Malice in Maggody is a murdery mystery novel written by Joan Hess featuring her main character, Arly Hanks, as the first female sheriff of her hometown of Maggody- not that it’s much of an achievement. Returning home to Maggody, Arkansas from New York after a bad divorce, Arly is just biding her time recuperating till she can get back on her feet. After all, it’s not as if anything really happened in Maggody, where her mother Ruby Bee owns the local bar and grill and the population is less than a thousand.
However, the local residents are stirring with outrage and anger when an unwanted sewage treatment plant is going to be dumped into their own Boone Creek, despite assurances that it woudn’t affect the water quality- but as Jim Bob Buchanon, mayor of Maggody, pointed out in the first line of the book “It’s shit-pure and simple shit, no matter what they call it” (p.1)- and Jim Bob Buchanon has a plan that includes the disappearance of the EPA official sent to sign the paperwork disappears on his way back to the city, just as a former Maggody citizien escapes prison and may be heading back to Maggody, and his wife. Arly’s plate has just gotten a whole lot full but it becomes a whole lot shocking when a body is found in the doorway of the Flamingo Motel, which Arly’s mother owns, and which very well seems connected to the EPA official’s disappearance.
Malice in Maggody is a very humorous, light-paced read with even more humorous and interesting characters, making me laugh in some parts and keeping me absorbed from beginning to end. In fact, Maggody promises to be a very entertaining series and this is only the first in many Maggody novels to come.
Published in 1987.
No comments:
Post a Comment