Blair Underwood – författare

In this moving biography and memoir, Blair Underwood, acclaimed star of film, stage, and television, pays homage to his mother, sharing her well-lived life, and key lessons learned as a fashion designer, mother, and soldier’s wife.Born in Buffalo, New York, Marilyn Ann Scales Underwood dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. Moving to New York City to study at the Traphagen School of Fashion, she became an assistant designer and eventually returned to her hometown where she began her career as the first Black female executive at Barmon Brothers Company. Independent and content with being single, she wasn’t interested in marriage until she met Lieutenant Frank Underwood.Blair Underwood honors his mother with this remarkable work, bringing into sharp focus her life as a soldier's wife, mother, and successful entrepreneur, drawn from his memories, her letters, and interviews with family and friends. Told thematically, organized around essential pillars, Underwood gently peels back the layers of his mother’s life and character to reveal highly, triumphant, and sometimes-scary moments told in Marilyn’s warm and witty voice that connects with readers. Painting a wonderfully rich and deeply human portrait of a woman whose indelible mark is felt by all privileged to know her.

An unputdownable and sizzling mystery in the heart of Hollywood, perfect for fans of Devil in a Blue Dress and Miami Vice.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.

Award-winning actor and author Blair Underwood rejoins forces with two popular writers to deliver the second installment—now in paperback—in their stunning and provocative Tennyson Hardwick chronicles.For the first time since their breakout debut, Casanegra, the powerful trio of Blair Underwood, Tananarive Due, and Steven Barnes teams up to bring readers back into the sexy and entertaining world of struggling actor and gigolo-turned-sleuth Tennyson Hardwick. In the Night of the Heat picks up where Casanegra left off, after Tennyson has solved the murder of rapper Afrodite. His reputation brings football superstar T. D. Jackson to his door, asking for protection when he is threatened with death after acquittal for murder. Tennyson politely turns Jackson down to pursue his acting career and personal life. But when Jackson is found dead in his home, the victim of an apparent suicide, Tennyson can’t resist prying into the football star’s death— especially if it means answering the question that divided a nation: Did T. D. Jackson really kill his wife?

The third in the “bold, sexy, and engaging” (Zane, New York Times bestselling author) Tennyson Hardwick series takes the former gigolo and current private eye to South Africa as he searches for love and ends up embroiled in an international mystery.Actor-turned-detective Tennyson Hardwick’s past as a sex worker has cost him his new girlfriend. Determined to win her back, he follows her to Cape Town, South Africa, accepting a job 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 who has already proven she can’t be trusted. When his search for the missing child crosses paths with a criminal gang with ties to South Africa, Tennyson knows that finding Nandi might cost him his freedom—or his life.