Mystery
Date Published: February 18, 2026
Narrator: Greg O'Donahue
Run time: 5 hours 20 minutes.
Odyssey Pruit paints pictures of the ghosts and spirits she saw in the halls of an old hotel where she worked ten years before. GUY HOGAN doesn’t believe in ghosts. Hogan is hired to guard Odyssey’s pictures for her first art show in the same old hotel. When an early blizzard closes the roads, knocks out the power and telephone, Hogan is trapped in the hotel with Odyssey’s quirky fans. When imps and ghouls make their presence known, Hogan questions his doubts, and the answer could be murder.
Interview with Kevin Wolf
Could you tell us about any research trips you took for this story? Which places did you visit, and what made them essential to your writing?
My wife and I make our home in Estes Park, CO. Estes Park is a resort community in the Colorado mountains about an hour and a half drive from Denver. The elevation 7522 feet above sea level. Estes is best known as the gateway city to Rocky Mountain National Park. Each year, over four million tourists, vacationers and adventurers visit the Park for the wildlife, alpine meadows, rivers and stunning mountain vistas. I live here. In 2025, I published TRAILRIDGE, the first novel in the Guy Hogan series. The mystery/adventure is set in Estes and the National Park. EARLY SNOW is the second book. In TRAILRIDGE , Guy Hogan stumbles upon a body in his favorite trout stream. When he seeks answers, he finds an elk poaching ring and is led into a series of outdoor escapades. In EARLY SNOW, Hogan is tested by the legends of ghosts that haunt the town, and the story is set entirely in an old hotel. My research is outside my office window or a twenty-minute drive into the national park.
Have any of the people you've known, past or present, left a lasting impression on your writing journey? If so, we'd love to hear about a memorable experience that stands out to you.
I was at a small writers’ conference in Crested Butte, CO. I was trying to learn all the things I need to know to become a writer. Robert Dugoni, the Best-Selling Mystery Author, was one of the speakers. He had seen some of my work and invited me to talk. We skipped a morning session and talked for about an hour. He pointed out some things in my writing, told me he thought I had some talent and encouraged me to keep at it. Anne Hillerman has been available and encouraged me. But my source of encouragement, is the writers from the different critique groups I’ve been a part of. There have been kind words from others who are fighting the battles.
Do you write in the same genre all the time?
I dabble in several genres. Everything I have written share a strong Western theme. My first published novel was the 2015 Tony Hillerman Award winner. THE HOMEPLACE is a contemporary mystery set on Colorado’s Eastern plains. A local hero returns home for the first time in sixteen years to the secrets of a small town. In 2021, Western Writers of America selected BELTHANGER as BEST SHORT FICTION winner. A boy who doesn’t fit in observes his small town one night from the window of his father's auto parts store. With THE BOOTHEEL, 2023 PEACEMAKER AWARD finalist, an aging gunfighter and a teenage cowboy follow a treasure map into Old Mexico. TRAILRIDGE is an action adventure set in the Colorado Mountains and with EARLY SNOW I was able to touch on the paranormal.
Kevin Wolf is an award-winning Mystery and Western author. His books include Trailridge (2024), The Homeplace, winner of the 2015 Tony Hillerman Prize and the 2016 Strand Critics Award finalist for Best Debut Mystery. His short story Belthanger received the 2021 Spur Award for Best Short Fiction and his novel, The Bootheel was a 2024 Peacemaker Award finalist.
The legends and landscape of the West are evident in everything he writes. His newest novel, Trailridge, is set against the grandeur of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park and the 1982 Lawn Lake Flood. Those who visit Rocky often or have chosen the national park for their once-in-a-lifetime destination will recognize the mountains, valleys, rivers, and the twists and turns of Trailridge as this story races to its climax.
In The Homeplace, a schoolboy hero returns after sixteen years to solve a murder in a windswept, dying town on the eastern plains of Colorado. In his short story Belthanger, readers are given a glimpse of a 1950s small town, soon to be bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System, and the drama that unfolds on the town’s darkened streets one night. The BootHeel is a coming-of-age tale of a teenage orphan and an aging gunman as they follow a treasure map into Mexico as the nineteenth century draws to its end.
Kevin Wolf is a member of Western Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, and serves as Vice President of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. He facilitates a weekly critique group for other writers. The great-grandson of Colorado homesteaders, he enjoys fly fishing, old Winchesters, and almost every 1950’s Western movie. He lives in Estes Park, CO with his loving and patient wife.
