One, Two, What Did Daddy Do?

When E.J. Pugh discovers the bodies of her next door neighbors and the four-year-old who witnessed it she is horrified. After she finds out that she has been named Bessie's guardian, she worries that the child could be the next target of the killer. When she also finds out that the police think that Mr. Lester killed his wife, child and himself she becomes determined to clear his name and protect Bessie. I couldn't put down this fast paced and high intensity start to the E. J. Pugh series.

I am glad I am not her neighbor!! This was the first book I read from Cooper, and the friends/neighbors deaths were shocking to me. Cooper managed to pull it out and the book was a good read. Can't wait to read more to see how the family is coping and what danger is lurking around the corner for the Pugh's.

I started this book and was hooked from the very beginning. I cried with E.J. Pugh, the protagonist, at the death of her friends and neighbors--the whole family except for one little girl. I could feel for E.J. and her family dealing with: inability to believe and cope with the idea that a beloved friend could committ a brutal murder like this, the difficulty in taking a child so emotionally injured by this incident and trying to adapt her into a new family, with E.J. trying to solve this murder. One of the very best mysteries I have read. I already love and reccommend Susan Rogers Coopers series about Sheriff Milt Kovack, an Oklahoma lawman, as a superior series. But I wonder, after this book, how will she ever be able to keep the suspense this high again. I hope E.J. Pugh and her family are around for a long time.

This intriguing and fast paced book held my attention until the end. I immediately sought more of her books but the local bookstore had none of them. I particularly like the main characters as they seem to come from my immediate surroundings, which prompted me to keep doors and windows locked while reading. Refreshing and very real.

This series is great! EJ and Willis are wonderfully believable characters. I read the book in less than one day and the only fault I could find with it was that it read so smoothly and was so enjoyable I finished it too soon. I'm glad I have the other two books in the series to read and can look forward to Cooper's next book in early 1998. Susan Rogers Cooper has created characters that you are able to identify with. Reading her books are like sitting down with family members who are not 100% perfect, but extremely interesting and fun. I highly recommend this series and I hope this will be a looooong running one!