Mystery
Date Published: Aug 1, 2025
Narrator: Greg O'Donahue
Run Time: 6 hours 24 minutes
Guy Hogan and his wife planned to share their dream home in Colorado but cancer his took her from him. The mountains became his refuge and each day he hoped the next cast of his flyrod will chase away his loneliness.
Then he finds a man’s body in his favorite trout stream.
Learning why the man died becomes a quest to fill his emptiness. Hogan befriends a young woman as empty as he. Their path leads to a ring of poachers killing elk for their antlers, a break neck car chase across the twist and turns of the highest paved road in the United States, and the fury of a mountain flash flood.
But the young woman is not what she seems. Will her deadly secrets force Hogan to become the very thing he despises? The challenge is as treacherous as Trail ridge Road.
Interview
Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?
Guy Hogan, the protagonist, is a decent man. He’s thrust into situations he could have never imagined. He has to decide if he will be true to his character or give into the evil he’s battling. In one scene, Hogan needs to decide if the ends justify the means,
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
I’m not good at waiting. I enjoy first drafts, revising, second and third drafts, shaping the novel, sharing with readers, and editing. It’s the opening of my email first thing each morning, waiting for an answer from my agent that is troubling. But that’s the pace this business moves.
How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
TRAILRIDGE is my fifth published novel. I have published with one of New York’s Big 5, small independents, a larger print press, and have self-published. Right now my favorite is the book I’m writing now. The second Guy Hogan Mystery will be released in the fall of 2025.
If You had the chance to cast your main character from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?
Kevin Costner. Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, and Roy Rogers aren’t available. Costner has the maturity to interpret Guy Hogan and, most importantly, his ties to everything Western.
When did you begin writing?
I can point to the exact minute I got serious about writing a novel. I was traveling for business. It was confusing days after 911 when you didn’t know if the security line would take two hours. I was at the Detroit airport trying to get home to Colorado on Friday afternoon. I breezed through the security line and was sitting in a near-empty terminal two hours before my flight’s time. I had finished reading a forgettable paperback. I could find nothing that interested me on the shelves of the concourse store. I opened my laptop and began to type the first paragraphs of what I was sure would be the next great American novel. I remember the first lines. “She was the kind of woman men notice, And he was being paid to notice.” Corny, huh. I worked on that story for months. Learned what I didn’t know. Tried some adult education classes. Joined Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers in Denver. Attended a writers’ conference and joined a critique group. Put aside that first novel and scratched out several different things. Queried agents, entered contests, and went to more conferences. Won contests, found an agent. Didn’t sell. Finally sold a book. Been discouraged. Picked myself up. And continue to tell stories. I enjoy every part of this crazy endeavor.
Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?
I wanted to write a novel because my father was an avid reader. There was always at least one book next to his chair. Every genre, and especially westerns. I read his hand-me-downs. That introduced me to Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, and Owen Wister. Moved on to Hemingway and Steinbeck. I hung on every word from Lonesome Dove. And found an all but forgotten writer named Robert Ruark. Now I read CJ Box and Craig Johnson, and Johnny Boggs.
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
Typing “the end” after I know I’ve earned it.
Describe your latest book in 4 words.
Readable. Thrilling. Empathy. Surprising.
Can you share a little bit about your current work or what is in the future for your writing?
The second Guy Hogan Mystery will be released in the fall of 2025. I have begun making notes for the third book. My agent has a manuscript in submission. And I have the rights back on a two-book weird western series that I’m considering self-publishing sometime in 2026.
About the Author
Kevin Wolf’s novel, THE HOMEPLACE is the winner of the 2015 Tony
Hillerman Award. Western Writers of America selected his short story,
BELTHANGER as the 2021 Spur Award Winner for Best Short Fiction. THE BOOTHEEL,
a traditional Western, is a finalist for the 2024 Peacemaker Award. The
great-grandson of Colorado homesteaders, he enjoys fly fishing, old
Winchesters, and 1950’s Western movies. He lives in Estes Park, CO with
his wife.
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