Dead Moon on the Rise

The fifth Milt Kovak cop caper (after Chasing Away the Devil ) finds the good ol' boy lawman newly married to pregnant psychiatrist Jean McDonnell and very surprised when his former co-worker and pal Wade Moon returns to Prophesy County, Okla. Thirteen years before, Wade had left town--and a wife and two daughters--with 16-year-old Gayla, to whom he's now married. Milt figures Wade's ex may still be mad, but he's even more concerned when Wade announces that he's running for Sheriff, against Milt, in the upcoming election. Then Wade's body turns up in a lake in nearby Tejas County the day after he and Milt go fishing there. The Tejas County sheriff expects Prophesy's sheriff to help solve the crime, but Milt, busy mediating between his new wife and his busybody sister, offers only cursory assistance--until he finds himself the chief suspect. By this time, he has a big problem in his own district, where an animal mutilator has struck the local shelter. Readers may initially resist Milt's understated humor and Cooper's Keystone Kop routines, but the sassy approach exerts an increasing appeal, making this an entertaining farce. (Apr.)