Police chief Arly Hanks investigates murder in her Ozark hometown in three books of a beloved series by an Agatha Award–winning author.
Her marriage and career over, Arly Hanks heads home to Maggody, Arkansas, for a fresh start. Not much ever happens in a village this size, so Arly figures her new job as chief of police will be pretty quiet. But the seemingly peaceful Maggody residents have a few secrets of their own . . .
Malice in Maggody: Something stinks, and it’s not the polluted fishing hole. An escaped convict is coming home to roost, an infamous EPA agent has disappeared, and there’s a corpse with an arrow in its neck at a nearby seedy motel. Now it’s up to Arly and her half-witted deputy, Paulie, to discover the source of the rot.
Mischief in Maggody: Maggody’s population is suddenly booming, and among its new residents are a doom-obsessed psychic and a handsome high school guidance counselor. But after a local moonshiner and prostitute are found dead in a booby-trapped field of cannabis, Arly must root out the killer before they make another deadly deduction.
Much Ado in Maggody: The bank president’s playboy son, Brandon Bernswallow, is now the head teller, and his sexist behavior has women ready to tell him off. When the bank burns down with Bernswallow inside, Arly must quickly uncover what really happened if she hopes to cool the town’s tensions.
Joan Hess (1949–2017) was an award-winning author of several long-running mystery series. Born in Arkansas, she was teaching preschool when she began writing fiction. Known for her lighthearted, witty novels, she created the Claire Malloy Mysteries and the Arly Hanks Mysteries, both set in Arkansas.