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Tennyson Hardwick
Series · 4 books · 2007-2012

Books in series

Casanegra book cover
#1

Casanegra

2007

A dream-team collaboration—award-winning writers team up with a Hollywood star for a new mystery series like no other. Casanegra follows the adventures of Tennyson Hardwick, a gorgeous, sexy actor and former gigolo, living on the fringes of the good life in Hollywood. This story, which chronicles the redemption of a prodigal son, combines the glamour of Hollywood with the seedy hopelessness of the inner city. In this hot and steamy mystery, Tennyson struggles to hang on to his acting career and redeem his sex-for-pay history, which estranged him from his family—especially his father, a decorated LAPD captain who raised Tennyson to call him “sir.” Now, in the wake of his father’s sudden stroke, Tennyson has to save himself from taking the fall for the first murder of a female rapper. In the process he discovers his hidden talents—the hard way. Golden Globe-nominated actor and the author of Before I Got Here, Blair Underwood joins bestselling novelists Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes to create a cool, irresistible character in Tennyson Hardwick. This gritty, provocative mystery will keep readers craving more.
In the Night of the Heat book cover
#2

In the Night of the Heat

2008

Award-winning actor and author Blair Underwood joins forces with two amazing and award-winning authors Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes to deliver the second installation in the stunning and provocative Tennyson Hardwick novel In the Night of the Heat. Threatened with death after acquittal for murder, football superstar T. D. Jackson asks struggling actor and former gigolo Tennyson Hardwick for protection. Tennyson has a reputation in Hollywood after solving the murder of rapper Afrodite, but politely turns Jackson down: His acting career is taking off with a new series, and he’s trying to work out his personal life after a series of wrong turns. But Tennyson’s life is upturned when his seedy past catches up to him on the set of his TV series. Then T. D. Jackson is found dead in his home, the victim of an apparent suicide. T.D.’s gorgeous cousin, Melanie, is sure the superstar was murdered, and Jackson’s family offers Tennyson an irresistible fee to discover the truth. But prying into T. D. Jackson’s death means answering the question that divided a nation and destroyed a film star and a football icon’s life and career: Did T. D. Jackson kill his wife? When the investigation takes an unexpected turn toward the governor’s mansion and a long-forgotten football game in the segregated South of the 1960s, Tennyson uncovers secrets tearing at the heart of two dynasties and must rely on all of his assets—his actor’s heart, deadly hands, profiler’s mind, and every other part of his body—to keep from dying next.
From Cape Town with Love book cover
#3

From Cape Town with Love

2010

THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS OF CASANEGRA AND IN THE NIGHT OF THE HEAT TEAM UP FOR A THIRD TIME TO PRESENT FROM CAPE TOWN WITH LOVE, A TENNYSON HARDWICK NOVEL.Actor-turned-detective Tennyson Hardwick has solved two high-profile deaths in Hollywood, but nothing has prepared him for a race to save a child’s life. Tennyson’s past in the sex game cost him his new girlfriend, and he brings her to Cape Town, South Africa—a scenic film destination and playground for the rich—to try to win her back. There Tennyson is hired as a bodyguard by superstar Sofia Maitlin when she visits an orphanage to adopt an African child.Months later, Maitlin offers Tennyson one of Hollywood’s hottest tickets—a job as a bodyguard at adopted daughter Nandi’s A-list celebrity birthday party. But the party is over before it begins. When Nandi’s birthday goes dreadfully wrong, it’s up to a guilt-ridden Tennyson to save a child’s life and reunite a Hollywood family.But how? He can’t go to the police, the FBI has threatened to arrest him, and Big Brother is monitoring his telephone calls. To find Nandi, Tennyson will have to rely on tips from his father—a retired LAPD captain—and a mysterious woman from his past, Marsha, who has already proven she can’t be trusted. His strongest lead is a deadly knife fighter known only as Spider. When his search for the missing child crosses Marsha’s covert investigation into a criminal gang with ties to South Africa, Tennyson knows that finding Nandi might cost him his freedom—or his life.
South by Southeast book cover
#4

South by Southeast

2012

The fourth installment in this award-winning mystery series draws actor-turned-super-sleuth Tennyson Hardwick into his most challenging case, compelling him to face the unthinkable: save his daughter or the woman he loves. South by Southeast, a title inspired by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, finds Tennyson and his family in South Beach, Florida, where he is filming his role in a television detective series. Ten’s soon-to-be-adopted daughter, Chela, runs into old friend Maria from her earlier days as a prostitute in Los Angeles. The pair dives into the South Beach club scene, but Maria mysteriously goes missing. When Maria’s body washes ashore, Chela and the authorities fear that her suspicious death is connected to a serial killer preying on young prostitutes. Tennyson believes he knows who the killer is, but the suspect escapes when the actor-detective tries to capture him. When it’s believed the suspected killer may have committed suicide, things return to normal for Ten and his family. But the respite doesn’t last long, and Tennyson discovers someone is after him, his girlfriend, and Chela. Realizing it’s the killer who’s terrorizing him, Ten is presented with a lose-lose dilemma: save his daughter or the woman he loves. In a pulse-pounding thriller that could be described as Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins meets Miami Vice, Tennyson Hardwick is back big time with his trademark sexiness, sizzle, and James Bond-like sophistication.

Authors

Tananarive Due
Tananarive Due
Author · 28 books

TANANARIVE DUE (tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is the award-winning author of The Wishing Pool & Other Stories and the upcoming The Reformatory ("A masterpiece"—Library Journal). She and her husband, Steven Barnes, co-wrote the Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes co-host a podcast, "Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!" A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her books include Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, and The Good House. She and her late mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, co-authored Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights. She and her husband live with their son, Jason.

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