Warning Shot

About the Book

Warning Shot, a novel of South Texas      by  Helen M. Hogan

Marshall McCraddock feels sick as he sits beside his dead boss, the black man who has been his best friend.  The African dagger off the desk protrudes from Barney Brown’s chest.  And the troubles are only beginning.

Chancellor Jeffers asks Marsh to serve as acting dean, adding Brown’s job to his own.  LaShundra Brown asks him to find the killer, not trusting the police.  The new English professor Brown hired fears Marsh, for her first sight of him was a man bolting from the crime scene.  Lt. Sanders suspects him because of Dr Martin’s testimony.  One of the suspended students, ex-Green Beret sergeant Hirsch, threatens McCraddock.  And his neighbor’s son leans on Marsh for help with his family problems.  

Barney’s discovery of a mesh of greed, marijuana smuggling, and corruption  led to his murder.  The clues Marsh finds include a folded note wedged in a seam of a drawer in the dean’s army cast-off desk and several symbols Barney may have added to his precious Massai shield  from his African pilgrimage

Lanky Alex Martin, long raven hair flowing,  moves to Texas to take on a new challenge and escape her soon-to-be-ex-husband.  She refuses to get a phone and rents a tiny frame house where she can pasture her Thoroughbred.  She leans on Marsh, too.  Her horse falls with her in his front field and he rescues her.  She steps on a mesquite thorn that penetrates her boot and foot so deeply she must have help, and Marsh is closer than the hospital.  She and her only friend on campus, the Alabama girl who teaches in the English department, have Marsh and his friend police sergeant Gil Scot to dinner.  Later, when Faithanne hemorrhages,  Marsh carries her to the Emergency room in his arms.  

Alex begins to think of her boss as Marsh, and responds to his rugged good looks, but tells herself he’s not for her.  She knows he disapproves of her bet with one of the profs of the Ag College that she can outride him. She thinks Marsh wants a child, but she doesn’t want to be a mother.  Marsh notices her feminine scent and her firm figure early but feels guilty about betraying the memory of his wife.  He assumes Alex wants children because he and his wife wanted a child, so he hesitates to tell her he is sterile.  

Marsh’s investigation puts him in jeopardy from the first week.  An unseen assailant delivers a stunning blow to the back of his head.  Later he tries to outrun a strange white car, but his pickup spins in loose gravel and a shotgun wielding figure in a white hood yanks open his door.  Two men bind him and take him to a secret place to deliver a painful message, then dump him back under his truck.  And Gil Scott declares the bullet that creases Tim Wilson after the rodeo “was meant for you, compadre.”  Both men stand a trim six feet, and at the time wear white Western shirts and similar Stetsons.  

Determined to keep his word, Marsh sets a trap.  The ensuing violence forces him and Alex into a siege. His frustration with Alex and her wild riding turns to hope as she rides her lop-eared gelding for help.   Later, when the murderer grabs Alex by the hair, Marsh overcomes pain and caution to defend her.  

Finally, he watches her race, but before he can go to her...

About the Author

Helen Hogan lives in Ft. Worth, with her husband of 30+ years Berry, an assortment of dogs, cats, and horses. Both are pilots and have enjoyed square dancing in many states. They travel each year: a luxury cruise in China, another in Alaska’s inland passage, self-guided B&B tours of UK and Ireland, and tent camping trips in the the US. Retired from 30 years of teaching college English, she started writing in response to Berry’s challenge, ”As many novels as you read, you ought to write one.” A rider from age 3, Helen still shows her horses in driving, halter, dressage, and reining. She also participates in senior golf, swimming, and art classes at her college. “i want as much danger in my novels as a romance can hold,” she says, adding, “I’m not averse to some clean sex, either.”