Blood Atonement

Barbara Townsend’s writing journey began at the University of Wyoming. Her first fiction writing class inspired her to write a mystery. The thought of twists, turns, red herrings, clues and making them fit into one story fascinated her. That first short story, Murder at Wainwright, she later wrote into Clear and Convincing Evidence. In another semester, an internship in the Toppan Rare Books Library led her into different direction. With books dating from the 1800s, she examined women in nineteenth-century Mormon polygyny. Her research paper won a student competition at the university’s American Heritage Center. Her accumulated research led to the novel Blood Atonement, a historical mystery. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Art. Blood Atonement was Barbara’s first trade-published novel followed by Clear and Convincing Evidence. She lives with her husband in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains.