Betsy Thornton is a contemporary

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writer of

mystery fiction Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually prov ...

novels set in the

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Biography

Thornton was born in Wilmington,

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, United States, the oldest of four children born to Dr. Mary Elizabeth (Kelly) Thornton, PhD a professor of Classics at

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of Ohio and Colonel Robert L. Thornton, PhD, who became professor of Business at Miami of Ohio following his retirement from the USAF. Her sister Alix was an attorney and her brother is historian John Thornton. Her family traveled extensively, living in Europe for several years, where Thornton attended Lady Eden's School in

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and Cours Ste. Geneviève in Fonteney sur Bois, a suburb of

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. She graduated from

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with a degree in English, married, and lived in New York City, where her son

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, now an academic technologist at the

University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte, or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs thr ...

, was born. She later moved to

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, where she worked as a story analyst for ABC Pictures, and then moved to Europe with her second husband, the artist Rafe Ropek. They lived in

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and on a small

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island,

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. Eventually, after a stint back in New York City, Thornton moved to Bisbee,

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, where she ran Cochise Fine Arts, a community arts center that sponsored, among other things, the Bisbee Poetry Festival. Thornton was employed for fifteen years with the

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Attorney's office in

, where she worked as an advocate for crime victims. Thornton's first published work was a chapbook of poems, published by Binturong, ''On Davis Road''. In 1982, she was awarded a Poetry Fellowship by the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

Mystery fiction

Thornton has authored eight mystery novels, all but one of which feature her main character, Chloe Newcomb. Newcomb works as a victim advocate, the same position that Thornton herself held. In 2008, Thornton's sixth novel, ''A Song for You'', was nominated for the

Mary Higgins Clark Award The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award, established in 2001, is an American literary award, presented as part of the Edgar Awards. The award was created to honor author of suspense novels, Mary Higgins Clark. To be eligible for the Simon ...

. Her works have been favorably reviewed in ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', and

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. They are published in hard covers by

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as well as in paperback. ''A Whole New Life'' was published in

Reader's Digest Condensed Books ''Reader's Digest Condensed Books'' was a series of hardcover anthology collections, published by the American general interest monthly family magazine ''Reader's Digest'' and distributed by direct mail. Most volumes contained five (although a ...

. Thornton's latest work ''Empty Houses'' was issued by Severn House in the UK on March 31, 2015, and in the United States in July.

Published works

*''The Cowboy Rides Away'' (1996) *''High Lonesome Road'' (2001) *''Ghost Towns'' (2002) *''Dead for the Winter'' (2004) *''A Whole New Life'' (2006) Also in Hungarian *''A Song for You'' (2008) *''Dream Queen'' (2010) *''Empty Houses'' (Severn House, 2015)

References

External links

Betsythornton.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Betsy Date of birth unknown Living people Writers from Wilmington, North Carolina American mystery novelists American women novelists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers American women mystery writers Novelists from North Carolina Year of birth missing (living people)