Andre Hardy ’19 (Los Angeles, MFA) will publish his debut novel, Tear the City Down, with Grand Central Publishing on September 1, 2026. The hard-edged noir thriller follows Coltrane Davis, a fixer for a corrupt San Diego political kingmaker who is trying to leave that life behind and focus on his teenage daughter. When the Los Angeles Chargers’ star running back disappears before a major game, Coltrane is drawn into an investigation that takes him through the city’s underworld and forces him to confront questions of power, race, loyalty, family, and redemption.
A former NFL running back, Hardy came to Antioch University Los Angeles to pursue his MFA in Creative Writing after turning from professional football to writing. (Read a 2019 profile on Hardy on Common Thread.) While at Antioch, he immersed himself in hard-boiled detective fiction and began developing the character of Coltrane and the story that would ultimately evolve into Tear the City Down. Hardy’s writing has also appeared in Lunch Ticket, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and L.A. Tribe Magazine, and his short fiction has been included in Made in L.A.: An Anthology of Stories Rooted in the City of Angels.
The 432-page novel is already earning praise from some of crime fiction’s leading writers, including S.A. Cosby, Paula Hawkins, Tod Goldberg, Ace Atkins, and Eli Cranor. Cosby calls it “a fantastic journey through mean streets and shattered hearts,” while Hawkins describes Hardy as “a distinctive new voice in American noir.”
Hardy also recently discussed Tear the City Down with The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, offering readers a closer look at the novel and his path from professional football to fiction writing.
Tear the City Down will be published in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook editions by Grand Central Publishing.
