Much Ado in Maggody

By Joan Hess

A hilarious police procedural set in the strangest town in the Ozarks, where whip-smart sheriff Arly Hanks does everything she can to keep the peace.

Nothing ever happens in Maggody, Arkansas, population 755. Aside from handling the occasional barroom brawl or exploding still, Chief of Police Arly Hanks spends her days sipping coffee and squashing flies. She returned to Maggody two years ago, licking her wounds after a bad Manhattan divorce, and she fell backward into the role of sheriff. From Hizzoner the Moron – also know as Jim Bob Buchanon, the pettily corrupt mayor – to Ruby Bee Hanks – Arly's mother and the town's foremost gossip – the people of Maggody are all crazy in their own ways, and that craziness is about to turn deadly.   When Joanna Mae Nookim returns to work after giving birth, the bank manager bumps her down to minimum wage as punishment for taking time off. It's outrageous, but there's nothing Arly can do. But when the bank burns to the ground and the head teller is found dead, Maggody threatens to burst into an all-out revolution for the sake of women's rights.  

Fans of comic mysteries have known for years that no small town is quite like Maggody. With its wild cast of characters and its no-nonsense female detective, Much Ado in Maggody is evidence of master of cozy mysteries Joan Hess at her best.  Much Ado in Maggody is the 3rd book in the Arly Hanks Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Nov 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781786693549

Joan Hess

Joan Hess is the author of the critically acclaimed Maggody mysteries, including Muletrain to Maggody, Maggody and the Moonbeams, Misery Loves Maggody, and [e-mail], nominated for the prestigious Nero Wolfe Award. She has received numerous awards, including the American Mystery Award, the Agatha Award, the Drood Review Readers' Award, and the Macavity Award. A former president of the American Crime Writers League, she is currently president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance, as well as a member of Sisters in Crime. Joan Hess lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Reviews for Much Ado in Maggody

[kmt01_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a book is a re-issue of one that originally came out in the 1980’s. I found it difficult to keep my interest, and this may have been one of the reasons. Arly Hanks, recovering from personal disasters in her life, has moved to Maggody Arkansas and is the Chief of Police (and the only police employee in this town of 750 persons) because she is the only person who applied for the job. This is normally a quiet, little town, until the local bank branch head teller is demoted, after taking a longer than expected maternity leave. Angered by this move, this disgruntled employee, and a hard-charging women’s rights lawyer, gets the town’s women to join together to demand equal rights from their husbands, who would just as soon they remained as passive and docile as they have been and are. Trouble, in the form of a multi-women protest, ensues, as the women band together to protest their oppressed, unequal lives. Then, a murder of the newly minted head bank teller is killed in a bank fire. Now, Arly must sift through the clues and events to determine just what happened and who is responsible for the death. This book is interesting, but not nearly as good as I had hoped it would be. I found the actions and events dated and not all that realistic. I could never figure out why the author did not make Arly an assertive woman/law enforcement officer, but rather allowed her to remain, quiet and unassuming, in the background, doing very little to assist the state and other law enforcement agencies and personnel with this murder investigation. In addition, there was a lot of attempted humor throughout, which just fell flat. I grew tired of some of the supporting characters, in particular, Arly’s mother who runs the local bar/eatery. Somehow, she never seemed to show any of the motherly concern and love you would expect from a mother. She also never really succeeded in effective meddling, which is what the author intended, I think. I found the dialogue okay, though not all that great, and it could easily have helped make this book much better. The use of “bad” language really did not bother me too much, though I agree it really did nothing to further the storyline or plot. Finally, the plot also was oaky, but I had just about figured out the ending about half way through. I think the book would have been better if it had been reviewed and updated a bit to eliminate some of the very out-of-date dialogue, ideas, conversations, etc. that were contained within it, if the author wanted to reissue the book today. Sometimes a reissued book can be a success, but, for me, this one just did not cut it. I have not read anything by this author and am not sure how to compare this book to her others because of that. I think the book will appeal to anyone who enjoys her other books or is looking for a quick throw-back to another time and place, when things were different. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.