The Paramour's Daughter
Wendy Hornsby
Perseverance, Sep 9 2010, $14.95
ISBN: 9781564744968

Independent film producer Maggie MacGowan is in the parking lot about to go shopping when she is accosted by a strange well dressed woman who insists she knows her. Nervous, Maggie asks store security to get the stranger to leave her alone. That same night the woman is run over twice by the same car. Maggie identifies the body as the person who disturbed her earlier in the day. Her mother informs Maggie the deceased is Isabelle Martin.

Her mom also tells Maggie the woman was her biological mother who her father had an affair with and eventually gained custody of the baby as Isabelle abandoned her. Maggie wants to meet her extended biological family residing in France. However, she is ignorant that at least one of them will do anything to keep the inheritance from shifting to the American. Someone does not want that to happen and attempts to kill Maggie as that individual used hit men to murder Isabelle

The Paramour's Daughter plays out on two interwoven threads: that of a whodunit and a woman seeking her biological roots in France where she is unwelcome as the "Ugly American" trying to steal "their" fortune. Maggie may mourn the loss of someone she never knew, but also is interested in a French diplomat, which adds sizzle to the Family Plot of homicide attempts. Wendy Hornsby provides a terrific tale starring a likable person.

Harriet Klausner