RUN, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN:

A JERRY VALDEZ NOVEL (2001)

by Gene Wright

Someone had murdered Sheriff Jerry Valdez’s young deputy, and now someone is trying to kill the sheriff and his family. What happens when the law cannot protect American citizens? Valdez has to call upon his own skills and wit, as well as the help of friends, to uncover the threat and end it. Electronic surveillance, a helicopter search, military protection, breaking and entering, computer searches, and sweaty hard work are required to end the threat and return ordered civility to Valdez’s life.

NOBODY KNOWS HIS NAME:

A JERRY VALDEZ NOVEL (2003)

by Gene Wright

A body found by hunters on a ranch in Kendall County has no hands and no obvious means of identification. A Las Vegas gambling token and some botanical residue found in the victim’s pants cuffs are the only clues, and they are of little immediate use. Other problems combine to hinder the sheriff’s investigation: charges of sexual harassment, prostitutes at truck stops, a libelous newspaper editorial, attempted murder. But with the aid of Chief Deputy Archie Crane, the FBI, the INS, and other acquaintances and associates, Valdez works to uncover the mystery. Filled with deceptions and dangers, actions and adventure, lust and greed, ignorance and devotion to reason—all leavened by the wit of Valdez—Nobody Knows His Name is a story about thriftless ambition, about what happens when greed overpowers virtue.

THE PAINFUL WARRIOR:

A JERRY VALDEZ NOVEL (2005)

 by Gene Wright

Jerry Valdez, the sheriff of Kendall County, Texas, is summoned to Washington, D. C., by his old Army friend, General Mark Timara. Timara's wife, K. K., has been kidnapped, his home and Pentagon office bugged, his life threatened; and he turns to his old friend for help. Valdez has to deal with threats of terrorism, unscrupulous and incompetent military officers, fatally flawed helicopters, inquisitive congressmen, interfering federal agents, a dangerous renegade special ops soldier of fortune, and greedy corporate executives in his search for K. K. Timara.

THE ACCIDENTAL  WARRIOR  (2006)

 by Gene Wright

A trip to Krakow, Poland, in August 1939 with his wife and young daughter to visit some old friends seems like a good idea to Paul Hunter. He has no idea that the horror of Nazi domination will sweep across Eastern Europe or that he and his family will be caught up in the madness. Now Paul is lost in the swirling insanity of the Nazi blitzkrieg, and his friends are cast into a concentration camp. With no way to contact home and stranded in wartime Germany, it is up to Paul to save his family and his friend from the horrors of Nazi atrocities. Paul had never intended—had never even considered—fighting anything more than the west Texas weather, the land, a drunk cowhand, or an occasional cantankerous longhorn or temperamental pony. He is in Germany not of his own choosing, fighting battles not of his making. He is a warrior only by accident. But he cannot afford to lose.

Jerry Valdez, Sheriff of Kendall County in the hill country of Texas, is facing an opponent in his bid for reelection. But three major crimes in his usually quiet province conspire to distract him from any thought of campaigning. A gaggle of paramilitary separatists has moved onto a local ranch and has attracted the attention of several federal agencies. In addition, two local boys have gone missing; and Valdez moves quickly to put most of his resources into the hunt. Then the body of a local poacher turns up, and Valdez has to determine whether these three events are separate and coincidental or related. Sometimes helped and sometimes hindered by the federal agencies involved, Valdez calls upon the best in his own department and upon his own skills to bring civility back into his community.

The son of Gwen Graham Wilber, an old friend and citizen of Kendall County, Texas, has gone missing.

     The young man had just graduated from Texas A & M University and was anxious to enter the next phase of his life. But one last time before he began the race for financial and social success, he wanted to sail to the Caribbean, to spend days at sea aboard his father's yacht, to explore the grandness of Jamaica, and to be with his best friends.

     Jimmy Lee Wilber had persuaded his father to let him take the Idle Times, a sea-worthy, elegant yacht, on the voyage; and then he badgered his mother until she quit arguing. With the love of his life, Annabelle, his best friend Roy Adcock, and Roy's girlfriend Cassie, Jimmy set out from Galveston, sailed to Key West, Florida, and after a few days in the Keys left for the Caribbean.

     And seemed to have dropped off the earth.

     Jimmy's mother, Gwen, desperate to find her son, seeks the help of Sheriff Jerry Valdez, a friend of her childhood. She begs him to find her son.

     Jerry Valdez had no business wandering around the Caribbean looking for some kids who had no business going on such a voyage in the first place. Besides, he was sheriff of Kendall County, not Montego Bay. But Gwen is an old friend.

     Looking for a small boat in a big ocean proves to be a daunting task, as Jerry knew it would be. All he can do is follow the intended itinerary of the kids and hope that someone had seen them or heard from them--and hope that some great wind had not knocked the boat down with all hands.

     In his search, Jerry finds some humans who are decent, some greedy, some vicious, some bright, and some who seemed clueless about any complex situation in life. But Jerry had run into the variety of life many times, and he is able to sort his way through the fog in his search.

     In his search, Jerry Valdez finds modern-day pirates, a rather theologically challenged preacher, and a hive of poteen makers--all of whom thought themselves to be among wonders of the western world.