What do you think?
A Kate Teague Mystery #1
No Harm
After her mother’s savage murder, Kate Teague becomes the killer’s next targetAsh falls on the cemetery like grey snow, blown in from a wildfire that burns a mile off. A crowd has turned out to watch Kate bury her mother, not because they loved her—nobody loved her—but out of curiosity. This town has never seen a murder so brutal. Suspecting a mugging gone wrong, the police comb the area for drug addicts. But then they find the rich old lady’s purse, full of cash and credit cards. The purse surfaced on the beach of Kate’s family home three days after the attack, which means the murderer is nearby—and heiress Kate appears to be the next target. After the first attempt on her life fails, Kate starts her own investigation. Everyone in town had a reason to hate her mother, but why would anybody try to kill Kate Teague?
- GenresMystery
270 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1987
About the author
Wendy Hornsby
55 books25 followersI can’t remember ever not knowing that I was a writer. When I was in the second grade, because I was forever writing little stories, my teacher, a lovely woman named Barbara Heath, gave me her own copy of Little Women, to keep. Hardcover, illustrated, no less. The story wasn’t so much magic for me as was the character of Jo March. Somehow I knew Jo, I pretended I was her sometimes, and knew I was going to grow up to be, as she was, a writer.
When I was in fourth grade, I turned pro. My essay, “Why I love Camp Nawakwa,” won a community contest, earning me a camp scholarship, and my future was set. Sort of. Loving Camp Nawakwa was my writing pinnacle for quite a while.
When it was time for college, I headed off to UCLA, where I tried on a large number of majors before I decided on History. History, well told, has more romance, adventure, intrigue, courage, provocative mystery than any fiction that can be imagined. Besides, the process of historical research and writing mysteries have a great deal in common. One snoops through the remnants of people’s lives – real or fictional – asking the important who, what, where, and when questions and implying insight with the hope of making sense of things. The study of History is great preparation for a writer, especially a writer of mysteries.
The afternoon that I learned I had passed my comprehensive exams for the Masters degree in History at CSULB, I was hired to teach History as an adjunct at Long Beach City College. Over the next decades I taught, went to school some more, raised two beautiful babies to adulthood, acquired a full-time tenured position at LBCC, and, somehow, between school and soccer and baseball and school plays, managed to get seven mystery novels and many, many short stories published. Amazing how that happened.
When my kids, Alyson and Christopher, were of a certain age, I took them to visit The Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, where Louisa May Alcott grew up and where she wrote Little Women. I stood in her upstairs bedroom, beside the little half-moon desk where she created Jo March, and thanked her for giving a little girl a bit of courage to believe that she, too, could be a writer.
Wendy Hornsby is the Edgar Award winning author of the Maggie MacGowen mysteries.
When I was in fourth grade, I turned pro. My essay, “Why I love Camp Nawakwa,” won a community contest, earning me a camp scholarship, and my future was set. Sort of. Loving Camp Nawakwa was my writing pinnacle for quite a while.
When it was time for college, I headed off to UCLA, where I tried on a large number of majors before I decided on History. History, well told, has more romance, adventure, intrigue, courage, provocative mystery than any fiction that can be imagined. Besides, the process of historical research and writing mysteries have a great deal in common. One snoops through the remnants of people’s lives – real or fictional – asking the important who, what, where, and when questions and implying insight with the hope of making sense of things. The study of History is great preparation for a writer, especially a writer of mysteries.
The afternoon that I learned I had passed my comprehensive exams for the Masters degree in History at CSULB, I was hired to teach History as an adjunct at Long Beach City College. Over the next decades I taught, went to school some more, raised two beautiful babies to adulthood, acquired a full-time tenured position at LBCC, and, somehow, between school and soccer and baseball and school plays, managed to get seven mystery novels and many, many short stories published. Amazing how that happened.
When my kids, Alyson and Christopher, were of a certain age, I took them to visit The Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, where Louisa May Alcott grew up and where she wrote Little Women. I stood in her upstairs bedroom, beside the little half-moon desk where she created Jo March, and thanked her for giving a little girl a bit of courage to believe that she, too, could be a writer.
Wendy Hornsby is the Edgar Award winning author of the Maggie MacGowen mysteries.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 18, 2020
3.5 stars
This is an amusing mystery—the first of the author’s two series. The heroine is a wealthy heiress named Kate Teague, who is trying to discover who killed her mother while keeping herself alive. Helping out is an attractive Lieut[enant] Tejada, and an ex-husband named Carl (who is staying all too close), pus a good friend and stepcousinish, named Reece, and a whole bunch of elderly family members. There’s even a hint of incest at the end, and the denouement was so complicated that I discovered I had forgotten all the details, even though I had previously read it. I think I liked it better this time though.
This is an amusing mystery—the first of the author’s two series. The heroine is a wealthy heiress named Kate Teague, who is trying to discover who killed her mother while keeping herself alive. Helping out is an attractive Lieut[enant] Tejada, and an ex-husband named Carl (who is staying all too close), pus a good friend and stepcousinish, named Reece, and a whole bunch of elderly family members. There’s even a hint of incest at the end, and the denouement was so complicated that I discovered I had forgotten all the details, even though I had previously read it. I think I liked it better this time though.
July 6, 2008
NO HARM - Ex
Hornsby - Wendy - 1st in Series
In the California oceanside town of Santa Angelica, where the mugging death of wealthy widow Margaret Byrd sets off shock waves that reach to the highest level of the city's bureaucracy. Part of Margaret's estate, an invaluable and as yet undeveloped stretch of beachfront, now reverts to her daughter Kate, an outspoken professor of history who feels that her mother's death was not a random killing but a pemeditated murder by a member of Kate's own eccentric family, who covet the highly desirable property.
When an attempt is made on Kate's life, she intensifies her investigations (aided by charmingly protective Lieutenant Roger Tejeda) and reveals a whole closetful of family skeletons, including an imprisonment for stock market swindles, abortions ending in death and strong evidence of one or more illegitimate offspring who may now be trying to claim their inheritance.
I thoroughly enjoyed this.
A rich jumble of well-defined relatives helps search for the killer, including elderly but stalwart Uncle Dolph and Aunt Mina, who reveal vital keys to elusive family history. Meanwhile, Esperanza, the staunchly loyal family maid, does her best to conceal everything. And Kate's ex-husband Carl, a shrewd attorney, lends an appropriately sinister note.
Hornsby - Wendy - 1st in Series
In the California oceanside town of Santa Angelica, where the mugging death of wealthy widow Margaret Byrd sets off shock waves that reach to the highest level of the city's bureaucracy. Part of Margaret's estate, an invaluable and as yet undeveloped stretch of beachfront, now reverts to her daughter Kate, an outspoken professor of history who feels that her mother's death was not a random killing but a pemeditated murder by a member of Kate's own eccentric family, who covet the highly desirable property.
When an attempt is made on Kate's life, she intensifies her investigations (aided by charmingly protective Lieutenant Roger Tejeda) and reveals a whole closetful of family skeletons, including an imprisonment for stock market swindles, abortions ending in death and strong evidence of one or more illegitimate offspring who may now be trying to claim their inheritance.
I thoroughly enjoyed this.
A rich jumble of well-defined relatives helps search for the killer, including elderly but stalwart Uncle Dolph and Aunt Mina, who reveal vital keys to elusive family history. Meanwhile, Esperanza, the staunchly loyal family maid, does her best to conceal everything. And Kate's ex-husband Carl, a shrewd attorney, lends an appropriately sinister note.
October 14, 2009
This one was pretty good, but a whole lot of odd twists. I'll read the next one, just to see if I like it, but not sure I love it. Some of it was just too predictable. Of course she's going to fall in love with the police detective...the foreshadowing was a little too obvious. And, i'm no prude, but some of the "sex" talk seemed too graphic for this tame little mystery series...seemed out of place. This series was recommended by Seattle Mystery Bookshop, so I'm willing to give it one more try. They haven't steered me wrong yet!
August 22, 2014
absorbing tales of sordid family secrets and intrigues. Kate's family kills her selfish, scheming mother and tries to kill Kate and her new lover. good story, Han characters full of all too human faults.
December 1, 2014
Murder in a coastal California town (small city?), highly motivated by real estate interests and long-buried family secrets. The ending got a bit soap opera, but Kate (the central character) and the hunky cop she falls for (very quickly) are appealing characters and I enjoyed the ride.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews