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Lying Wonders (Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Susan Rogers Cooper (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)


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Book Description

Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries October 1, 2004
Trouble in Paradise

Milt Kovak's string of bad luck with women is not something he likes to dwell upon. Especially now that the Prophesy County, Oklahoma sheriff is a happily married man and father of a toddler. But when ex-girlfriend Laura Marshall calls out of the blue to announce that her eighteen-year-old son Trent is missing and asks for help finding him, Milt realizes it can't be a good thing. The boy and his girlfriend, Amanda, had recently joined a religious retreat called the Holy Temple of the Seven Trumpets.

A ride out to the place--a million-dollar piece of land sold to the cult's leader, Brother Grigsby, for a dollar--leads to the discovery of Amanda's naked and very dead body in a remote area of the compound. While suspicion falls on Trent, Milt suspects the boy is hiding. . .or worse, dead. Stranger still, most of the syrupy and evasive reverend's flock are young, pregnant women. Milt puts to work his tried-and-true tactic of police detection: beating the bushes till something flies out--like a killer.


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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Sheriff Milt Kovak of Prophesy County, Oklahoma, gets a call from former lover Laura, whose son has disappeared with his girlfriend, Amanda. Kovak's inquiries lead him to the local headquarters of a religious sect known as the Seven Trumpets. Kovak is uncomfortable; all the women are pregnant, and the two sect leaders are two very contented--and evasive--men. Then Amanda's naked, lifeless body is found at a remote location of the sprawling compound. The investigation focuses on the religious sect and its unsavory leaders, but Kovak can't make any sort of a forensic case against them. Using the time-tested investigatory technique of thrashing about until something breaks loose, Kovak subsequently alienates his wife, his former lover, and a distraught community before he unmasks the killer. The eighth entry in the Kovak series is carefully plotted and cleverly resolved. But the series' success rests squarely on the likable shoulders of Kovak, who understands the criminal mind far better than he understands the women in his life. Settle in and enjoy. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

". . .veteran Cooper's unobtrusive mastery of her little patch of Oklahoma makes other, longer whodunits look bloated." -- Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Worldwide Library (October 1, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0373265069
  • ISBN-13: 978-0373265060
  • Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,751,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Laidback Sheriff Kovak pleases in casual Cooper mystery!, December 15, 2003
By 
Gerald M. Bull "Jerry Bull" (Fairview, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Cooper fans have had to wait since 1995 for this seventh in the small-town Oklahoma Sheriff Milt Kovak series. Busy with her housewife / romance writer EJ Pugh series, featuring an equally laidback stay-at-home mom, Cooper finally dusts off Kovak to give us yet another pleasant, not-too-edgy, police procedural. But Kovak, a humble yet successful crime solver, is as apt to take his not too hardened criminals home to their mama as he is likely to throw them in the slammer.

The plot line per se, as it often is in Cooper's novels, is partially just an excuse to parade along our familiar characters and their everyday trials and tribulations. A teenage couple, having gone to visit a star-trek type cult, turns up missing. Soon the female of the pair is found murdered but few clues are forthcoming from the strange brotherhood of mostly pregnant women and male leaders in the cult compound. A former lover of Kovak's puts on the heat as it's her son that's also missing, and so the story unfolds. In the end, Kovak gets the bad guys, but meanwhile we go through his not overly cerebral processes and help from his friends to zero in on the solution.

As with Cooper's other books and other series (Pugh, and stand-up comedienne Kimmie Kruse, that latter just a two-book set), we enjoy a soft-core mystery without much blood and guts. The author's conversational writing style makes the everyday ordinary seem familiar if not special, and we proceed amiably enough to a decent conclusion generally feeling pretty good about everything and everybody. Light reading for sure, but a fun few hours! Recommended.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A real page turner, June 4, 2005
Unlike the other reviewers I was totally unfamiliar with the Milt Kovack series.The reason I picked this book up was because the story was about a fictional cult and I love reading about cults, religions and sects in both fiction and non fiction formats.
That being said, this book was great. I got very engrossed in it and couldn't put it down. I read it in 5 hours because I couldn't wait to see what happened next.The only complaint I could muster up about the book is that I thought it was a little unrealistic at points. Well, unrealistic in a real life situation such as this anyway, but since this book is totally fiction , I can't say it takes away from the book much.
The book is deftly written and I enjoyed reading it very much.
I liked the down home feel of the story and the Sheriff's MidWestern manner. And some of the names in the book inadvertently cracked me up-Tiny Arnold,Larry Joe January,Harmon Monk.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars exciting police procedural, January 18, 2003
His former lover Laura Marshall hysterically demands that Prophesy County, Oklahoma Sheriff save her teenage son Trent from the Seven Trumpets religious community that she swears kidnapped him. Though he prefers distance from Laura, Milt reluctantly follows up on her complaint and quickly learns that Trent's girlfriend Amanda Nederwald has failed to come home either.

Milt visits the Seven Trumpets estate, but before he sees anyone, he finds the corpse of a young female that is later verified is Amanda. Trent remains missing. Milt visits the church where he notices that most of the flock consists of pregnant women. His interview with the founder Brother Grigsby goes well, but also leaves Milt feeling a bit creepy. He returns with his wife, psychiatrist Dr. Jean McDonnell, so she can provide him with a quick assessment of Grigsby. As Milt and his department investigate the homicide and missing boyfriend, his niece becomes a recruitment target of the Seven Trumpets.

LYING WONDERS is an exciting police procedural that readers will enjoy due to the clever interweaving of the overflow of Milt's past personal life into the murder investigation. The story line never slows down even when the hero's sister and niece go at it. Milt is a strong character that makes the rest of the cast seems real because he comes across as a person with complex relationships. Though his sarcastic behavior in his second encounter with Grigsby seems out of character for the calm sheriff, Susan Rogers Cooper provides a delightful who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

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First Sentence:
I lay as still as possible, not wanting him to know I was conscious. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
seven trumpets, sanctuary building
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Brother Grigsby, Johnny Mac, Dixon Marshall, Larry Joe, Sister Alma, Uncle Milt, Bill Williams, Laura Johnson, Prophesy County, Naomi Woman, Amanda Nederwald, Sister Ruth, Tejas County, Trent Marshall, Brother Barry, Barry Leventhwart, Becca Tatum, Roy Higgins, Theodore Davis Grigsby, Alma Smith, Baghdad Apartments, Baton Rouge, Derry Creek, Jasmine Bodine, Marlene Marlene
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