If Wishes Were Horses... — Tim Hemlin

HARD TIMES IN HOUSTON

Neil Marshall is a graduate student in the University of Houston's creative writing program. He is also a poet. Graduate student and poet--hardly the world's most lucrative endeavors, especially for someone who has just embarked on a money-draining divorce. To make ends meet, Neil moonlights as a chef for a high society caterer.

Just when Neil's life seems bleakest, his oldest friend, racehorse breeder Jason Keys, is murdered. And Neil becomes the prime suspect.

To save his neck, avenge his friend, and rescue a missing championship Thoroughbred, Neil penetrates the dark underworld of horse theft and illegal breeding. Neil's friends--his attractive writing teacher, his cooking colleagues, and a freckle-faced teenage horsewoman--cheer him on. But Neil knows that if he fails, his goose is cooked..