BEST SERVED COLD

The sheriff’s department of Prophesy County, Oklahoma, is under attack.

It all begins with a note taped to the front door of the cop shop: “I’m going to start by killing your entire family.” But just whose family is in danger? First, the pregnant Holly Pettigrew, who works for the department, is shocked to find a zombie baby doll hanging from a ceiling light at work. Sheriff Milt Kovak finds his antiquated alarm system has been cut and knows the county will not spring for a new one. Kovak’s problems escalate when Maryanne Dobbins, wife of deputy Anthony Dobbins, and her baby are in a car accident caused by cut brake lines. Next, two friends of deputy Dalton Pettigrew's momma are poisoned while playing bridge at her home. Both later die. Kovak and his department can only imagine that someone they’ve jailed or killed in the line of duty is seeking revenge. As Holly tends her distraught mother-in-law, new hire Anna Alvarez uses her computer expertise to help track down likely suspects. When someone tries to set fire to Kovak’s house with his wife and son inside, the endangered family members hole up in a hotel in Oklahoma City while Kovak and his deputies do their darnedest to figure out which of the many people they arrested over the years could be willing to kill to even the score. Kovak even discovers that a local judge who died in an auto accident was also a victim of the brake-line cutter. Can his department catch a clever killer before his department’s staff is reduced to zero?

Despite the high body count, Cooper’s newest (Countdown, 2014, etc.) is loaded with sly humor, delightfully awkward characters, and a surprising denouement.