Trailridge

A Guy Hogan Mystery, Book 1

De: Kevin Wolf

Narrado por: Greg O'Donahue

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 Trailridge Road.

©2024 Kevin Wolf (P)2025 Kevin Wolf

Suspense, action, betrayal, and murder!

TRAILRIDGE, the first novel in Kevin Wolf's "Guy Hogan Mystery" series, is a suspenseful, action-filled tale of betrayal and murder. Guy Hogan, a recent widower, is living a quiet life in Colorado near Rocky Mountain National Park, occupying his time flyfishing, guiding the occasional tourist to optimal fishing spots, and teaching some the finer points of the sport.

One day, while in pursuit of a prize catch, he is surprised by the appearance of a young woman on the opposite bank of the river, apparently in search of an emergency spot to relieve herself. As he starts to make himself known, she screams and points at something in the water out of Guy's line of sight: the body of a dead man floating face-first in the water. After notifying law enforcement, Guy finds that some of the details of Willa Stanford's story about her presence in Colorado don't add up, and he is surprised later when he sees her at a bar in town with another woman with strikingly similar physical features.

In the meantime, there has been a spate of bull elk found butchered, their antlers removed, in the national park. Guy had discovered carcasses during his hikes, and while his ranger friends had a good idea who was behind the slaughter, the complexity and breadth of the current activities hinted at something much more organized than the usual suspects were capable of. On the day following his discovery of the dead man, Hogan finds himself the target of an unseen sniper, and he decides to dig deeper into both cases.

Guy Hogan is an engaging older man with grown children, and he is a very sympathetic main character. Still grieving the recent loss of his wife, Jenny, to cancer a scant ten months earlier, he is slowly rebuilding his life without her. He most enjoys spending time in the national park, indulging his passion for fly fishing. He's kept himself active, which is helpful when the bad guys come after him. He's like a Timex watch, "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking."

Willow Stanford, her latest alias, is shocked but not surprised when she discovers her mother is involved in the death of the man she found in the river or in the highly lucrative and illegal elk antler smuggling operation; there's a lot of money at stake. Not only that, but her mother's late husband, a candidate for political office and an environmental supporter, stood in the way of her latest caper.

The action is fast-paced from the start, but even that kicks up a notch or more with an exciting and dangerous car chase sequence along Trailridge Road, the highest paved road in the U.S., and a breakneck flight on foot down the side of a mountain away from men with guns in the midst of a coming storm. While readers are clued in to the identities of the perpetrators, the suspense lies in whether Guy and Willow can escape and stop the men from doing more harm to the wildlife and beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park.

This audiobook edition is narrated by Greg O'Donahue, who delivers a fluid, flawless performance with a distinctive range of voices for the different characters. I believed the vocal pattern and intonation he developed for Hogan to sound like those of an older man, whether in pain, on the run from his pursuers, or finally relaxing beside his favorite fishing hole. I noted no unusual pronunciations, and the audiobook's production quality was excellent.

I recommend TRAILRIDGE to those who enjoy action-packed mysteries set in the great outdoors, flyfishing, and Colorado.

Quick and smooth read.

Enjoyed the way the author uses familiar locations in Colorado that we have visited and enjoyed. His way of introducing characters was easy to follow throughout the book.
Some very good turn of events in Trailridge story.

4 1/2 stars. Danger, death, and more.

4 1/2 stars. Guy Hogan was enjoying some free time but encountered a body, leading to a journey through unnecessary animal harvesting. He was determined to help out and found danger from a large poaching ring along with angry mother nature. I enjoyed how he worked out everything, risking his life as he went. The narration by Greg O'Donahue heightened the action and emotions of this story. This was a good story.

I received a copy through RABT Book Tours, and this is my unsolicited review.