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- $4.99
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Publisher Description
Arresting a Blanton was always going to be bad news, but things are about to get even worse for Sheriff Milt Kovak.
Everyone in Prophesy County knows that you don’t mess with the dim-witted, in-bred Blantons. So when Milt gets a call to say that Darrell Blanton has shot dead his wife, he’s expecting a rough ride.
Arresting Darrell and putting him in the slammer may have been surprisingly easy, but things are about to get a whole lot worse. Eunice Blanton, Darrell’s mama, takes a dim view of her son’s arrest and decides to storm the Longbranch Inn where Milt’s partner, Jean McDonnell is hosting a bachelorette party for Holly Humphries. With the women taken hostage, Eunice’s terms are – unsurprisingly – simple: release her boy or a hostage gets shot every ten minutes. But there’s a problem: Darrell has been found dead in his cell, with not a mark on him . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Milt Kovak struggles to keep the peace while contending with forces of nature like tornadoes and his wife, Jean, in Cooper's amiably folksy 13th mystery featuring the Prophesy County, Okla., sheriff (after 2013's Dark Waters). The inbred, highly unstable Blanton clan provides the occasion for the crime, beginning with Darrell Blanton's shooting of his wife, Joynell. Arresting Darrell is no problem, until Darrell's mama, Eunice, retaliates by taking a bachelorette party hostage and demanding her son's release. Unfortunately, he has died in his jail cell in the interim. Not only is Kovak's wife among the hostages, but so are his deputies, Nita Skitteridge and Jasmine Hopkins. Moreover, a tornado is striking nearby Bishop, while Jean has to deal with the death of her friend Paula, whose dysfunctional family may have led to her self-destructive lifestyle. This moderately entertaining entry will be more likely appeal to established fans than win new converts.
