Susan Rogers Cooper Books in Order

Recently divorced Oklahoma deputy Milt Kovak investigates the rape and murders of elderly women living alone. His strongest lead is a witness who saw a blond man in a battered green Chevy leaving a crime scene.

Milt Kovak rushes to Houston when his estranged sister is found in a coma beside her murdered husband. Caring for her children, Milt investigates the shooting and tries to prove that Jewel is not the killer.

When a bank teller and her family die from carbon monoxide poisoning, Milt Kovak suspects more than a tragic accident. Their filthy home and strangely blank past pull him into a case where nothing about the victims quite adds up.

After Milt Kovak's longtime love is brutally murdered, he investigates despite being too emotionally involved for the case. Her daughter's arrival and a child's disappearance lead him toward dangerous local prejudice, dirty money, and a deadly secret.

E.J. Pugh discovers her neighbors murdered and finds their traumatized young daughter still alive. Convinced the police have blamed the wrong man, E.J. investigates a terrible crime while trying to protect the child left behind.

Texas stand-up comic Kimmey Kruse is working a Chicago club when an old lover dies in her hotel room. Soon more comedians are dead, and Kimmey must help Detective Sal Pucci trace a dangerous connection from an earlier gig.

Acting sheriff Milt Kovak faces an election challenge when his rival Wade Moon turns up dead in a nearby lake. Attacks on Milt, a sabotaged car, and a string of bizarre local crimes suggest the county has bigger troubles brewing.

Stand-up comic Kimmey Kruse returns to Port Arthur to help care for her injured grandfather. At a chaotic family reunion, a relative dies from wasp stings, and Kimmey suspects murder even when nobody else wants to believe her.

While running for sheriff and awaiting the risky birth of his first child, Milt Kovak investigates a murdered television reporter and a troubling cluster of suicides. Personal pressure and public scrutiny make every lead harder to follow.

Romance writer E.J. Pugh finds that family life in Black Cat Ridge leaves little room for peace when a troubling death shakes the community. Her questions uncover tensions and motives that someone would rather keep safely out of sight.

This anthology gathers traditional mystery stories from a range of crime writers. Susan Rogers Cooper contributes the Kimmey Kruse story “Barbecued Bimbo,” adding her stand-up comic sleuth to a collection built around domestic mischief and murder.

When Willis Pugh fails to come home from a trip near Enchanted Rock, E.J. fears the worst. His disappearance leads to a backwoods murder case, forcing the couple to untangle danger from opposite sides before time runs out.

E.J. Pugh's busy Black Cat Ridge household is disrupted by a new mystery with painful personal stakes. Balancing family demands with questions the police have not answered, she follows a trail of secrets that puts ordinary lives under strain.

E.J. Pugh's troubled sister-in-law is accused of murder, and E.J. cannot believe the case is that simple. While her own house is under construction and family life is chaotic, she searches for the truth behind a young woman's death.

In Black Cat Ridge, romance writer E.J. Pugh is pulled into another unsettling local mystery. Her curiosity leads past neighborly appearances and familiar routines, where private grudges and carefully hidden secrets make danger feel close to home.

A Caribbean vacation forces E.J. Pugh to share close quarters with her three quarrelsome sisters. When a body turns up in the cistern of their rental home, old sibling resentments collide with a murder investigation.

A former girlfriend asks Sheriff Milt Kovak to find her missing teenage son after a religious retreat. At the isolated compound, Milt finds the boy's girlfriend dead and must penetrate a secretive group that refuses to talk.

Milt Kovak expects a Las Vegas break while his psychiatrist wife attends a conference. Instead, he helps a cousin whose husband vanishes after a family assault, then becomes the prime suspect when the abusive son-in-law is murdered.

After years away from crime scenes, romance writer E.J. Pugh attends a writers' convention in Austin. A participant is found dead, rivalries simmer, and E.J. finds that professional gossip can conceal a killer's very real motive.

Deputy Dalton Pettigrew vanishes, then his sister disappears while looking for him. When a child in Sheriff Milt Kovak's care is taken too, Milt must uncover why a threatening figure from Jean's past has targeted his family.

A deputy's wedding should be a happy day in Longbranch, Oklahoma, until a bank robbery leaves a sheriff's deputy dead. Milt Kovak tackles the local fallout while the newlyweds' honeymoon is derailed by a hurricane and criminals.

Someone is stalking E.J. Pugh's adopted teenage daughter, Bessie, and claiming a link to the family she lost as a child. As threats turn violent, the Pughs must revisit the devastating case that first brought Bessie into their lives.

A woman from E.J. Pugh's weight-loss group seems to die, then turns up alive with no memory of her past. When a friend is murdered, E.J. follows the trail into old identities, buried secrets, and growing trouble at home.

A frightened teenager calls Milt Kovak to a gated community, where he finds her mother murdered. The victim belonged to an unusual plural family, and Milt and his wife Jean uncover secrets that make the household far less idyllic than it seems.

Milt Kovak wins a Caribbean cruise and takes Jean, their son, and his son's friend along for spring break. When a troubled boy is found dead aboard ship, Milt joins ship security to find a killer at sea.

E.J. Pugh swears off murder investigations until a mysterious satchel is hidden in Willis's truck. When their foster daughter Alicia disappears with it, E.J. and Willis race to learn why the bag matters and who wants it back.

After Milt Kovak arrests a man for killing his wife, the suspect's relatives seize a hotel suite and take hostages. With a tornado approaching and the prisoner suddenly dead, Milt and Jean have little time to sort out the truth.

E.J. and Willis Pugh's anniversary getaway at a Texas bed-and-breakfast becomes a ghost story with real victims. When self-styled psychic detectives start dying, E.J. digs into an old family tragedy to expose a very present danger.

Someone begins terrorizing the Prophesy County sheriff's department with threats, sabotage, and attacks on deputies' families. As pranks turn lethal, Sheriff Milt Kovak must identify the person seeking revenge before his own loved ones become targets.

When Graham Pugh finds his hated college roommate dead on their dorm-room floor, he becomes the leading suspect. His mother, romance novelist E.J. Pugh, heads to Austin determined to clear him before campus gossip and police suspicion close in.