>If issuing a Release command/method will not trigger QueryUnload, what best option should I have to handle the 'save before quitting' routine.

There are a couple of ways to do this. You can put all of your checking code in the QueryUnload event, and in the case that the user wants to cancel a close, issue NODEFAULT and RETURN .F.. Then have you close button say

IF THISFORM.QueryUnload()
	THISFORM.Release()
ENDIF

Or, you can have a common OnClose routine that is called from both the CLose button and the QueryUnload event

IF !THISFORM.OnClose()
	NODEFAULT
ENDIF