The Hanging: A Maggie MacGowen Mystery

In Edgar-winner Hornsby’s well-constructed eighth Maggie MacGowen mystery (after 2010’s The Paramour’s Daughter), documentary filmmaker Maggie, now teaching at California’s Anacapa Community College, finds the college’s unpopular president, ex-congressman Park Holloway, hanging from a hoist built to display a sculpture created by a protégé of Maggie’s, sophomore Ronald “Sly” Miller. When Sly falls under suspicion of murder because Holloway promised to replace his sculpture with a work by “a professional artist” within a year, Maggie decides to investigate. As she learns more about Holloway’s angry son, corrupt associates, and unethical practices, she realizes his murky political and personal past would make compelling material for a film. Hornsby, a community college professor herself, offers a nuanced glimpse of campus life in the budget-crisis era, a plot with a nicely topical twist, and a cast of smart, appealing characters. Readers will cheer Maggie on as both new romance and fresh career opportunities beckon. (Sept.)