Mischief in Maggody

Arly Hanks #2

by Joan Hess

When a woman is shot in a cannabis patch, Arly Hanks must restore order to her Ozarks community, in this sharp-witted mystery by an Agatha Award–winning author.

When small-town police chief Arly Hanks returns to Maggody, Arkansas, after vacation, she finds the population has risen to a booming 802. Among the newbies: Madame Celeste, the psychic who’s holding locals in thrall with her predictions of doom; a handsome new high school guidance counselor; and a gaggle of mantra-chanting hippies who have turned the old general store into the source for cosmic harmony. Unfortunately, life in Maggody is anything but harmonious.

Robin Buchanon—a member of Maggody’s most abundant family—has been murdered. The moonshiner, prostitute, and mother of four foul-mouthed little bad seeds was found shot to death in a booby-trapped marijuana field. Assuming the weed harvesters are sending a message to trespassers, Arly decides to hold vigil and set her own trap. But when another, seemingly unrelated, murder catches Arly off-guard, even Madame Celeste can’t predict where this case is headed.

An Agatha Award finalist, Mischief in Maggody is just the kind of “bawdy, cheerful entertainment” that has brought countless fans to Joan Hess’s quirky, long-running Maggody series (Kirkus Reviews).

Mischief in Maggody is the 2nd book in the Arly Hanks Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Humor, Cozy, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Joan Hess was the author of both the Claire Malloy and the Maggody mystery series. Hess was a winner of the American Mystery Award, a member of Sisters in Crime, and a former president of the American Crime Writers League. She lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Joan Hess also wrote a mystery series under the pseudonym of Joan Hadley.

Series contributed to:
. Crosswinds
. The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories
. Malice Domestic
. Deadly Allies
. Sisters in Crime

Reviews

[Zain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something Is Going On…

Chief Arly Hanks is once again facing a dilemma. A woman of a certain reputation is missing and her five unlikable children are motherless.

While investigating the disappearance of the woman, Arly and her staff stumble upon a marijuana plot.

Now she must discover who owns the plot of pot, if she can.

Lots of suspense and mystery as well as hysterical shenanigans ensues.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for this second installment in the long Maggody series. The comedy is there to about the same degree as in the debut, Malice in Maggody, but the element of mystery doesn't rise to the same classic murder mystery level.

Not only does the back cover blurb tell you something about the murder that the main character, Chief of Police Arly Hanks, didn't find out till halfway through the book, but by then the identity of the perpetrator is becoming obvious to us, because we've gotten to know so many characters in scene after scene. The real mystery, of course, was to find out who the perpetrator was working for, and even though that isn't revealed until the end there was an early clue that kept it from being a real surprise.

What we have instead is another pleasant sojourn in the tiny town of Maggody (population 755) in the Arkansas Ozarks, just south of the Missouri line, where we visit with well-rounded, colorful characters who bring the stereotypes to life, well, maybe a little bit larger than life--both ones we've met before and a few new ones, equally stereotypical of course. Once again it's third-person narration except for Arly, whose scenes are all in first person, and this time Arly's narration doesn't sound all that different from the authorial voice that takes us across many different points of view.

What the author does fairly noticeably in the third-person scenes, and not entirely successfully, is to inject dialect features from the dialogues into the descriptive prose. That slowed my reading down a bit. Fortunately there's lots of dialogue, and the author has developed distinctive voices for the different characters. Once again, I felt I was really there with them, and that was truly enjoyable.

The blurb lets us know that the murder victim, "hard cussin', hard drinkin' Robin Buchanon, local moonshiner and lady-of-love," left behind "a cabin full of kids," five to be precise, and Arly must take care of that problem. My favorite new character has to be Hammet, not the oldest of the five but clearly the brightest, and what a personality! I hope we'll see more of him. The kids' interactions with grown-ups in the village, especially the mayor's sanctimonious wife, produce the biggest laughs in the book, and their scenes are sprinkled all the way through it.

Other new characters include an evangelical preacher; a newbie guidance counselor; a psychic who left Las Vegas in a hurry and her brother/manager; and a New Age community comprised of two young men and two young women, one of them very pregnant. All are delightfully overdrawn just that little bit that makes me laugh and care about them at the same time.

The returning characters include Arly Hanks, of course, back in her home town after living in New York; Ruby Bee, tavern & motel owner and Arly's pushy mom; Estelle, hairdresser and Ruby Bee's buddy; Harvey the county sheriff and LaBelle, his gossipy secretary; and Hizzoner Jim Bob Buchanon, the mayor of Maggody and owner of the Kwik-Stoppe-Shoppe and Suds of Fun Laundromat, whose wife Mrs. Jim Bob holds the fort in his absence this time.

Still fun to read, even with a so-so mystery.

[LORI CASWELL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Maggody, Arkansas is growing, all the way up to a total of 802 now, and Arly Hanks as the chief of police is in charge of keeping the peace and everyone safe and it isn’t easy. Right now she has a murder on her hands and four difficult children and 1 infant to place. Before long another murder takes place and Arly truly has her hands full.

____

After reading the first book in this series I knew to expect the explicit language and scenes so that shock factor was gone. That made it easier to just get into the story.

The colorful characters we met in Malice in Maggody are back and are joined by a few new quirky characters. I still feel they are all still very basic and have plenty of room for development. There was a young man that clearly stole the story. Hammet Buchanon has a mouth on him, swearing and no filter, he definitely will tell you what he thinks. His antics will have you in stitches.

The mystery was an easy solve for me but the story was still very entertaining and a nice light escape. So much so I read the 3rd book in the series soon after finishing this one and I will post my review soon.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Ar?y has returned from a vacation and slowly adjusting to life in Maggody again. Ruby Bee has a lot of things to tell Arly, there is psychic, Madame Celeste living in town and there is a new male teacher that Ruby Bee feels would make a good friend for Arly. Mountain woman, Robin Buchanan has disappeared and children are creating havoc in town. Robin is found dead in a bobby trap field of Margijarnia. Madame Celeste is predicting another death. Arly must work fast before prognostication becomes true. I recommend this book and series. some language used might bother some.

?Disclosure: I received a free copy from Open Roads Integrated Media through NetGalley for an honest review. I would like to thank them for this opportunity to read and review the book. The opinions expressed are my own.

[Kaitlyn Dunnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joan Hess definitely had her own style. I suspect no one can feel ambivalent about her Maggody books. Readers are either going to get a kick out of them or be completely turned off. I'm in the former category, and am planning to reread quite a few more in the near future. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed this series.

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up because I enjoyed “Big Foot Stole My Wife: And Other Stories” by this author. I didn’t realize this was book #2 of the series until I was almost done! This read like a stand-alone so I never felt lost. I liked the colorful cast of characters in this story. The story was interesting. Guess I will go back and read book 1 now.

[DelAnne Frazee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Mischief In Maggody - Arly Hanks Mystery Book 2
Author: Joan Hess
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Published: 2-14-2017
Pages: 256
Genre: Mystery; Thrillers & Suspense
Sub-Genre: Police Procedurals; Murder; Cozy Mystery
ISBN: 9781504043472
ASIN: B01 N4RHNLC
Reviewed For NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media
Reviewer: DelAnne
Rating: 4.5 Stars


A dead body in a field of Marijuana. Arly Hanks sifts through the evidence to find a killer who has proven he is willing to kill to get what he wants. Likeable, open and fun. These are discriptions that could decribe either Arly or the Ozark town of Maggody. Filled with warm and friendly people you will want to isit again and again.


My rating of "Mischief In Magoddy - Arly Hanks Mystery Book 2" is 4.5 out of 5 stars.


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[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

After two war novels, I needed to go to something light, so I revisited with the inbred population of Maggody, Arkansas. Mayor Jim Bob and his buddy Larry Joe don't want a sewage treatment plant going in to the neighboring town. They and the other couple members of the town council conspire to kidnap the state bureaucrat coming in to finalize the plan. They stash him in Rubella Belinda's six-unit Flamingo Hotel, where he at least gets "entertained" by a rather willing young lady whose violent husband has just escaped from prison. Needless to say, things go awry, and police chief Arly Hanks (daughter of the hotel owner) has her hands full when a murder takes place at the hotel and she has to deal with that in addition to the kidnapping, some potential blackmailing, and various other little criminal incidents going on in the tiny town.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find the small town loony behavior to be quite amusing. People always seem to know everyone’s business, even when they don’t. And even I. Small towns there are different social strata and certainly a lot of potential bias towards those on the bottom. This made me laugh many times but was still a good mystery. Ultimately the characters are what make this series so great.

[Sonjie Outlaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ginsing from Marijuana

A small town with a population of about 800. A mother of 4 children is murdered in her special garden The chief of police must find the murderer and fathers for the kids.

[Christie Jacobsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of this series! It has all the things I like in a cozy mystery- cookie characters, interesting but easy plot, good narrator and plenty of shenanigans. It is an older series so the references to beepers and white pages are very nostalgic. Curious to see what happens next!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The return of Ariel Hanks, the 35-year-old chief of police in a small Arkansas town called Maggody (population 755 when everybody's home). To an outsider Maggody looks alot like an open air insane asylum with Chief Hanks serving as a combination ring master/warden/arbiter of common sense... in fact, Chief Hanks feels that way herself most of the time.

In this second book in the series Ariel "Arly" Hanks has just returned from a brief vacation to find that the town is all abuzz over a recent addition - a psychic named Madam Celeste. Madam Celeste may or may not have psychic ability but she is definitely making an impression on the locals. Particularly the chief's mother Ruby Bee who wants her daughter to get life (romantic) advice from the newcomer. Chief Arly isn't interested in psychic intervention.

She may have to reconsider when a local woman, described as "a backwoods moonshining, whoring, abusive mountain woman", disappears leaving behind five foul mouthed, near feral children to be taken care of and things really start picking up in the little town where "nothing ever happens." Before it's all over the chief will have to deal with, in her own words, "a murder, a bunch of orphans, a stolen police vehicle, two missing morons, a town full of loonies who communicate with dead ancestors, and a psychic..."

Okay, so I read the first book in the series, I thought the author was trying a little too hard with the quirky, eccentric, rural characters. They came out as contrived and one deminsional. I'm pleased to report that the second book is a bit better.

Many of the characters are still one deminsional, cliched caricatures of small town folk, but others are more realistic... more Andy Griffith Show simple folk than Beverly Hillbillies ridiculous. The author seems to be finding her happy median between silly and serious.

I gave Mischief in Maggody 3-stars. It is fun and entertaining, but also extremely predictable... I had most of the mystery (including several plot twists) figured out about half way through the book. After that it was simply a case of watching the various characters annoy, bewilder and astonish Chief Hanks.

It's a fun read. Not great - not bad.

While the book sounds like a cozy, potential readers should be aware that it contains alot of swearing (particularly by children), some light violence, and sexual situations (more suggestive than graphic).

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this title

[Candice Attrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is not the book you want to read if you're looking for something really serious or something with a very good plotline. Now that i said said that I will say that Joan Hess. is one so if you're looking for something like your favorite sitcom nice and comfortable and funny this is the book for you if you're looking for something Cory or really thought-provoking this is not what you want of my favorite comfort writers. they are light and funny reads. when I am stressed or in pain I can always pick up one or two of these books and it will keep me laughing and distracted from what's going on. so well I know these books are not going to win any award for being thought-provoking I will still always pick up any of her books that I can.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun

Actually Hammet, the orphan Buchanan, is the gem of this book. The characters are interesting and fun. The mystery easily solved before the reveal. But a couple of very surprising twists are waiting at the end.

[Mommalibrarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

very light reading

[Kelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 1988 book and is the second in Joan Hess’ Arly Hanks series. The setting is in a small town in Arkansas called Maggody, with a population of 755. The main character is Arly Hanks, the young female police chief of Maggody. It is a lighthearted and witty cozy mystery. The writing is pretty funny. However, I think the book is too heavy on cozy is too light on mystery. The first half of the book is all about the small town life in Maggody. It is not until we are half in the book before the murder took place and not really until the end of the book when there were real detection and mystery solving.

The mystery plot is about a mountain woman Robin Buchanon with a secret ginseng patch in the mountain where she grows and harvests ginseng for sale. A dope dealer, Nate, did not realize it was somebody’s land, destroyed Robin’s plants and used the land to grow marijuana. He also booby-trapped the patch to deter people from stealing his plants. Unfortunately for Robin, she walked into the booby-trap and was killed. Most of the book was spent on describing how different town folks do to handle Robin’s five illegitimate kids who suddenly became orphaned. There were quite a few comic moments but little mystery.

Arly is a witty but quite incompetent cop. It can get frustrating seeing her bumbling along. After Robin’s body was discovered, Arly decides to stake out the patch, thinking that the bad guy would come back to harvest the plant. Unfortunately for Arly, her friend David Allen Wainright is an accomplice of Nate and David actually bugged Arly’s pager so that they can track where she is all the time. When Arly left the patch at night to go home and take a break Nate went up the mountain and harvested the plants. Unfortunately for Nate, Arly figured out after Nate harvested the plant, he is drying them at the chicken coop behind the local psychic Madame Celeste’ house. As Arly and Madame Celeste approached the chicken coop, Madame Celeste tripped on Nate’s booby trap in the chicken coop and Nate and Madame Celeste were both killed. Arly was not terribly hurt and she finally figured out David Wainright is the guy is Nate’a accomplice and is the one who bugged her pager. David is then arrested.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cozy mystery starring Arly Hanks, police chief in Maggody, Arkansas, population 755. She can't get a deputy, but the town council has given her a pager to make her available 24/7 (if she would return calls). The supporting characters are a hoot. Her mother and mother's best friend try not to get involved in her cases but just can't help themselves. The Buchannons, a heavily inbred clan, provide much of the action. When a whoring, moonshining Buchannon mother of five bastards goes missing, Arly has her hands full. Her mother takes care of Baby while the Bible thumping wife of mayor Jim Bob Buchannon takes on the rest of the filthy, cursing hellions and tries to get them to toe the line to avoid fire and brimstone. She gets no help from her pastor, who does a lot of research into his parishioners' marital troubles by consulting periodicals in plain brown wrappers. You have the New Agers who've recently reopened the Emporium. And a new psychic and her brother have recently made Maggody their home. Plus there's a new guidance counsellor at the high school that all the teenaged girls are swooning over and who Arly's mother has set her up with.
The story is well constructed, and the characters are wonderful. The revelation of the paternity of the five bastards had me rolling.

[Ken Finlay · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Nothing ever happens in Maggody." So says police chief Arly Hanks, and she should know.
If you take away the murders, drug dealing, kidnapping, prostitution ... why, there's nothing happening at all!
In her second outing Arly meets foul-mouthed Buchanan urchin, Hammett, aged 9 or 10. His mother, moonshiner and occasional prostitute, Robin, has been missing for several days after going ginseng hunting.
Hammett and his siblings create havoc throughout the book and, hopefully, will make a return in the future.
The outing of their respective fathers is one of the highlights of "Mischief in Maggody"
A secondary plots concerns the new fortune-teller in town, Madame Celeste. Her visions are ignored until it is too late.
The bovine Dahlia O'Neill, along with her beau, Tommy Buchanan, continues to play a small but interesting role.
I thought this book was a better read than the first.
3.5 Stars

[Amybarker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is actually 2.5 stars as far as I’m concerned, but I always round up. I do not enjoy this series. I wanted a cozy mystery and Joan Hess is an author that always comes up. I’ve enjoyed her other series, so I thought I would enjoy these as well. Well I did not. Maybe because I’ve never lived in the Deep South, so I cannot relate to any of the characters. Maybe it’s because I’m a Christian and found their reverend (and really any “Christian” characters in the book) to be repugnant. Also, the mystery just wasn’t any good! I suspect these are the type of books you read because you enjoy the characters (and it seems like a lot of people do, when I read other reviews), so you keep coming back for more of the characters you’ve gotten to know. But I did not like the characters. They were mean, crass, gross, or just plain boring.

[☺Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mischief in Maggody, the second book in Joan Hess' Arly Hanks series, is a quick-paced, humorous murder mystery that doesn't take itself or the murder(s) it contains very
seriously.
I was trying to figure out how a forty-year-old main character could be a Vietnam vet when I finally checked the book's publication date: 1988!
Very dated sense of "humor". All of the fat-shaming, slut-shaming, rural-hick-shaming, inbred-sourced-developmental-disability-mocking, really contributed to the fact that
this book's "humor" hasn't aged well and
makes many readers cringe instead of
chuckle.
I had read the first of the series, Malice in Maggody, quite awhile ago, so I didn't remember much about the characters, their backgrounds, or the Arkansas setting.
The best part of this story was murder victim Robin Buchanan's middle child, Hammett.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this one more than the first one! Maggody is so much like the place I live - they are still trying to get out of the Stone Age! Ariel is swimming in a sea of crazy people in her home town in rural Arkansas. She's the police chief in a town where nothing ever happens - yet she doesn't seem to lack in murders. In this one, hippies have opened a store and are expecting a baby and they also have a fortune teller and her brother come to town.

A long time resident goes missing and it's up to Arly to figure out what happened to her. Ruby Bee and her friend are up to their usual and the preacher and the mayor's wife are up to their usual as well.

It's a rollicking good time!

[Roger Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first discovered Joan Hess's Arly Banks or Maggody series in the first year of the millenium. Her stories are set in a fictional town in Arkansas which is probably why I picked them up. It could also have been because I was spending a fair bit of time in New England in my motor home at the time. Regardless of the why, I enjoyed about five of the series. They are rather silly, but I like silly and have been one of its best fans since the days of Monty Python's Flying Circus. They also mainly feature female lead characters and provide some insight into the Ozark way of life - the silly one of course.
If you want a light read and a few laughs, you can't go wrong here.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Maggoty series is a feel-good, smile, laugh-to-yourself, want-to-read-parts-out-loud-to-others series. Joan Hess made the off beat characters likable and the story fun without surrendering to cliches. The southern charm and quirks are gentle and yet very amusing. It is hard to read just one book of this series, so read them all. I wish Ms. Hess was still alive so we could have more of her talent. We will just have to re-read them all again.

[Amy Lesemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of class-ism, the book feels dated, and I suppose that’s because it’s set in the 1970’s in part. Mocking the rural poor is still socially acceptable, apparently, although to be fair the denouement brings justice to the hypocrites of the town as well. I writhed through the beginning of the book, knowing I’d thought some of these less than kind thoughts in central Maine as well... so go in warned. The worm does turn if you hang in there.

[Candace Kirchner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still loving Maggody

This is the third of the series I've read and it's still a major favorite. Quirky, crazy, funny, and still full of mayhem. Crazy mayhem. Some of the most lovable unforgettable characters ever; Dickens would have loved them. And I'm still hoping to make it to Bugscuffle someday.

[Alice Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quirky witty read

A refreshing laugh out loud cozy. Welcome to Maggody where the tea is sweet and the people of the town can be lemons. I love spending time in Maggody where the unexpected can happen. I loved the Mountain children that were discovered in the cabin. This is a stand alone but I can not wait for the next adventure in Maggody.

[Mya R · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book properly introduces someone we saw briefly in the last book, and one of the best characters of the series: Hammet Buchanon.

As for the story: content note for severe child abuse/poverty, which is mostly glossed over. As someone who is studying the role of trauma in development I had to flinch and let it go. If you are willing to do the same, the payoff is various funny scenes, especially one at the end of the book where a couple of the more loathesome characters get a glorious comeuppance.

Additional content note for “aggressive” female sexuality yet again being equated with various revolting qualities. (The author is inconsistent on this. The protagonist has offscreen sexy times in a few of the books. While they don’t always go well they are not shaded in the same way.)

[Jere Kay Mullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read

This was the 1st book I read by Joan Hess. The podunk dialogue in the beginning was a bit much but I realized she was trying to stay in character to the surroundings once the story line picked up the dialect wasn’t an issue and hardly noticeably. I will be reading more in this series I became very invested with the town and characters.

[Carla]

Dnf'd at beginning of Chapter 2, when Arly came back from vacation and was presented with a beeper and told that the mayor had ordered her to be on call 24/7, and Arly... just... accepted it. Too many stupid and/or unlikable characters, and a lead character who's obviously smarter than the rest of them but won't stand up for herself. I'm done with this series.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best

I read a huge number of books, but rarely patient enough to follow the conversation of the characters. But this book forced me to keep reading with unending smiles on my face.
Thank you for a very pleasant writing.