Midnight Baby

Wendy Hornsby

Nov 2011 · The Maggie MacGowen Mysteries Book 2 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

Maggie investigates the murder of a strange young streetwalkerDIVIn Los Angeles making a documentary about upscale day cares, Maggie MacGowen visits MacArthur Park to get contrasting footage of the pubescent prostitutes that populate its dark corners. There she meets Pisces, a fourteen-year-old hooker with manners that don’t match her profession. As they bond over a plate of pastrami, Maggie talks her into spending the night in a shelter. But Pisces comes with baggage: a nine-year-old hoodlum named Sly. Maggie takes them both to a convent, where they are fed, bathed, and tucked into bed, just like normal children. The next day, Pisces is dead, her throat slashed by an unknown hand./divDIV /divDIVThe Los Angeles Police Department has little time for murdered hookers, so it falls to Maggie to find the killer. The keys to the case are the young girl’s manners, and the fact that she died with her virginity intact./divDIV/div

About the author

Wendy Hornsby (b. 1947) is the Edgar Award–winning creator of the Maggie MacGowen series. A native of Southern California, she became interested in writing at a young age and first found professional success in fourth grade, when an essay about summer camp won a local contest. Her first novel, No Harm, was published in 1987, but it wasn’t until 1992 that Hornsby introduced her most famous character: Maggie MacGowen, documentarian and amateur sleuth.DIV /divDIVHornsby has written seven MacGowen novels, most recently The Paramour’s Daughter (2010), and the sprawling tales of murder and romance have won her widespread praise. For her closely observed depiction of the darker sides of Los Angeles, she is often compared to Raymond Chandler. Besides her novels, Hornsby has written dozens of short stories, some of which were collected in Nine Sons (2002). When she isn’t writing, she teaches ancient and medieval history at Long Beach City College. /div