The Bridled Groom — J.S. Borthwick

Planning their wedding at High Hope horse farm is trouble enough for teaching fellow Sarah Deane and her fiance Dr. Alex McKenzie. Rut now Sarah's widowed Aunt Julia, the Farm's crusty, independent owner is receiving threatening nursery rhymes with her morning paper: a stableman's been mysteriously injured: and someone's taking pot shots at the barn.

Could the disturbing events have to do with a mining company that's out to lasso local land? Or with Tilly, a loopy neighbor who thinks it's in her stars to swap farms with Julia? Or even with Julia's persistent suitor. Colonel Dodge who's all too eager to saddle up and charge to her rescue'?

Though the wedding goes off without a hitch, Sarah and Alex are reined in from their honeymoon when the stable turns up a gruesome corpse and it doesn't take more than horse sense to recognize foul play.