Betsy Thornton is a contemporary American writer of mystery fiction novels set in the Southwestern United States.

Biography

Thornton was born in Wilmington,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, United States, the oldest of four children born to Dr. Mary Elizabeth (Kelly) Thornton, PhD a professor of Classics at

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...

of Ohio and Colonel Robert L. Thornton, PhD, who became professor of Business at Miami of Ohio following his retirement from the USAF. Her sister Alix was an attorney and her brother is historian John Thornton. Her family traveled extensively, living in Europe for several years, where Thornton attended Lady Eden's School in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and Cours Ste. Geneviève in Fonteney sur Bois, a suburb of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in English, married, and lived in New York City, where her son Alex Chapin, now an academic technologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was born. She later moved to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, where she worked as a story analyst for ABC Pictures, and then moved to Europe with her second husband, the artist Rafe Ropek. They lived in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and on a small

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

island,

Skopelos Skopelos ( el, Σκόπελος, ) is a Greek island in the western Aegean Sea. Skopelos is one of several islands which comprise the Northern Sporades island group, which lies east of the Pelion peninsula on the mainland and north of the island ...

. Eventually, after a stint back in New York City, Thornton moved to Bisbee,

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, where she ran Cochise Fine Arts, a community arts center that sponsored, among other things, the Bisbee Poetry Festival. Thornton was employed for fifteen years with the

Cochise County Cochise County () is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after the Native American chief Cochise. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Bisbee and the most populous city is ...

Attorney's office in

, where she worked as an advocate for crime victims. Thornton's first published work was a chapbook of poems, published by Binturong, ''On Davis Road''. In 1982, she was awarded a Poetry Fellowship by the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

Mystery fiction

Thornton has authored eight mystery novels, all but one of which feature her main character, Chloe Newcomb. Newcomb works as a victim advocate, the same position that Thornton herself held. In 2008, Thornton's sixth novel, ''A Song for You'', was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her works have been favorably reviewed in ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', and

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

. They are published in hard covers by

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

as well as in paperback. ''A Whole New Life'' was published in

Reader's Digest Condensed Books ''Reader's Digest Condensed Books'' was a series of hardcover anthology collections, published by the American general interest monthly family magazine ''Reader's Digest'' and distributed by direct mail. Most volumes contained five (although a ...

. Thornton's latest work ''Empty Houses'' was issued by Severn House in the UK on March 31, 2015, and in the United States in July.

Published works

*''The Cowboy Rides Away'' (1996) *''High Lonesome Road'' (2001) *''Ghost Towns'' (2002) *''Dead for the Winter'' (2004) *''A Whole New Life'' (2006) Also in Hungarian *''A Song for You'' (2008) *''Dream Queen'' (2010) *''Empty Houses'' (Severn House, 2015)

References

External links

Betsythornton.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Betsy Date of birth unknown Living people Writers from Wilmington, North Carolina American mystery novelists American women novelists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers Women mystery writers Novelists from North Carolina Year of birth missing (living people)