Maggie MacGowen is a stranger to her own life, in some ways an outsider in both her American and French families. She always somehow knew there were secrets, and that they were about her. Perhaps that’s why she became an investigative filmmaker, with a lifelong habit of questioning and digging.
Still dealing with the revelation of her true biological mother, she’s in Berkeley to clear out the family home. Locked in a desk drawer she finds possible evidence (an old home movie: a time capsule from thirty years ago) to an unsolved murder that tore her neighborhood apart. New forensic methods could unravel this cold case. With the help of her new love, Jean-Paul Bernard, Maggie uncovers secrets about the murdered Vietnamese mother of a good friend and learns how the crime affected—and continues to affect—the still close-knit neighborhood. The more she finds out, the greater the threat of violence becomes, not only for the long-time neighborhood residents, but even for Maggie herself.
Wendy Hornsby is the author of ten previous mysteries, eight of them featuring Maggie MacGowen. She has won multiple awards, including the Edgar, its French equivalent le Grand Prix de literature policière, and the American Mystery Award from Mystery Scene Magazine. Critics describe Hornsby’s mysteries as “unusually poignant” (Los Angeles Times), and “powerful writing and . . . equally thought-provoking story” (Publishers Weekly). A longtime history professor in Long Beach, California, Hornsby recently retired and now lives in the Sierra foothills.
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