Love and War in Texas

Love and War in Texas is an adventure /suspense novel told in both the nineteenth century and in the present day. The founders of the northeast Texas pioneer family central to the story are Zebediah and Mary Holmes who come to Texas in 1863, fleeing the wrath of a Yankee General in Missouri. Zebediah has been a Missouri Bushwhacker, riding with William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson. Along the way, he becomes close friends with Frank and Jesse James as well as the Younger brothers. Zebediah ends his war by coming to Texas with a wagonload of stolen Yankee gold to begin his reconstructed life.His descendants, Matt, Nancy, and Erin Walker are the central characters in the present day who live on the property bought by the Holmes' in 1863. Matt is a retired university professor who is having troubles relating to his late in life teenaged daughter, Erin. In cleaning out his father's belongings after his death, Matt, Nancy, and Erin find a rolled document that Matt's great grandmother has labeled "Grandpa's treasure map" in her old Spencerian script.Matt and Erin enlist the aid of Matt's best friend, Harry Dickenson, to help them in their search for buried treasure on their ranch using the cryptic notes on the treasure map to guide them. In the process, they stir up an old family feud and uncover wrongdoing that nearly undoes them.