The Paramour's Daughter

July 19, 2010
Edgar-winner Hornsby's enthralling seventh Maggie MacGowen mystery (after 2009's In the Guise of Mercy) takes the documentary filmmaker to France. Late one night in the parking lot of a Malibu, Calif., supermarket, an erratic old woman with "a pretty little accent" accosts Maggie, claiming that Maggie is her daughter, Marguerite. Later that same night, the woman turns up dead from a hit-and-run. During a visit to her mother in Berkeley, Maggie learns a 43-year-old secret from her mother, who tearfully confesses that "a beautiful young French scientist named Isabelle" had a baby, Marguerite, whom Isabelle gave up to Maggie's parents. In France, Maggie becomes the center of an inheritance controversy involving her birth mother's family, including cousins, an uncle, and a half-brother, each of whom has hidden motives. Murder follows a funeral at the family's palatial Normandy estate. Readers will almost be able to taste the food and drink the author so vividly describes.

August 1, 2010

Filmmaker Maggie MacGowen is accosted by a frantic woman who claims to be her birth mother. Next day the woman is dead, and it turns out the extended family Maggie never knew existed wants Maggie to carry her mother's ashes back to France. Danger lurks in every shadow as the relatives have hidden agendas regarding Maggie's inheritance. VERDICT In her seventh series entry (after In the Guise of Mercy), Hornsby deftly uses a patina of the gothic to add suspense to her engaging tale. The bad guys are a bit cliched, but anyone seeking a perfect summer read can pick this one up with confidence. For readers of Nora Roberts and Mary Higgins Clark.

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