Wendy Hornsby’s Followers (25)

Wendy Hornsby

Website

http://www.wendyhornsby.com/

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers

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I can’t remember ever not knowing that I was a writer. When I was in the second grade, because I was forever writing little stories, my teacher, a lovely woman named Barbara Heath, gave me her own copy of Little Women, to keep. Hardcover, illustrated, no less. The story wasn’t so much magic for me as was the character of Jo March. Somehow I knew Jo, I pretended I was her sometimes, and knew I was going to grow up to be, as she was, a writer.

When I was in fourth grade, I turned pro. My essay, “Why I love Camp Nawakwa,” won a community contest, earning me a camp scholarship, and my future was set. Sort of. Loving Camp Nawakwa was my writing pinnacle for quite a while.

When it was time for college, I headed off to UCLA, where I tried on a large I can’t remember ever not knowing that I was a writer. When I was in the second grade, because I was forever writing little stories, my teacher, a lovely woman named Barbara Heath, gave me her own copy of Little Women, to keep. Hardcover, illustrated, no less. The story wasn’t so much magic for me as was the character of Jo March. Somehow I knew Jo, I pretended I was her sometimes, and knew I was going to grow up to be, as she was, a writer.

When I was in fourth grade, I turned pro. My essay, “Why I love Camp Nawakwa,” won a community contest, earning me a camp scholarship, and my future was set. Sort of. Loving Camp Nawakwa was my writing pinnacle for quite a while.

When it was time for college, I headed off to UCLA, where I tried on a large number of majors before I decided on History. History, well told, has more romance, adventure, intrigue, courage, provocative mystery than any fiction that can be imagined. Besides, the process of historical research and writing mysteries have a great deal in common. One snoops through the remnants of people’s lives – real or fictional – asking the important who, what, where, and when questions and implying insight with the hope of making sense of things. The study of History is great preparation for a writer, especially a writer of mysteries.

The afternoon that I learned I had passed my comprehensive exams for the Masters degree in History at CSULB, I was hired to teach History as an adjunct at Long Beach City College. Over the next decades I taught, went to school some more, raised two beautiful babies to adulthood, acquired a full-time tenured position at LBCC, and, somehow, between school and soccer and baseball and school plays, managed to get seven mystery novels and many, many short stories published. Amazing how that happened.

When my kids, Alyson and Christopher, were of a certain age, I took them to visit The Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, where Louisa May Alcott grew up and where she wrote Little Women. I stood in her upstairs bedroom, beside the little half-moon desk where she created Jo March, and thanked her for giving a little girl a bit of courage to believe that she, too, could be a writer.

Wendy Hornsby is the Edgar Award winning author of the Maggie MacGowen mysteries. ...more

Combine Editions
Wendy Hornsby’s books

Average rating: 3.65 · 2,239 ratings · 281 reviews · 55 distinct works • Similar authors

	Telling Lies (A Maggie MacGowen Mystery #1) 3.53 avg rating — 116 ratings — published 1992 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Midnight Baby (A Maggie MacGowen Mystery #2) 3.77 avg rating — 74 ratings — published 1993 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	77th Street Requiem (A Maggie MacGowen Mystery #4) 3.64 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 1995 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bad Intent (A Maggie MacGowen Mystery #3) 3.59 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 1994 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Color of Light: A Maggie MacGowen Mystery 3.98 avg rating — 51 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Hard Light (A Maggie MacGowen Mystery #5) 3.64 avg rating — 53 ratings — published 1997 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Paramour's Daughter (A Maggie MacGowen Mystery #7) 3.92 avg rating — 48 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No Harm (A Kate Teague Mystery #1) 3.67 avg rating — 46 ratings — published 1987 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hanging 3.58 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 2012 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In the Guise of Mercy 3.55 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 2009 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Wendy Hornsby…

Series by Wendy Hornsby

A Maggie MacGowen Mystery (12 books)
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Wendy Hornsby

3.73 avg rating — 624 ratings

A Kate Teague Mystery (2 books)
by

Wendy Hornsby

3.63 avg rating — 87 ratings

Topics Mentioning This Author

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2026 Reading Chal...: #readwomen2014 - 2014	855	613	Dec 31, 2014 08:04PM
2026 Reading Chal...: Dana's 75 in 2014	14	86	Jan 02, 2015 08:42PM
Cozy Mysteries : Mystery ABC's, Round 2	12168	1139	Mar 21, 2016 12:30PM
Cozy Mysteries : Title and Author game, Round 3	13653	562	Apr 03, 2017 09:53AM
The Seasonal Read...: Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD	2194	417	May 31, 2018 09:01PM
Cozy Mysteries : Title and Author game, Round 5	7285	330	May 14, 2020 09:14PM
Cozy Mysteries : Mystery ABCs game, Round 9	4153	819	Jul 20, 2025 12:49PM

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Wendy Hornsby’s Followers (25)

Wendy Hornsby

Combine EditionsWendy Hornsby’s books

Series by Wendy Hornsby

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Wendy Hornsby’s books