A Hard Light: A Maggie MacGowen Mystery [Paperback]

Wendy Hornsby (Author)

Book Description

Series: Maggie MacGowen Mystery | Publication Date: July 1, 1998

Filmmaker and amateur sleuth Maggie MacGowen is approached by a beautiful Vietnamese expatriate to find a scholar who escaped from Vietnam after the war, and abruptly disappeared. Maggie takes the case. Her only link with the Vietnamese community is her ex-husband, who conducted business in Vietnam. Now the web of intrigues, lies, and betrayals is about to trap everyone it touches, Maggie, her ex-husband, and even her daughter.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Documentary filmmaker Maggie MacGowen (Bad Intent, LJ 4/15/94) decides to sell her San Francisco house?all she has left from a long-dead marriage. Murder claims the would-be new owner (a long-time client of her ex-husband) and then the ex-husband himself, so Maggie looks for the connection. A winning series.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Freelance reporter Maggie MacGowen is back in another action-packed adventure. Maggie is making a documentary on teenage criminals when a Vietnamese friend is robbed. Puzzlingly, the thief, also Vietnamese, is an acquaintance of the victim. Maggie becomes inextricably involved in the crime when she decides to sell the house she and her ex-husband, Scott, bought years ago. The sale of the house leads to the deaths of Scott and his longtime client, a Vietnamese. Tiny jade Vietnamese figurines are found on both bodies, and Maggie realizes that the Vietnamese thief and victim in the original case may be linked to the murders. With the help of LAPD detective and boyfriend Mike Flint, Maggie unravels the complex story behind the case--a story that goes back to the last tragic days of the Vietnam War. Smart, tough, and idealistic, Maggie MacGowen is an appealingly unorthodox heroine in a fine series. This one belongs in every collection. Emily Melton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Signet (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451186907
• ISBN-13: 978-0451186904
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,725,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wendy Hornsby (1947 - ) is a native of Southern California, the setting for her nine mystery novels. Among the awards she has received for her work are the Edgar Allan Poe Award (the "Edgar") and its French equivalent le Grand Prix de litterature policiere, as well as nominations for the Anthony Award and the Prix Du Roman D'Adventures. While a NPR interviewer described the author as a "soft-spoken college professor," critics have described her work as "refreshing [and] real" (NY Times), "unusually poignant" (LA Times), and "powerful writing and... equally thought-provoking story" (Publisher's Weekly). The Cleveland Plain Dealer declared, "No mystery novelist since Raymond Chandler may have captured downtown Los Angeles as Hornsby does."

Hornsby lives in Long Beach CA, where she teaches history at a local college.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most intelligent, funny mysteries written., December 8, 1998

By 

J (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Hard Light: 0A Maggie MacGowen Mystery (Hardcover)

While I am an avid mystery reader, with emphasis on female writers, I had never heard of Wendy Hornsby or her Maggie McGowen series until recently - having read one, I found all the others and read those too! The Maggie McGowen series is one of the best I have read and I enjoyed each book. A Hard Light centers on a missing shipment of Vietnamese art and the now refugee Vietnamese curators, one an acquaintence of Maggie, who were responsible for shipping the art out during the final days of the South Vietnamese government. Documentary film maker, Maggie McGowen, is still between her San Francisco house and her LAPD detective, Mike Flint, who is involved in a brutal murder-by-children case. A good read!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book in a fantastic series written by a rising star, June 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A Hard Light: 0A Maggie MacGowen Mystery (Hardcover)

Maggie MacGowen is going through a mid-life crisis. Her teenage daughter Casey, a high school junior, has an offer to attend a dance academy in Boston. Her network television contract is about to expire and probably will not be renewed. To top it all off, her lover, Los Angeles police detective Mike Flint has a little more than three months to go before he retires. With all this going on, Maggie, who rents a home in the Los Angeles area, decides the time is right to sell the San Francisco house she still owns from her long ago marriage. ...... However, before she can sell the house, an old friend and former client to her ex-spouse Scott, VietNamese Khanh Nguyen, asks Maggie to locate an old acquaintance Minh Tam. However, Khanh is killed and Scott suddenly appears back in her life, desperately wanting to purchase her house. Adding to the troubles confronting Maggie since she placed her house on the market, someone is watching every move that she and Casey make. If the two of them are not extremely careful, actions from Maggie's past will catch up to her present and end her and/or Casey's future. ..... Wendy Hornsby gets better and better with each new novel she writes. Her latest Maggie MacGowen mystery, A HARD LIGHT, is an exciting who-done-it that adds much flavor to the series by interconnecting events from Maggie's past with her present lifestyle. If Ms. Hornsby gets any better, she going to become the leading writer of the genre. .....Harriet Klausner