Muletrain to Maggody

January 26, 2004
The blend of mayhem and mirth is as potent as ever in Hess's 14th cozy (after 2001's Maggody and the Moonbeams
) centered on the backwoods town of Maggody, Ark. The Stump County Historical Society has funded a documentary film on a local Civil War battle, the Skirmish at Cotter's Ridge of 1863. No one seems all that interested until Miss Harriet Hathaway of the historical society mentions that a shipment of Confederate gold was hidden somewhere during the skirmish and hasn't been seen since. Chief of Police Arly Hanks braces herself for the antics that are sure to follow, as various Maggodians devise plans to find the gold and live a life of luxury thereafter. Dedicated reenactors begin to descend on Maggody, along with various experts involved in the documentary. Among them are a well-known writer of historical romances, her shiftless son, his sluttish fiancée, a historian who often dons the uniform of a Union general and a retired accountant with a passion for genealogical research. One dead body turns up, then another, and Arly has to sort out all the comings and goings of the suspects, and the various motives, and collar the killer before he or she strikes again. With a wit sometimes mordant, sometimes gentle, Hess mines the foibles of those obsessed with the past to offer yet another deliciously funny and deviously puzzling mystery. (Feb. 23)

FYI:
Hess is also the author of
A Conventional Corpse (2000) and 12 other titles in her Claire Malloy series.

February 1, 2004
The latest buzz in Maggody, AR, is that Confederate gold was hidden there and never retrieved, so everyone's out looking. But the real trouble begins when a Civil War reenactor, in town for the filming of a documentary, dies under suspicious circumstances. Then Police Chief Arly Hanks has her work cut out for her. A noteworthy addition to the long-running series.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2004
Break out the moonshine, whoop, and holler--Arly Hanks, chief of police, and the slightly whacked-out denizens of Maggody, Arkansas, are back. After all of the mayhem caused in the past by visiting pornographers, presumed aliens, and ill-tempered ostriches, Maggody followers can't help but wonder what could possibly happen next. Answer: the Stump County Historical Society's discovery of a Confederate soldier's diary describing a small Civil War skirmish fought nearby and the hiding of a rebel payroll (in gold) on Cotter's Ridge--now famous as the location of the feral Raz Buchanon's still. Egged on by the redoubtable Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon--wife of the Maggody mayor--the society has decided to make an educational film of the episode, engaging Yankee and Confederate reenactors, along with the services of Corinne Dawk, a Charleston, South Carolina, belle (or, rather, matron) who writes Civil War romances and acts in historical pageants. As usual, Arly anticipates nothing but trouble as everyone begins scrambling through the scrub hunting for lost gold while assorted Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs trade insults and occasional fisticuffs. Things get serious when the historical society's treasurer is found dead, pushed over a bluff, and poor old Hospiss Buchanon is found clubbed to death shortly after speaking to the treasurer. And--most shocking of all--Mrs. Jim Bob is driven to drink. Hess aims and fires her comic Gatling gun with reckless abandon and great glee, easily retaining her unofficial title as Queen of Very Funny Mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)