Wendy Hornsby Books In Order

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Wendy Hornsby is an Edgar award winning author from California, United States, who has written a number of successful novels based on the mystery and thriller genres. She is particularly famous for writing down the Maggie MacGowen Mystery series, for which she has won many awards. Wendy says that she has always dreamed of becoming a writer and right from the second grade, she had started writing some little stories of her own. Seeing her interest in writing, her teacher named Barbara Seth, who she considers a lovely lady, gave her a copy of Little Women. Wendy became so much inspired by the character of the protagonist of the novel, Jo March that she sometimes pretended to herself. From then on, she had decided to become a writer after growing up, like the character of Jo March. When Wendy was in the 4th grade, she grew into a pro writer and began writing essays. One of her short essays won a contest in the community and helped her to earn a camp scholarship. With this success, she began thinking that her future as a noteworthy was set. Her experiences at the camp Nawakwa remained her writing pinnacle for a major part of her career. At the time of her college years, Wendy tried joining the UCLA and thought of majoring in a number of subjects before deciding to go for History.

Wendy believes that when History is well told, it has more adventure, courage, romance, intrigue, and provocative mystery than any other form of fiction ever imagined. She also believes that the processes of writing mystery novels and researching about history have a lot of common things in them. As History tries to snoop through the remnants of the lives of people and asks all the important questions and thereby implies the insights and gives the hope of making sense of the things, its study is considered to be a great preparation for the writers, especially the mystery writers. Wendy got hired to teach the subject of History at the Long Beach City College, on the same day she passed her exams for her Masters degree in the subject of History. Over the next few years, she kept teaching History, went to college for some more studies, acquired a full time position at the LBCC, got married and raised a couple of children, and managed to complete a total of 7 mystery novels in between her school, baseball, school plays, and soccer. She also completed writing several short stories during the same period. When her children, Christopher and Alyson, grew up, Wendy took them to The Orchard House in Concard situated in Massachusetts, the place where the writer of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott had grown up. As the place has been converted into a visiting place by the government, Wendy took the chance to stand in the upstairs bedroom of the author, right beside the half-moon desk where she had created the character of Jo March. She thanked her for giving the much required courage to her to believe that she could also become a writer. For writing down the Maggie MacGoewn mysteries successfully, author Wendy Hornsby was able to win the prestigious Edgar Aard.

The Maggie MacGowen Mystery series written by author Wendy Hornsby consists of a total of 8 novels published between the years 1992 and 2012. The series features the character of Maggie MacGowen as the main protagonist, who works as a documentary filmmaker situated in Los Angeles, California. The first novel of the series was published by the Onyx publishing house in the year 1992. It was titled ‘Telling Lies’ and featured the main characters in the form of Maggie MacGowen, and her sister Emily MacGowen. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, a brutal attack takes place on Maggie MacGowen’s sister Emily after which she begins to search Los Angeles for the gunman who had attacked her. In the past when Maggie was just a little girl, Emily used to live a life like a leftist and used to be on the run always from the FBI. Twenty two years have passed since she was finally caught by the FBI after which she began living in Los Angeles. Now, she works as a doctor at one of the free clinics in the city that attends most of the down and out of the city. But when one of her old colleagues comes out of his hiding place and surrenders unconditionally to the police, many of their long time crimes become the news on the front pages of the newspapers. To get some help, Emily calls her sister Maggie, who works as a documentary maker in Los Angeles. When asked to come and visit her, Maggie discovers that she had been hit by a bullet at point blank range in the broad daylight, which has sent her into a coma. Although it seems to be a random violent act, Maggie still decides to dig deep into the case. She ends up finding some dark secrets from the past life of her sister as well as a conspiracy which does not seem to end till all those who are asking the questions are not silenced.

The second novel of the series was published under the title ‘Midnight Baby’ and was released by the Signet publishing house in the year 1993. The plot of the novel continues to deal with the life of the main character Maggie MacGowen. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Maggie is introduced as investigating the murder of a young and strange streetwalker in Los Angeles, while working on her job as a documentary maker related to the upscale day cares of the city. With the intention of gaining some important clues, Maggie visits the MacArthur park and tries to get the contrasting footage about the pubescent prostitute who work during the dark. She meets a 14 year old hooker named Pisces who seems to have certain that do not match her job as a prostitute. Maggie tries to bond with her over a pastrami plate and talks into staying in a shelter for the rest of the night. But, she is accompanied by a 9 year old hoodlum with the named Sly. Maggie takes both of them to a convent, where she makes them have baths and puts them to sleep. But, she finds Pisces dead on the next day as she had succumbed to her wounds from a slashed throat. As the LAPD does not seem interested in the murder case involving a hooker, Maggie decides to take the mattes in her own hand in finding the real killer. She believes that the manners of Pisces are the important keys to the case and the fact the young girl had not lost her virginity makes the case even more interesting.

One Response to “Wendy Hornsby”

1. Gene Ferguson: 3 months ago

   Just finished 77th Street Requiem real page turner as the history of SLA intertwines with the fiction. Have read first of Wendy’s 6 books and loved everyone of them. Met Wendy when she appeared with follow author of mysteries, Janet Dawson in 2016 at book readin & signing in Oakland, California. Look for more of reading her novels.

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