Wendy Hornsby (born 1947) is an American writer of

mystery fiction Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually prov ...

and a professor of history at

Long Beach City College Long Beach City College (LBCC) is a public community college in Long Beach, California. It was established in 1927 and is divided into two campuses, the Liberal Arts Campus in Lakewood Village and the Pacific Coast Campus in central Long Beach ...

. Hornsby's published work began in 1987 and 1990 with two

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...

s set in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

, and featuring history teacher Kate Teague and police officer Roger Tejeda. Since 1992, she has published more than a dozen novels about documentary filmmaker Maggie MacGowen and homicide detective Mike Flint of the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

, as well as many short stories. Hornsby names "hard-boiled California authors" such as

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

, and

Ross Macdonald Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar (; December 13, 1915 – July 11, 1983). He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featur ...

as influences on her work, and she especially praises

Margaret Millar Margaret Ellis Millar (née Sturm; February 5, 1915 – March 26, 1994) was an American-Canadian mystery and suspense writer. Born in Berlin, Ontario, (the city would change its name to Kitchener in 1916), she was educated at the Kitchener-Wa ...

's ''Stranger in My Grave'', which combined "the social conscience of hard-boiled detectives and a well-rounded, beautifully realized character in her Tom Aragon. More than any other author, Mrs. Millar has been my role model."

Critical reception

Hornsby's "Nine Sons" won an

Edgar Allan Poe Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

for "best short story" from the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

in 1992. Her other awards include an Orange Coast Fiction award (1987); an American Reader award (1992), and a Reviewers Choice award (1993). Writing in ''The St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers'', Jean Swanson says, "Hornsby's mysteries are often commended for their well-written sex scenes, as well as for their realistic depiction of urban violence" and how crime can damage city neighborhoods. "She also seems to have tapped into a vast well of stories about the old days in the LAPD, when cops routinely beat up suspects and just as routinely had sex with hookers and groupies."

Bibliography

Kate Teague crime series * ''No Harm'' (1987) * ''Half a Mind'' (1990) Maggie MacGowen crime series * ''Telling Lies'' (1992) * ''Midnight Baby'' (1993) * ''Bad Intent'' (1994) * ''77th Street Requiem'' (1995) * ''A Hard Light'' (1997) * ''In the Guise of Mercy'' (2009) * ''The Paramour's Daughter'' (2010) * ''The Hanging'' (2012) * ''The Color of Light'' (2014) * ''Disturbing the Dark'' (2016) * ''Number 7, Rue Jacob'' (2018) * ''A Bouquet of Rue'' (2019) Short story collection * ''Nine Sons: Collected Mysteries (2002)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hornsby, Wendy 1947 births 20th-century American women writers American crime fiction writers Writers from California Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni 21st-century American women writers California State University, Long Beach alumni Long Beach City College faculty