Before her Hollywood dreams were shattered, Pearle Monalise Brown was the tenacious aspiring actress from Compton's unforgiving, scarred streets. Never broken, Pearle switches gears to a fallback plan — resorting to using her beauty and acting skills to swindle money and expensive jewels. When she's hired by the Colombian cartel to steal a priceless Basquiat from a debonair kingpin and art collector named Blaque, her talents might not be enough to keep her from falling into a trap she never saw coming.

In Blaque Pearle, the riveting debut from Tarris Marie, the genres of women’s crime and urban romance collide in a sophisticated, action-packed story featuring a deeply flawed but relatable protagonist who will risk everything for love and for her family — and she just might have to.

Blaque is sagacious and handsome, not to mention the legacy of two powerful organized crime families: the Laurents, known dons hailing from Kingston, Jamaica; and the Savages, a sophisticated syndicate with criminal enterprises across the U.S.

As Blaque and Pearle become passionately entangled, Pearle falls prey to a darker underworld. Time is ticking. Lives are at stake. Will these love outlaws be able to outsmart their enemies, or will they wage an all-out war, leaving the bodies to fall wherever they may?

“Blaque Pearle is a riveting page-turner, fueled by complex characters, erotic energy, and high-stakes action. I couldn’t put it down,” said Tanisha C. Ford, author of Dressed in Dreams: A Black Girl’s Love Letter to the Power of Fashion. “Tarris Marie is a fresh voice on the literary scene who is reimagining the urban crime and suspense genres. I’m excited to see what she writes next. She’s definitely one to watch.”