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.
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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