After a crossbow killing at a cheap roadside motel, Ozarks police chief Arly Hanks finds herself investigating her first murder case. Her marriage over and career gone bust, Arly Hanks flees Manhattan for her hometown: Maggody, Arkansas. In a town this size, nothing much ever happens, so Arly figures she’s safe as the town’s first female chief of police–until the husband of one of the local … one of the local barmaids escapes from state prison and heads for town. And that’s not all. An EPA official with ties to polluting the local fishing hole has suddenly vanished off the face of the earth.
As if two manhunts aren’t enough to contend with, a body has been discovered at the pay-by-the-hour Flamingo Motel, shot clean through the neck with an arrow. For some reason, Maggody’s residents–all 755 of them–have gone tight-lipped, stonewalling Arly’s investigations, and Arly hasn’t a soul to trust but her half-wit deputy. Now, as Maggody’s finest, she’ll have to show a little muscle and a lot of cunning to curtail the inhospitable mountain malice that’s overtaken her town. And she’ll have to watch her own back every step of the way.
From Agatha Award-winning author Joan Hess, Malice in Maggody is the novel that introduced police chief Arly Hanks–the indomitable sleuth of the popular and long-running Maggody series.
Malice in Maggody is the 1st book in the Arly Hanks Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
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This is the series that made me want to write! I found this book in a mystery bookstore in Wisconsin in the 90’s, and re-read the series every now and then, laughing as I go and thereby annoying the cats (who think I’m a jerk anyway).
If you like funny, small-town cozies with crazy characters and a bit of an edge – check out Malice in Maggody!
Joan Hess’s Maggody novels are terrific light reading. This isn’t a book that I couldn’t put down, it’s just that I didn’t want to. Every one of them that I’ve read left me wanting to read another.
After the first chapter I was snorting with laughter and hooked on this series. Arly Hanks, who’s fled Manhattan after a failed marriage, to become sheriff in her hometown Maggody in the Ozarks, has to fend of her mother’s matchmaking attempts, the holier-than-thou wife of crafty mayor Jim-Bob Buchanan who abhors Arly and her career choice, and a cast of oddballs intent on making her life harder. Add a murder to that, and you have a plot full of twists, funny and scary situations galore, and a sleuth to treasure. Pure bliss.
Another enjoyable cozy series, and there are many mysteries!
MALICE IN MAGGODY (1987) is the first in a series of screwball comedy mystery novels by Joan Hess starring Ariel “Arly” Hanks, sheriff. Her homicide investigations pit her against the mayor, town council, Sergeant Plover of the State Police, her own contentious mother, and a considerable number of other residents of Maggody, Arkansas, “population seven hundred fifty-five.” A fast-moving entertainment, I’m certain I’ll be visiting Maggody again. If you like your murders leavened with humor this is one you’ll want to consider.
© 2017 Barry Ergang
Joan Hess always makes me laugh out loud!
The Maggody series is always a good read.
Good book for a hot summer day. Fun characters and a fun read.
Have followed Maggody series forever. Easy fast reads, hilarious characters’
Can’t put her Maggody books down!! so fun:)
Joan Hess has created great characters in Maggody and it is such fun to read about their adventures.
Joan Hess has several book series and not a lemon among them. Mothering a teenage girl and, of course, her best friend while running a bookstore and stumbling over complications is the other series out there. ‘Daughtering’ a mother and her best friend in a town filled with characters that are caricatures of people you will recognize while trying to readjust to the rural life and serve as the lone ‘Sheriff’ ‘Police Officer’ in a large and strange county keeps this heroine on her toes.
Okay.
Joan Hess has a breezy style that I like. Her characters are interesting. She has a light touch that makes reading her a pleasure.
Liked this one!
I’ve been “a follower” of this series, and feel that I’m personal friends with the local police chief and her mother! Small-town characters and situations are not always what they seem, which always makes for interesting stories.
This series will keep you laughing from start to finish.
Reviewed this already on Amazon.
Way way way too much swearing for my enjoyment. Stopped reading during the first scene featuring people I don’t want in my head in real life or in what I read. No redeeming features.
Love all the Maggody books, great fun with snarky comments about rural folks in Arkansas, including the female protagonist herself.