Maggie MacGowen Books In Order

Publication Order of A Maggie MacGowen Mystery Books

The Maggie MacGowen series is a series of mystery and thriller novels written by the Edgar Award winning author Wendy Hornsby. The series consists of a total of 8 books published between the years 1992 and 2012. Each of the novels of the series features the main protagonist in the form of Maggie MacGowen who is described as a documentary filmmaker and resides in Los Angeles, California. Throughout the series Maggie MacGowen gets indulged in some or the other cases, while doing her documentary film making work, due to which she is forced to face some unwanted situations. On many occasions, the situations become very difficult for her and cause her to strive hard in order to solve the issues around her and get going peacefully ahead in her life and documentary making.

One of the initial novels of the series was published under the title ‘Bad Intent’, which was released by the Onyx publishing house in the year 1994. The plot of the novel is based in Los Angeles, California and introduces the character of Maggie MacGowen as the main protagonist. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Maggie MacGowen’s life seems to be rocked by a mistake from the past life of her boyfriend. For decades, she has been involved in making progressive documentary movies in her career and she had never expected to fall in love due to her busy job schedules. But, the man with whom she seems to have fallen in love is a cop in the Los Angeles police department called as Mike Trent. Maggie MacGowen had met with Mike Trent for the first time when he was investigating the shooting of her sister Emily in the previous novel of the series. Although, Maggie seems to have fallen for the charm and strong physique of Mike Trent, he does seem to be a common stereotype of the Los Angeles police department. He has been described by the author as a tall and strong man with a craggy Bogart face and salt and pepper styled hair.

Mike inspires Maggie MacGowen to uproot herself along with her daughter and shift down to Los Angeles from San Francisco forever. However, the lives of Maggie MacGowen and her daughter begins to collapse after only a week in their new life in Los Angeles. Mike Trent’s life as a police detective is described from the beginning, in the next plot of the novel. About 15 years ago, he was appointed as a detective in the Los Angeles police department and the first case that he landed was about the shooting of an off duty cop. The homicide investigation of the shooting of the cop seemed to be a high profile case. Considering the importance of the high profile people involved in the case, the commanding officers of Mike Trent began pressurizing him to obtain the results quickly. Even though Mike claims that he had convicted the real culprit in the case, the reality was something else. Also, the methods of the police officials during the time of the year 1979 were not considered clean, especially during the post-Rodney King era of Los Angeles. As the case of wrong conviction in the earlier case comes into the limelight, the district attorney begins to push serious charges on Mike Trent. Now, it is up to Maggie MacGowen to choose between the defending the love of her life and realizing the fact that he might not be as kind as he appears.

One of the other initial novels of the series was published in the year 1995 by the Onyx publishing house. It was titled ’77th Street Requiem’ and continued to feature the primary character of Maggie MacGowen as the main protagonist of the plot of the novel, along with the characters of Mike Trent and Roy Frady. In the opening sequence of the plot of the second novel of the series, Maggie MacGowen is depicted as trying to look into the decades old murder case of a controversial cop. A long time ago from the present time, Roy Frady was introduced as a perfect and sincere cop in the Los Angeles police department. But today, Maggie MacGowen has taken up his personal and professional life story for making one of her documentary films. During the time of his tenure as a police officer, Roy Frady was appointed to work in the narcotics department of the Seventy Seventh Street Division of the police department, which was a part of a unit nicknamed as the Four Horsemen. Frady and his team were considered to be a merry band full of iron-fisted brothers, who strived very hard to keep the district free from any type of drug abuse. But after a short while, they were charged with a series of brutality charges which resulted in the downfall of Roy Frady and his narcotics team.

Following the downfall, Roy Frady was found shot dead with a 9 mm bullet in his skull. For the next couple of decades, no one was able to solve the case of the murder of Roy Frady. It is later revealed in the plot of the novel that one of the unit members of the Four Horsemen was Mike Trent. After the death of Roy Frady, Mike Trent has gone on to become a homicide detective and has also fallen in love with the documentary filmmaker Maggie MacGowen. The file about the murder case of Roy Frady never left the desk of Mike Trent throughout his career as a homicide detective in the Los Angeles police department. But, as he is approaching his retirement now, he vows to solve the case well before his retirement. Soon, he learns that Maggie McGowen is willing to make a documentary movie about the life of Roy Frady and his career as a police officer. She has also planned to include the investigation details from the file of Mike Trent in the documentary. Maggie seems rather unaware that her willingness to make the documentary with the help of her camera is going to find certain things from the past life of Mike Trent, which seem very ugly and not wanted by Mike to be known to others.

One Response to “Maggie MacGowen”

1. Ronel Mathers (shecklen): 1 year ago

   Hello Ms. Wendy,
   Seems strange to say hello with all the time that has past. But Maybe fun. Was going through trunks and came across your First No Harm book. I guess mom had this from years ago. Think I will try to ready. Also the Maggie MacGowen books sound interesting. I don’t read much and not very fast so well see. Quick update. Mom and Dad died in 2001. Anita Lives in McKinney, Texas just NE of Dallas. Has two daughters and 5 grandkids. Rhea lives in Astoria Oregon, Has son and daughter and 3 grandkids. I live in Reno NV, One son and One grandson. We’re not doing to bad for Old Ladies.
   Hope you enjoyed to update and hell-o.

   Reply