Joan Hess - Arly Hanks Mystery (#1-16)

Malice in Maggody (Arly Hanks #1)
The last crime wave to hit Maggody, Arkansas, happened eight years back when a farmer's barn burned down and caught two teens in flagrante delicto. That's why Arly Hanks, back in the Ozarks after her marriage went sour in the Big Apple, figured taking the local sheriff's job would give her some needed R&R. What she got was M&M--murder and malice. First Raz Buchanon's favourite hunting dog was snatched, then an EPA official (who okayed dumping sewage in the town's favourite fishing hole) disappeared ... and then a pretty barmaid turned up dead at the Flamingo Motel from real unnatural causes. Now Arly's in danger of landing up the creek without a paddle--where the quiet of the Ozarks may be shattered by the sounds of death.

Mischief in Maggody (Arly Hanks #2)
The phone lines were buzzing all the way from Ruby Bee's Bar and Grill to the Flamingo Motel when four hippies, two bachelors, and a psychic moved into Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755). Chief of Police Arly Hanks was not amused. She had taken the chief's job after her big-city marriage went on the rocks. She needed to be in a quiet place like Maggody where nothing exciting ever happened. Especially murder. But hard cussin', hard drinkin' Robin Buchanon, local moonshiner and lady-of-love, just turned up deader than a skunk flattened by a big rig. What she left behind was a cabin full of kids, a booby-trapped patch of marijuana, and a town waiting for the next body to drop.

Much Ado in Maggody (Arly Hanks #3)
There's trouble in Maggody Arkansas, again, and Chief of Police Arly Hanks has her hands full. The trouble's name is Brandon Bernswallow, the local bank president's playboy son, who became the new head teller and bumped long-time employee Johnna Mae Nookim right down to minimum wage. The fighting-mad women of Maggody are over in Ruby Bee's Bar and Grill planning a sex discrimination protest and a scheme to give the male chauvinists their comeuppance. But they are just as appalled as the men folk when the bank--and Bernswallow--go up in flames. Preacher Verber is sure it's the devil's handiwork. Mayor Jim Bob blames the Commies. But Arly is determined to sift through the ashes ... and discover who cooked up this case of downhome murder.

Madness in Maggody (Arly Hanks #4)
No doubt about it, local gossips had finally gotten something right: a maniac was loose in Maggody Arkansas (pop. 755). So Chief of Police Ariel "Arly" Hanks, a.k.a. the local girl who did not make good in New York City and came home to lick her wounds, is back in action. Someone sabotaged the grand opening of Jim Bob's Supersaver Buy 4 Less with tainted tamale sauce and straight pins in the cupcakes. Now Arly's got 23 cases of food poisoning and a whole passel of suspects who want Jim Bob's store to go belly up, including her very own mother, Ruby Bee. What Arly doesn't have is an inkling of the other high crimes and misdemeanour's about to be perpetrated in a Maggody gone bonkers:sex scandals, scams.... and very sudden death.

Mortal Remains in Maggody (Arly Hanks #5)
Chief of Police Arly Hanks is still telling herself that someday she'll leave her hometown of Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755) and return to the bright lights of Manhattan. Ordinarily Arly's known for saying nothing ever happens in Maggody, but lately that's all changed: Word is buzzing all the way from Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill to Estelle's Hair Fantasies that Hollywood (or at least Burbank) is coming to this tiny Ozarks town to shoot on location. Everyone is starstruck. Even Arly seems to be falling for the sweet talk of a handsome young actor when she ought to be focusing on stopping the local arsonist. Then things really heat up. First the actors are peeling off their clothes--and if that weren't enough, they're suddenly turning up missing--or dead. Before the director can yell "action," the credits are rolling on a moonshine-style mystery.

Maggody in Manhattan (Arly Hanks #6)
Chief of Police Arly Hanks can't even look at a postcard of Manhattan's skyline--which reminds her of a broken line graph--without feeling dizzy and nauseated. So the last place on earth she wants to be is back in the City of Bright Lights, with its towering skyscrapers, memories of her nasty divorce, and a most inconvenient murder. But when Ruby Bee wins an all-expense-paid trip to New York as a finalist in the KoKo-Nut Cooking Contest and is arrested for attempted murder, it looks like Arly to the rescue. Checking into the Chadwick Hotel, Arly finds herself sharing recipes with the good-looking, single Durmond Pilverman, whose talents go way beyond his skill at baking a KoKo-Nut Kream Pie. And when a dead body turns up in the hotel dumpster, Arly begins to suspect that too many chefs are spoiling the broth in this national cook-off. And the .38 she finds hidden in Durmond's dresser has her wondering if she's been sleeping with the enemy.

O Little Town of Maggody (Arly Hanks #7)
Chief of Police Arly Hanks is still hiding out in her hometown of Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755), the land of moonshine and Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill, country roads and Nashville on the radio, cheatin' hearts and, well, maybe murder. It all starts when Matt Montana, country music's number one superstar of the year, decides it's a great PR move to come home to Maggody for the holidays. For a town in the grip of a recession, the news means Christmas is bringing a saviour. Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanan, the mayor's wife, quickly sets up the Matt Montana Official Souvenir Shoppe, the amply endowed Dahlia Buchanan drives tourists around in the "Matt-mobile, " and beer costs two dollars a bottle at the Matt Montana Hometown Bar & Grill. Only one thing is missing: Aunt Adele, Matt Montana's one and only living relative. The elderly lady has mysteriously disappeared from the local nursing home, and Arly - even with the loan of the Fayetteville's PD's tracking dog - can find neither hide nor hair nor corpse of her. Now Arly gets to peek behind the scenes at a singing star's very private life to discover the manager who isn't above using blackmail, the wife who may be willing to kill to keep her man, and the pretty young singer who is giving Matt Montana an achy breaky heart. Is one of them a killer? Why has Dahlia Buchanan confessed to murder? What did happen to Aunt Adele? And what does moonshiner Raz Buchanan's pig Marjorie have to do with it all? Since Arly is the smartest, spunkiest, most off-beat sleuth in the Ozarks, it's up to her to save Christmas and restore order to the wacky, delightful community of Maggody, where anything can happen - and usually does.

Martians in Maggody (Arly Hanks #8)
Arly (Ariel) Hanks is still chief of police in Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755), a sleepy little town in the Ozarks where nothing ever happens - until the day UFOs, Martians, Bigfoot, and tabloid reporters descend on Maggody...and bring along a case of murder. The summer starts out normal enough. The moulting neon sign outside the Flamingo Motel reads V CAN Y, Ruby Bee is serving up chicken-fried steak at her bar and grill, and somebody is making moonshine up on Cotter's Ridge. Then strange geometric designs appear in Raz Buchanan's cornfield. Before Arly can remind people that Raz Buchanan lives with a pedigree sow named Marjorie, tells tall stories by the bushel, and is charging folks a dollar apiece to look at his land, the media is setting up a UFO watch. Soon hysterical reports of strange lights, silver-headed Martians, cattle mutilations, and a hairy creature with very large feet are pouring into Arly's office. Most pesky of all, however, is the arrival of a pair of reporters from rival supermarket tabloids and two "professors" who specialize in writing books about alien phenomena. And when Maggody's buxom newly-wed, the 300-pound Dahlia Buchanan, agrees to undergo hypnosis to recount her abduction and impregnation by Martians, Arly figures things have gone a tad too far. But that's before she finds the dead body out by Boone Creek. Now Arly's got a very down-to-earth puzzle on her hands, and she suspects it's directly connected to an extraterrestrial hoax. Only it's easier to believe a story about a dinosaur swallowing someone's Chevy than to find the real reason why some Maggody teenagers are telling lies, why Ruby Bee's best friend Estelle has disappeared, and what is really fishy about Dahlia Buchanan's trance. And then there's the unsettling matter of the mysterious orange lights Arly sees with her very own eyes.

Miracles in Maggody (Arly Hanks #9)
Chief of police Arly Hanks usually handles all the crime that comes her way in Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755), with the ease that Ruby Bee at Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill gets out her blue plate specials. But that's before televangelist Malachi Hope rolls into town and sets up a tent revival that promises to put Maggody on the map ... and Arly on the hot seat.

In a show as electronically enhanced as a Rolling Stones concert, Malachi is soon performing nightly "miracles." Even more miraculous is his plan to buy 2000 acres of prime Maggody land to build a theme park.

Now greed is growing in the hearts of the town's leading citizens, and before Arly can say "Amen," she's got two murders on her hands. Suspecting that one unholy secret connects both killings, she is about to poke her nose into the dark side of human nature--and unless she pulls off a few miracles of her own, Arly Hanks just might not get out of this crisis alive.

The Maggody Militia (Arly Hanks #10)
Maggody, Arkansas, is a peaceful little Ozarks town snuggled in the heartland of America...until a group of camouflage-clad patriots march in with manoeuvres and murder, Suddenly, Chief of Police Arly Hanks has her hands full: burglars are breaking into houses; the mayor is missing; and a survivalist has just been killed. Which leaves Arly hunting for a motive, a means, and a murderer. Wisely, she reckons there isn't a secret government conspiracy behind this homicide -- just the usual human evils of blind ambition, big money, and deadly obsessions!

Misery Loves Maggody (Arly Hanks #11)
When beleaguered chief of police Arly Hanks hears that her mother, Ruby Bee, and best friend, Estelle Oppers. are headed to Memphis on an Elvis pilgrimage, she thinks she may be getting a long-overdue break. But before she can say "Thank you, thank you very much," the trip is completely stalled by a variety of deadly doings.

Estelle calls home to report that Ruby Bee has collapsed and is in the hospital. And even before Arly's seen the delta dawn, one of the other clients on the tour takes a fatal plunge from the hotel balcony--which adjoins the room of a prominent Maggody citizen, who's now doing the Jailhouse Rock in the local pen. What's more, Estelle's all shook up that the tour van is being followed by ominous thugs. For Arly, it's now or never, because if her suspicious mind doesn't figure out what to do quickly, residents of Maggody may be returned to sender--in a hearse.

murder@maggody.com (Arly Hanks #12)
To the quirky and colourful residents of Maggody, Arkansas, population 755, "going online" is something one does at the DMV. So when the high school's new computer lab gains access to the Internet, the town is plunged into virtual chaos. Students are caught sneaking peeks at pornographic Web sites, and compromising photos of prominent Maggody citizens are being flashed across the display monitors. But when the body of a promiscuous young woman is found in an abandoned shack, a web of suspicion ensnares the community. Now, as cyber crime strikes Maggody, police chief Arly Hanks has to use all her low-tech resourcefulness to pull the plug on a murderer.

Maggody and the Moonbeams (Arly Hanks #13)
Enforcing law and order in the Ozarks just got tougher for Arly Hanks: chaperoning the church youth group, she must keep ten hormonally-challenged teens in line on a retreat to Camp Pearly Gates. It's a hellish assignment sure to have Arly and her fellow travellers -- Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon, the mayor's wife; the high school shop teacher; and preacher Brother Verber -- praying for strength. But adolescent angst soon turns to shocking revelation when the body of a white-robed woman turns up on the campgrounds. She belonged to the quirky cult Daughters of the Moon -- and now Arly, fishing for clues with a handsome angler named Jacko, must walk a narrow path to snare a killer who works in mysterious ways.

Muletrain to Maggody (Arly Hanks #14)
Under the benign watch of Police Chief Arly Hanks, things are pretty quiet in the sleepy Arkansas town of Maggody these days. Not even the prospect of a historical society-funded Civil War documentary on the locally touted (albeit historically insignificant) Skirmish at Cotter's Ridge of 1863 does much to stir up the denizens of this sleepy backwoods town. What does finally get the rumour mill buzzing, however, is the revelation that two saddlebags of Confederate gold were hidden in a local cave to keep them from falling into Yankee hands. Once word gets out that the saddlebags were never recovered, almost everyone in town has a plan to get their hands on the lost gold.

Meanwhile, a colourful cast of outlanders has taken over Maggody. They include a dewy Charleston belle, a famous writer of historical romances, her ne'er-do-well son, and three dozen obsessive re-enactors who have not yet acknowledged that the Civil War ended over a hundred years ago, as well as a documentary film crew and a handsome, if enigmatic, film-maker with ties to Arly's past. Arly has more than enough on her hands trying to locate missing senior citizens and keeping the visitors from each other's throats, but when the genealogist of the Stump County Historical Society dies under questionable circumstances, and a member of the Buchanon clan is the victim of a vicious and fatal attack, Arly finds herself faced with the most baffling whodunit of her career, with a disgruntled ghost a possible prime suspect.


Malpractice in Maggody (Arly Hanks, #15)
Apart from small-town feuds and church scandal, things have been so quiet in the little Arkansas town of Maggody that even police chief Arly Hanks has found time for a vacation. But she returns to find trouble brewing and tongues wagging at fever pitch. The local old-folks' home has been sold to a mysterious outsider, and overnight the place has been transformed into the Stonebridge Foundation, an exclusive rehabilitation centre complete with a stone-faced guard who doesn't speak a word of English and an even nastier dog. Soon there are rumours flying of mental patients roaming the countryside at night, and every character in town is keeping a gun close at hand, just in case. Everyone is dying to know what goes on behind those inhospitable gates, with the exception of Arly, who has enough rural business to keep her satisfied.

When the beautiful young receptionist found drowned in the garden pool is identified as a local girl from nearby Farberville, it's clear the case may not only involve the suspicious characters who've recently moved to town, but also some of the citizens of Maggody, who may have a secre