie New Jack City wonder where the kingpins of the 1980's are now and what they're doing, THE LAST STREET NOVEL provides an interesting look at what their lives might be like twenty plus years late, and who's controlling the streets now.
I'm not overly familiar with Mr. Tyree's work but given his recent announcement that he was retiring from writing a certain type of novel, one at which he's been very successful but to which he apparently began to feel chained down, there's a certain semi-autobiographical feel to the story.
Parallel to the primary storyline is the story about Shareef's relationship with his wife from whom he is recently separated, and with his children. Shareef has to decide what's important to him and whether he's as "grown up" as he believes himself to be. It's this part of the story that really spoke to me, although the main plotline, complete with murder, illicit affairs, and a penetrating look at the code of the streets is what makes THE LAST STREET NOVEL ripe for being picked up by a movie producer.
OMAR TYREE DOES IT AGAIN!The Philadelphia-born author, who jumpstarted the urban fiction craze more than a dozen years ago with Flyy Girl, presents the riveting new tale of Shareef Crawford, a celebrated writer of romantic fiction, who leaves his sunny mansion in South Florida and returns to his Harlem roots to pen a true crime book that may just end his life.
Craving more respect for his craft as a writer, particularly from his peer group of urban men, Shareef allows an enticing female fan to pitch him a no-holds-barred tell-all about an imprisoned Harlem gangster who admires Shareef's writing. With insane courage and an iron will, Shareef, the street-smart intellectual, finally gets a chance to write something more edgy and noteworthy.
However, the Harlem streets he returns to in 2006 have changed, and the stakes of survival are higher now than they've ever been. Amid the rise of high-priced condominiums, a changing population, young criminals gunning to make names for themselves, and old criminals fighting to become legitimate businessmen, Shareef finds himself caught in a real-life thriller where past foes become friends, and trusted friends become dangerous foes. Nevertheless, the Harlem legend is hell-bent to do anything he can to gain the respect on the streets that his career as a writer of women's fiction has failed to give him.
The Last Street Novel is another urban classic as only Tyree, the self-proclaimed Urban Griot, can write them!
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