Casanegra

A Tennyson Hardwick Story

By: Blair Underwood, Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes

Narrated by: Richard Allen

Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Casanegra follows the adventures of Tennyson Hardwick, a gorgeous, sexy former actor and gigolo living on the fringes of the good life in Hollywood. This story combines the glamour of Hollywood with the seedy hopelessness of the inner city.

In this hot and steamy mystery, Tennyson is an actor struggling to hang on to his 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 a murder. In the process, he discovers his hidden talents - the hard way.

Blair Underwood, a Golden Globe-nominated actor and the author of Before I Got Here, joins best-selling novelists Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes to create a cool, irresistible character in Tennyson Hardwick. And this gritty, provocative mystery will keep readers craving more.

©2007 Blair Underwood, Tananarive Due, and Steven Barnes (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Actor Underwood...teams up with accomplished authors Due and Barnes to produce a seamlessly entertaining novel." ( Publishers Weekly)

Wordy to the Max

The story was pretty good but I had a hard time keeping up. Sometimes there was entirely too much description of actions or surroundings. The ending kept my attention because it was much better than the beginning. Lots of action and the twist and turns we not expected, but a welcoming surprise.

great book

thought character of Tennyson was well thought out and conclusion was pretty good. The narration was good also.

fair read.

I enjoyed the decription of the main character,but took too long to understand what was going on with the woman murdered and why and who killed her.

Poignant moments are worth it

I have to say, first off, my review is influenced by the authors, I like, and respect them.
And having said that, the narrator took brownie points, I wish I could’ve felt the influence of Ms Due a little more. but I could appreciate Mr. Underwood’s story line. You will not regret the one credit you spend because it stays on your mind until you have a conclusion to these life lines in the story. No raves, but no major regrets. I would watch this if Blair Underwood had the leading role

The horrible voice reading the book

The voice, couldn’t get past it enough to listen to the book. It does not lend to the topic of the book, lacks any emotion.

Made for TV- not for reading

It seems like the goal of this novel was to sell the rights for a TV series. Tennyson "Ten" is a former male prostitute with the heart of gold. His one dimensional character is thrown in the middle of a murder case where he is the number one police suspect. Unfortunately, the author forgot to give him a motive for the murder and therefore the book was unable to create enough inner drive for Tennyson, an unskilled, financially challenged wannabe detective, to constantly put his life at risk. Just did not add up. Overall, should make a good made for TV piot, but not a new detective series thriller.

context

I did not enjoy this particular book because it was shallow in content, used way too much descriptive sexual activity that just seemed to be thrown in without much advancement of the plot.
Did enjoy the development of the main characters.

Skeptic

It's a bit hard to believe that a policeman's son is as naive as Tennyson appears to be, so I had a hard time dealing with the fact that the events depicted in the story actually could happen. To believe that Tennyson was a former pimp and then believe that he would pick up a stray kid, play hero, etc. stretches the imagination. Parts of the story was interesting but for the most part, it was a bit of a joke to listen to this pitiful story. Also the narrator was a little too exaggerated in his story telling even down to the sex scenes. I would recommend not wasting one's time nor money listening to this drivel.

Really Bad

This book was awful. The writing was surprisingly poor given the excellent work typically produced by Tananarive Due. Her books are excellent. But, this collaborative piece consisted of a painfully thin plot strung together with needlessly long drawn out sexual scenarios that did not add to the content. The narration was also painful to listen to. For better books, particularly mystery/thrillers, I would suggest anything (else) by Tananarive Due or Brandon Massey.

Not what I thought

I only listened to the first few chapters. Sex scenes were too much......