The Man in the Green Chevy

Rating:
Summary: A great mild-mannered new detective!
Review: What a find! Although the book is out-of-print, do yourself a favor and check out your local bookstores and other venues, as it's definitely worth a read!
Meet Milt Kovak, divorced, overweight, mid-40s Chief Deputy of Prophesy County, Oklahoma.
When his sleepy little burg and the surrounding towns suddenly get some horrific murders, Milt's cool intuition and great people-skills are put to the test.
Someone is raping and killing old ladies of the county, truly heinous crimes.
His only witness,a married Laura Johnson with 3 children and a frequently absent husband, professes to seeing a green Chevy in the vicinity of the murder scene.
As Milt begins his search, he quickly finds himself drawn to beautiful Laura and her wonderful kids and finds himself falling in love with her (as if matters weren't bad enough!)
The book is well-written and you really get a feel for small-town Oklahoma life suddenly thrown into terror by this frightening crime spree.
The character of Milt is smartly drawn and extremely believable, as he does much of his thinking with his heart as well as his head.
This is the introductory book in the Milt Kovak series and (I believe) the author's first book. I was pleasantly surprised how quickly I flew through the pages, and was disappointed when I knew the end was getting closer (with a nice little twist!) so I'm going to try and find the next book in the series through my used book dealer.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes a soft-boiled mystery with great dialogue and a small-town setting.

Thanks, Ms. Cooper for a pleasurable read!
(Now if we can only get Worldwide Mysteries to reprint the entire Milt Kovak series so everyone can enjoy then easily without the big search, we'll be in business!