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South by Southeast

A Tennyson Hardwick Novel

About The Book

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.

About The Authors

Photo Credit:

Two-time Golden Globe nominee and Emmy, Grammy, and seven-time NAACP Image Award recipient Blair Underwood has distinguished himself as an award-winning actor, director, and producer. He has starred in Sex in the CitySelf Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, and Disney Channel’s The Lion Guard. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Follow him on Twitter at @BlairUnderwood.

Photo Credit:

Tananarive Due is an American Book Award and NAACP Image Award­–winning author, who was an executive producer on Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror for Shudder and teaches Afrofuturism and Black Horror at UCLA. She and her husband, science fiction author Steven Barnes, cowrote the graphic novel The Keeper and an episode for Season 2 of The Twilight Zone for Paramount Plus and Monkeypaw Productions. Due is the author of several novels and two short story collections, Ghost Summer: Stories and The Wishing Pool and Other Stories. She is also coauthor of a civil rights memoir, Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights (with her late mother, Patricia Stephens Due). Learn more at TananariveDue.com. 

Steven Barnes is an award-winning author of twenty-three novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Cestus Deception. Visit his website at LifeWrite.com.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Atria Books (September 18, 2012)
  • Length: 384 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781451650655

Raves and Reviews

“Seamlessly entertaining.” —Publishers Weekly

“A sizzling mystery that will keep you guessing to the very end.” —Essence

“The pace is taut, the dialogue is snappy, and it’s hard not to fall for Underwood’s fallen hero.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Hold on, there’s bound to be some turbulence.” —The Washington Post

“Gritty. Hollywood mystery that’s full of intrigue.” —Ebony

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More books in this series: Tennyson Hardwick Series