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 his life seems bleakest, Neil's oldest friend, racehorse breeder Jason Keys, is murdered. And guess what! 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 if he fails, his goose is cooked. . . .