Underwood, Blair, with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes - Casanegra

[oyceter]

I first heard of this via delux_vivens' link to an NPR segment, and while the talk of writing a book with the idea of a movie as well tends to scare me off, Underwood, Due and Barnes' comments about the book were very interesting (aka, I hope the movie-talk doesn't scare off other people either).

Tennyson Hardwick is currently a wannabe-actor, formerly a gigolo and a bodyguard, and always handsome and smooth with women. He soon finds himself a suspect in the murder of his former client, rapper and actress Afrodite, and runs about trying to clear his name (which is the very appropriate "Ten Hardwick." Hi, I am twelve!).

I was a little hesitant at first because the plot involves gangster rappers and how one of them thinks of women as whores, etc. etc. But the authors are much more nuanced than that, and a lot of the plot with the LAPD reminded me of the politics of Homicide: LotS in how nicely complicated and complex and multilayered it was.

I wanted to shake Ten every two pages because he kept doing stupid things! Like, if you are the prime suspect for a murder case, it might be a good idea to not compound your case with things like breaking and entering and illegal possession! I mean, I get that this must happen for Ten to be the protagonist and to solve the mystery himself and that every thriller hero/heroine ever does this, but I kept going "Ack! Don't do that! Not good!"

I wasn't as sold on the erotic part of this book (Underwood mentions that he was inspired by a character in a script and by Zane's erotica); I suspect much of that is because it's from Ten's first person POV and it just feels very male. Clearly it is meant to be very male, so YMMV.

In the end, my favorite relationships in the book were the non-romantic ones, particularly with a secondary character who shows up halfway through the book.

The plot was very page-turning, I liked the characters, and I'd be interested to see what happens in the next book, particularly if Underwood, Due and Barnes keep the characters changing and growing. And I'm a little surprised to say this, given my general antipathy toward books-turned-movies, but I'd be really interested to see how this would be adapted to a movie, especially with Underwood at the helm.

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I haven't read that one yet...although I must confess I got more than a little giggle to see Due and Barnes collaborating with Blair Underwood here, as in one of Tananarive's earlier books there's a recurring bit about how the protagonist's too-good-to-be-true husband looks a lot like Underwood. Back when I picked that one up I had no idea her husband was a scriptwriter, now I'm wondering if that was partially a little injoke to a family friend.

(Have you read any of her other stuff? The Living Blood and My Soul to Keep are perhaps one of the most appealingly different takes on vampirism I've ever seen, she totally abandons the usual bloodsucker cliches and comes up with a fascinating new Afrocentric vamp mythos. Also there's more of a female POV in those so the erotic elements might work better for you.)

[oyceter]

I sadly haven't read any Barnes or Due outside of this, though I mean to pick them up now. Especially now that you mention vampires! Awesome!

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I have a bit of a shameful weakness for vampy stuff, but so often it's cheesy and I feel a little silly about the ho-hum-clicheness of so much of it, which is part of why I loved her two vamp books so very, very much. Trying not to spoil it here limits what I can say, but basically other than blood-drinking and immortality she mostly abandons all of the usual European-style vamp lore and comes up with something entirely new and different, and that was just such an incredible thrill to see. I'd recommend reading those in order, I read them backwards because I'd stumbled across the second book in a used bookstore, picked it up on a whim, and found it to be a total gripping pageturner -- the first one was still enjoyable taken out of order, but doing that left me spoiled for some of the plot twists and suspense of the first one.

Her non-vampy paranormal book The Between is also very good, but I like that one in different ways and for different reasons? The characters there are a little bit less likeable than the leads in the vamp novels, structurally it's more of a satisfyingly tight little self-contained circle than the more loosely sprawling vamp books...I could see how it was going to end but not in a bad "this is so unoriginal I can plot it out in advance" way, more like a Greek tragedy "there's only one way this can end, let's watch all the pieces fall into place" sort of inevitability? It's also worth reading, but in the end I'd have to say that the vamp books are more fun.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I had more or less the same set of reactions you did. But I am like the anti-twelve or something; I didn't realize about his name until about halfway through.

[oyceter]

Yay you read it too!

I want to read the next book just to find out more about Chela.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

did they say anything about movign forward on her vampire novels being made into a movie? last i heard underwood had been scouting locations in ethiopia.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

...movie, did you say? *huge eyes*

If they film that with Blair as his mister-perfect-lookalike Dawit that would rock SO DAMN HARD.

[oyceter]

!!!! I had no idea! Awesome!