Rude Awakening (Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries (Hardcover)) [Hardcover]

Susan Rogers Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries (Hardcover) | Publication Date: September 1, 2009

The tenth Milt Kovak mystery from this best-selling author . . . - Strange things are happening in Prophesy County. First, Deputy Dalton Pettigrew disappears on a mysterious date in Tulsa. His sister goes to rescue him, only to disappear herself. She'd left her middle child, Eli, in the care of Jean, the sheriff's wife, but now he's missing too. Who is the mysterious Dr. Emil Hawthorne, and why is he out to get Jean? Can Milt Kovak find Eli before it's too late?

Editorial Reviews

Review

A small-town sheriff's department deals with a series of interconnected crimes. The girl of his dreams whom Deputy Dalton Pettigrew has traveled to Tulsa to meet turns out to be a man. Awakening in an alley sans pants and wallet, he lands in jail, too embarrassed to disclose his identity. When he calls his depressed sister Mary Ellen to spring him, she leaves Eli, her middle child, in the care of psychiatrist Jean MacDonnell, the wife of Prophesy County Sheriff Milt Kovak. But trouble looms in the person of Dr. Emil Hawthorne, who's awakened from a long coma with a keen remembrance of Jean's turning him in for having sex with his patients. His plan for revenge is to kidnap Jean's son, Johnny Mac, with the help of Holly Humphries, who thinks she's starring in a film he's making. Instead, however, he mistakenly snatches Eli. Realizing at last that the kidnapping is for real, Holly manages to escape with Eli, but they get lost in the woods. There they encounter Dalton, who's been equally lost since Mary Ellen left him asleep in her car while she attempted suicide. Unwilling to be left out, Dalton's controlling mother is harassing Milt over her missing son and grandchild. Though all the lost are eventually found safe, Hawthorne is shot dead, leaving it up to Milt and Jean to uncover clues from the past and identify the guilty party. A surprise ending caps this unusually amusing entry in Milt's ebullient series (Shotgun Wedding, 2009, etc.). --Kirkus Reviews, 15th August 2009

Cooper's likable Milt Kovak is back in another cracking adventure set in Prophesy County, Oklahoma. This time out the intrepid county sheriff is faced with two mystifying disappearances. First, his deputy, Dalton Pettigrew, goes missing, and shortly afterwards, Milt's nephew, Eli, is spirited off while Milt's wife, Jean, is babysitting him. Then a call comes from the boy's kidnapper, claiming the situation is Jean's fault because of something she did years earlier. Jean quickly realizes who the kidnapper is; clearly, he was targeting Milt and Jean's son and absconded with the wrong child. Struggling to put the personal element aside, Milt races to find Eli, nab the kidnapper, and determine what happened to the missing deputy. Cooper successfully mixes down-home ambiance, corny but charming humor, and sparkling characters with a serious police procedural. Like Steven Havill's Bill Gastner, Kovak can shed his good ol' boy attitude and turn tough and competent in a flash. --Booklist, 1st September 2009

About the Author

Susan Rogers Cooper was an administrator for a medical malpractice company for many years. She also volunteered at a battered women's shelter in Austin where she set up a training program for new volunteers. She lives in Lockhart, Texas.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727867415
• ISBN-13: 978-0727867414
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,304,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cooper's New Book Is Tops, But Doesn't Go Over The Top, August 25, 2009

By 

Joseph K. Burkholder II (Kannapolis, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rude Awakening (Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

Okay, I've been a fan of Ms. Cooper's for many years now, but I would never let that get in the way of an objective review. Happily, with her latest Milt Kovak mystery, there's no need to put objectivity to the test. RUDE AWAKENING has all the trappings that make this series truly great. As with her previous book, SHOTGUN WEDDING, she intersperses a main (more serious) tale involving Sheriff Milt with a lighter (fun and funny) mystery involving one or more of her background characters. This time around Milt has to deal with a psychotic psychiatris who is gunning for his wife Jean over an incident eight years previous that left the diabolical doc comatose. Add in an abducted four year old that Jean is caring for and trying to get the town to put up a much needed traffic light. Milt's hands are overflowing.
Meanwhile, dimwitted but well-meaning Deputy Dalton Pettigrew has snuck off to Tulsa, to meet his online 'girlfriend' for the first time, to disasterous results. Stuck in Tulsa with no I.D., money, (or pants) Dalton's sister comes to the rescue, not knowing her son is in the hands of a killer and trying to keep her brother's situation from their overbearing mother. But lest you think all is fun and games, Cooper keeps the suspense tight toward the end, and doesn't let up till the epilogue.
Cooper yet again delivers some great spit-take inducing lines ( "Makes the car go!"; "Hi, I'm Geoffrey.") that she is known for. Her writing is as fresh as ever, and she keeps her mains true to character, at the same time believably building up her formerly background charaters; but taking them all to new levels. RUDE AWAKENING is Cooper at her finest, and with new levels of outrageousness that don't detract from the suspense. Fans of Janet Evanovich should pick up Susan Rogers Cooper and hang on tight!