Vegas Nerve: A Sheriff Milt Kovak Mystery (Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Susan Rogers Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries | Publication Date: March 6, 2007

Sheriff Milt Kovak, having joined his psychiatrist wife on a trip to a conference in Las Vegas, expects a welcome vacation, inspecting the casinos. He has left a capable second-in-command to watch over his small town in Oklahoma, but almost as soon as they arrive, Milt gets an S.O.S. call from his cousin Maida. Her pregnant daughter has been beaten by her husband, and Maida's husband, Burl, has thoroughly trounced his son-in-law. The young man is the son of a very powerful businessman in Vegas, and the police want to lock Burl up.

 

Milt manages to talk his fellow cops into giving him custody of Burl until the trial and takes the still-steaming man to their hotel room; Burl reciprocates by disappearing.  Milt doesn't think anything else can go wrong---except it does.  The next morning, the young man is found dead.

Now Milt must forego the wonders of Las Vegas to try to find Burl and clear him from the charge of murder. He expects to get some help from the young widow's several brothers, who descend on the town "volunteering to help."  But they are more involved with quarreling among themselves than in finding the murderer. 
Will Milt hit the jackpot?  Susan Rogers Cooper has upped the ante with her latest, a fun-filled, adventure-packed addition to this consistently entertaining series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Cooper's amusing eighth Sheriff Milt Kovak mystery (after 2003's Lying Wonders), the Oklahoma lawman arrives in Las Vegas, Nev., for an overdue vacation, only to get embroiled in an assault and battery case. His cousin, Maida Upshank, in town visiting her daughter, Denise, begs Milt to bail out her husband, Burl, who's been arrested for beating up his son-in-law. It appears Denise's husband, Larry Allen, attacked his pregnant wife. Kovak gets Burl released under his recognizance, but Burl disappears just in time to be the prime suspect in Larry's subsequent murder. Maida summons her five geographically scattered sons to help Milt find Burl, but the brothers' personality differences cause friction and scant progress. Meanwhile, back in Prophesy County, Kovak's second-in-command, Emmett Hopkins, longtime widower, embarks on a not-so-graceful, midlife office romance. Between the Sin City shenanigans and Hopkins's humorous woes back home, this light romp should leave readers satisfied. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Milt Kovak, Sheriff of Prophesy County, Oklahoma, and his wife, Jean, are off to Las Vegas for a second honeymoon. But their respite from daily life is short-lived when Milt gets a call from his cousin, Maida Upshank, who is also in Vegas along with her four sons. Maida's husband, Burl, punched his son-in-law, Larry Allen, heir to a casino fortune, after he learned that Larry had been physically abusing Burl's very pregnant daughter. Milt knows how he would have handled the situation back home, but in Vegas, the punchee has more clout than the puncher. Milt gets Burl released from jail, but when Allen ends up dead and Burl goes missing, Milt is forced to find his friend before the Vegas cops do. Maida's four squabbling brothers become Milt's ad-hoc detective squad as they search for Burl and sort through a jackpot of murder motives that range from white supremacists to scorned former lovers. The eighth Kovak caper once again offers the satisfying combination of gentle humor, common sense, and a very likable protagonist. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (March 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031235603X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312356033
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #538,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars down home mystery in Vegas, March 11, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vegas Nerve: A Sheriff Milt Kovak Mystery (Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Although Sheriff Milt Kovak loves his life in Prophecy County, Oklahoma he is looking forward to going to Las Vegas with his wife, who is attending a psychiatric conference. He knows his third cousin Maida Upshank and her husband Burl are up their visiting their pregnant daughter Denise. Milt figures he doesn't have to see them because they have different agendas but when Burl is arrested, he goes to the sheriff's office to see if he can help.

Burl saw his son-in-law beat up his daughter and punch her in the stomach. He beat up his daughter's husband and since the man is pressing charges he is arrested. Milt gets the sheriff to release Burl into his custody but when his son in law is found murdered, shot at point blank range, Milt is ordered to bring Burl in. He would but he skipped out forcing Maida to call her sons to come to Vegas to help Milt clear Burl's name. Milt believes it easier to find the real killer and he uses the help that is at hand even if they are unorganized and not too bright.

This is a down home mystery that gives readers an interesting look at Las Vegas from a first time visitor. Susan Rogers Cooper creates interesting characters and the audience will have many chuckles following the exploits of Milt on a second honeymoon that winds up in the middle of a homicide looking for a killer. Vegas Nerve is a fascinating and creative mystery that makes readers want to stay up and finish this book.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All kinds of action in Vegas, April 11, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vegas Nerve: A Sheriff Milt Kovak Mystery (Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Sheriff Milt Kovak leaves Prophesy, his small Oklahoma county, in the hands of his capable deputy, Emmett Hopkins. His psychiatrist wife is speaking at a conference in Las Vegas and he's along for moral support. At least that how it starts out.

Kovak gets a phone call from cousin, Maida. She's come to Las Vegas with her husband, Burl to see their pregnant daughter. They discover that their daughter is being physically abused. Burl takes on his son-in-law and beats him to a pulp. But son-in-law's daddy is one of the richest casino owners in Las Vegas--and Burl ends up in jail.

Within 24 hours Milt gets Burl out as a professional courtesy, the son-in-law is killed, Emmett starts an affair with one of the deputies back home, crime jumps fourfold in Prophesy county, and Maida's four sons show up to help find Dad and save the day. It gets more complicated from there. Long-buried family issues come to light and skeletons come out of every closet.

As a reader I found so much going on in Las Vegas that the goings on in Prophesy County seemed little more than a distraction. The author weaves a tale that becomes more complicated as each chapter unfolds. You will be challenged to keep all the characters straight--as well as their whereabouts. Relationships become more complicated and motives multiply. Finally in only the last few pages all is revealed.

Armchair Interviews says: Vegas Nerve is complex, fast paced and entertaining to the end. Cooper is an Edgar-nominated author of three mystery series.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yippee!! Another Milt Kovacs!, September 29, 2007

By 

PJ Coldren (Saint Helen, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vegas Nerve: A Sheriff Milt Kovak Mystery (Sheriff Milt Kovak Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Sheriff Milt Kovak is back. He's a little out of his element this time. His wife Jean is a speaker at a convention in Las Vegas and Milt has gone along for the vacation, their first since their honeymoon. He's a little nervous about leaving Emmett Hopkins in charge of Prophesy County, Oklahoma; what if Emmett decides he wants the job full-time?

That's not gonna happen; there seems to be a crime spree while Milt is in Las Vegas. Plus Emmett is more than a little distracted by his very sudden romance with one of the deputies, Jasmine.

Milt also has more on his plate than he anticipates. A shirttail relation calls him in the wee hours of the morning because her husband has been arrested for assault and battery, on their son-in-law, who had kicked their very pregnant daughter in the stomach. Milt goes down to bail the guy out; a day or so later the guy disappears AND the son-in-law has been found murdered.

VEGAS NERVE alternates between Milt's situation and Emmett's situation. One keeps waiting for the two to connect. That's part of the tension in the book. Milt has always found the bonds of family to be particularly strong; those bonds are tested in many ways in Las Vegas. Emmett and Jasmine "were the walking wounded, except maybe he was a little more wounded than she was. Hell, he was the walking dead." Can they sort out their respective baggage, still work together, AND have an overt relationship? More tension.

VEGAS NERVE, as with most Cooper/Kovak books, is far stronger on character than on plot. Serious and astute readers of the genre will see the ending coming; the pleasure is in watching Milt and Emmett work their way through all the problems.