Bad Intent: A Maggie MacGowen Mystery
by By Hornsby, Wendy
Category: Fiction , Mystery & Detective , General

Maggie MacGowen, who sees sharply into the complexities of life and often solves crimes through the viewfinder of her video camera, is back in Los Angeles. Waiting for her is LAPD detective Mike Flint - and a case that will take her into the urban war zone of South Central L.A. There, a cop killing solved years before has reverberated through the lives of the three black children who witnessed it, one the son of the man convicted of the murder.Fifteen years later the long-dead case comes back to life, exploding in the media with a bang. A ruthless politician has decided to get the minority vote by claiming the police coerced the children into pointing a finger at Charles Conklin, an innocent man. Conklin's son, deprived of a father's guidance, has ended up in Juvenile Hall charged with a murder of his own. It is a situation sure to ignite sparks of protest in a tinderbox city - and bring Mike Flint's career down in flames.With her dreams newly joined to Mike's, Maggie begins her own campaign to clear his name, and the gutsy, prize-winning filmmaker is taking her camera and sleuthing skills into the heart of an embattled city. But beneath the smoggy L.A. skies, layer after layer of lies make the truth look out of focus around the edges. With her video running, Maggie captures the stark faces of shattered lives and the bodies that turn up. This is the real picture of cops and crime, politics and justice, poverty and dead-end streets where the savvy Maggie hopes to find the solution to a devastating mystery - or lose what is dearest to her heart.Intelligent, multilayered, and filled with surprises, this no-holds-barred suspenseful mystery showcases Wendy Hornsby's cinematic eye for detail and her wise perspective on the inner city - with its all-too-human crimes of passion, rage, and broken dreams.