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Sheriff Milt Kovak #4
Chasing Away the Devil
When Sheriff Milt Kovak's sweetheart, Glenda Sue, is murdered, he must contend with her daughter, confront Glenda Sue's secret dark side, and find her murderer
183 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1991
About the author
Susan Rogers Cooper
45 books27 followersSusan Rogers Cooper is an American mystery novelist. A self-proclaimed "half fifth generation Texan; half Yankee", she sets her novels in Texas (the E.J. Pugh and Kimmey Kruse novels) and in Oklahoma (the Sheriff Milt Kovak novels). She is currently living in Central Texas, coming up with fresh new ways to get her characters into trouble.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 17, 2018
I really like these Milt Kovak books. They are fairly short, excellently written with much tongue-in-cheek humor, and evoke a feeling of small town life. Sheriff Kovak's long time girlfriend is murdered and he attempts to find whodunit. Recommended.
March 19, 2011
Originally read this several years ago. Got hooked again on the Milt Kovak series because Susan was attending our reader's group. This is the 4th of the series. Falling in love with Milt all over again.
January 30, 2021
You can't say you're bored in Oklahoma: the adventures of Milt Kovak are there to prove it.
Poor Milt is once again confronted with dramatic events, which he will overcome with his usual brio, awkwardness and humor.
The plot is a bit more in-depth than in the first installments of the series, but it's still the standout characters that make the book so attractive.
The author's depth and psychological accuracy are astounding. The books in the series being published in e-book in droplets, their waiting becomes a delicious torture.
Poor Milt is once again confronted with dramatic events, which he will overcome with his usual brio, awkwardness and humor.
The plot is a bit more in-depth than in the first installments of the series, but it's still the standout characters that make the book so attractive.
The author's depth and psychological accuracy are astounding. The books in the series being published in e-book in droplets, their waiting becomes a delicious torture.
March 4, 2009
Part of the sherif Milt Kovak mystery series set in rural Oklahoma. Milt is involved in investigating the murder of his girlfriend and the kidnapping of her grand daughter which are connected to something the girlfriend was suspected of taking from an Ayran group. It was an interesting read.
December 3, 2022
An odd mix of folksy tone, appealing characters, speedily-changing relationships, unexplained prescient dreams, and brutal evildoers.
September 16, 2026
Two stars. That rating still sits oddly with me. This is the best plotted of the Milt Kovak books so far. I found it more intense and interesting than any of the previous books. The ending, and the man telling the story, are what pull the grade down.
Glenda Sue turned down Milt Kovak’s marriage proposal. That was the last decision she made before someone slit her throat, burned her hands and feet with cigarettes, and cut off two of her fingers. Everyone who saw the body agreed it was a nasty way to die. No one could say why a middle-aged waitress in Prophesy County, Oklahoma, died that brutally.
A note for readers who want it up front: the book includes torture of the corpse, racist violence against a child, and a sexual plotline that treats a disabled woman as a virgin conquest.
Kovak is still chief deputy here, not sheriff. Conventional wisdom says he is too close to the case to work it. His boss orders him to hand it off. Kovak refuses.
Glenda Sue’s daughter, Melissa, comes home for the funeral with a newly minted social work degree and a mixed-race daughter named Rebecca. Kovak has a long history with Melissa. When her father beat her mother, the girl ran to Kovak for help. She saw him as a hero. He sees Rebecca as a granddaughter.
Vandals soon wreck Glenda Sue’s trailer and Kovak’s house. They are hunting something she hid. Among her belongings sits a first-class, one-way ticket to Paris, a purchase no waitress’s paycheck explains. The violence then turns personal. Racists target Rebecca and kidnap her.
Glenda Sue’s murder is not the only case on Kovak’s desk. While he is staying at a hotel, he learns of a meeting of self-styled American patriots who are, in fact, white supremacists. I mention them only because they matter to the book’s disturbing finish, which I will not describe here.
Cooper writes Kovak in first person, a voice reviewers like to call bemused and acerbic. In the earlier books that voice could charm. Here it curdles.
Melissa introduces Kovak to her new boss, Jean McDonnell, a psychologist at the local hospital. Jean uses crutches permanently. She will matter in later books. Glenda Sue has barely begun to decompose before Kovak beds her. Because Jean has a disability, Cooper treats her as a virgin. Who would sleep with a woman on crutches, after all? Kovak has hopped from bed to bed throughout the series, so the crutches do not put him off. I should not let it get to me, but I find his amoral streak disgusting far too often. The final paragraphs confirm that reading in grand style. Read the ending and decide whether you see it as I do.
The book also leans on a recurring dream of Kovak’s, a dab of the supernatural I found an impediment and a distraction rather than a way to push the story forward.
A real cliffhanger closes the book. I will read the fifth, Dead Moon on the Rise, just to see how it lands. Milt forces the sitting sheriff to resign. No one holds the chief deputy accountable for conduct I find nearly as reprehensible, in its own way, as that of a sheriff sympathetic to the white supremacist group.
Glenda Sue turned down Milt Kovak’s marriage proposal. That was the last decision she made before someone slit her throat, burned her hands and feet with cigarettes, and cut off two of her fingers. Everyone who saw the body agreed it was a nasty way to die. No one could say why a middle-aged waitress in Prophesy County, Oklahoma, died that brutally.
A note for readers who want it up front: the book includes torture of the corpse, racist violence against a child, and a sexual plotline that treats a disabled woman as a virgin conquest.
Kovak is still chief deputy here, not sheriff. Conventional wisdom says he is too close to the case to work it. His boss orders him to hand it off. Kovak refuses.
Glenda Sue’s daughter, Melissa, comes home for the funeral with a newly minted social work degree and a mixed-race daughter named Rebecca. Kovak has a long history with Melissa. When her father beat her mother, the girl ran to Kovak for help. She saw him as a hero. He sees Rebecca as a granddaughter.
Vandals soon wreck Glenda Sue’s trailer and Kovak’s house. They are hunting something she hid. Among her belongings sits a first-class, one-way ticket to Paris, a purchase no waitress’s paycheck explains. The violence then turns personal. Racists target Rebecca and kidnap her.
Glenda Sue’s murder is not the only case on Kovak’s desk. While he is staying at a hotel, he learns of a meeting of self-styled American patriots who are, in fact, white supremacists. I mention them only because they matter to the book’s disturbing finish, which I will not describe here.
Cooper writes Kovak in first person, a voice reviewers like to call bemused and acerbic. In the earlier books that voice could charm. Here it curdles.
Melissa introduces Kovak to her new boss, Jean McDonnell, a psychologist at the local hospital. Jean uses crutches permanently. She will matter in later books. Glenda Sue has barely begun to decompose before Kovak beds her. Because Jean has a disability, Cooper treats her as a virgin. Who would sleep with a woman on crutches, after all? Kovak has hopped from bed to bed throughout the series, so the crutches do not put him off. I should not let it get to me, but I find his amoral streak disgusting far too often. The final paragraphs confirm that reading in grand style. Read the ending and decide whether you see it as I do.
The book also leans on a recurring dream of Kovak’s, a dab of the supernatural I found an impediment and a distraction rather than a way to push the story forward.
A real cliffhanger closes the book. I will read the fifth, Dead Moon on the Rise, just to see how it lands. Milt forces the sitting sheriff to resign. No one holds the chief deputy accountable for conduct I find nearly as reprehensible, in its own way, as that of a sheriff sympathetic to the white supremacist group.
January 11, 2010
[From Fiction DB:] On Friday night, Sheriff Milt Kovak of Prophesy County, Olkahoma, proposed to his longtime lady love, Glenda Sue. She turned him down. On Saturday morning, Glenda Sue is found brutally murdered.
Kovak begins a desperate search to find the killer, well aware he's a suspect himself. When he discovers a first-class, one-way ticket to Paris in Glenda Sue's belongings, it's pretty clear she had been keeping secrets - deadly secrets. The arrival of Glenda Sue's daughter and granddaughter brings some light into Milt's life - and the case. The little girl becomes the target of vicious hate mongers, and puts Milt on the trail of killers whose attack becomes very personal indeed.
Much better than I expected.
Kovak begins a desperate search to find the killer, well aware he's a suspect himself. When he discovers a first-class, one-way ticket to Paris in Glenda Sue's belongings, it's pretty clear she had been keeping secrets - deadly secrets. The arrival of Glenda Sue's daughter and granddaughter brings some light into Milt's life - and the case. The little girl becomes the target of vicious hate mongers, and puts Milt on the trail of killers whose attack becomes very personal indeed.
Much better than I expected.
October 10, 2011
As a deputy sheriff in an Oklahoma town, Milt Kovak, is having a very bad day when he wakes up to the news that his girlfriend has been brutally murdered. They had parted with a fight the night before which does not help matters. Her estranged daughter and grandchild come home for the funeral and the story interweaves between the present and Milt's memories of the past.
This all worked better than the ending which I found to be rather an abrupt ending. It felt more contrived than it should have. I enjoyed the turn of phrase and will look for others to read.
This all worked better than the ending which I found to be rather an abrupt ending. It felt more contrived than it should have. I enjoyed the turn of phrase and will look for others to read.
October 5, 2015
this is a great novel in the series. milt is a wonderful man who makes mistakes, owns it and then solves the mystery.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews