Doctors and Lawyers and Such

Moving from strength to strength, Cooper's Milt Kovak series sounds out small town life, touching on tragedies major and minor and getting all the notes right. Last encountered in Dead Moon on the Rise, Milt, now married to Jean, a psychiatrist who's expecting their baby, is the acting sheriff Prophesy County, Okla. The night before the election in which he hopes to be elected to the permanent job, his best friend's wife commits suicide with her husband's gun. Milt wins the election but soon encounters further violence when a former TV news reporter, the pregnant wife of a a local lawyer, is murdered. An unusually large number of suicides in Prophesy and surrounding counties makes Milt suspicious, more so than some of his peers think he should be. Somewhat bewildered by expectant fatherhood, Milt conducts a multi-pronged investigation, solving the difficult cases and going through Jean's crisis-ridden delivery at just about the same time. (Oct.)