Murder @ Maggody.com : An Arly Hanks Mystery

Arly Hanks #12

by Joan Hess

Lowbrow town. High-tech fun. It seems the new high school computer lab has the God-fearing citizens of Maggody riled up. What better temptation for folks to log on and download pornography off the Internet? Why, the lab is nothing more than the Devil's high tech workshop!So goes the online drama in the sleepy town of Maggody, Arkansas, population 755. In the latest installment in this series by Joan Hess, beleaguered chief of police Arly Hanks has a lot on her mind that she wishes she hadn't. First of all, there's the controversy raised by Mayor Jim Bob Buchanon over having a computer lab. And if that wasn't enough, two shady individuals, Lazarus and Seth, move into the Pot O' Gold trailer park and raise a ruckus among its residents by shooting beer bottles with rifles and slithering around the SuperSaver town grocery store. And then there's seventeen-year-old Gwynnie Packwood, an unmarried mother of a two-year-old son. Her unfortunate circumstances extend to living with her uncle and aunt, Daniel and Leona Holliflecker -- not the most compassionate people on the planet -- until she can pull herself up on her own two feet. Thank goodness for busybody Ruby Bee, who gives her a part-time job at the bar and grill while she takes computer courses at night. Heaven help her that she's taken to the new computer instructor, Justin Bailey, who just moved into the Pot O' Gold with his wife, Chapel, causing all kinds of rumors to break loose.And when a body turns up in an abandoned shack, it will take all of Arly's low-tech resourcefulness to quiet down the good folks of Maggody and pull the plug on the murderer.

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

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

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

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aside from the fact that the reader made no attempt to make the characters sound like they were Southern, this was an enjoyable listen.

[Charlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seemed dated and tiresome. Residents fighting against a computer lab in the high school because it is the devil's playground and they don't want their high school students exposed to dirty pictures. I didn't finish reading it.

[George · Rating 1 out of 5]

#12 in the Chief of Police Arly Hanks comedic mystery series. Set in the small rural Arkansas town of Maggody, pop. 755 filled with low IQ barely making it financially people with many from the same extended family. Very little happens that requires police work. The tranquillity is disturbed when a teacher obtains a grant to fund a computer program for the high school resulting waves of disturbances among the Bible touting set along with an eventual murder.

Much of the dialog is peppered with sarcastic zingers from the many colorful characters in the novel all of whom seem to stumble and bumble along.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm surprised I managed to finish this. The main character's ignorance about computers and the internet was really, really hard to swallow. This woman had lived in Manhattan! Surely they had computers in Manhattan in the late 1990s (the book was published in 2000). And the explanation for something that was going on with people's e-mail made no sense, either. I did get a couple of laughs out of it, though.

[Ed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mystery set in a small town in Arkansas. Apparently only eccentrics are allowed to live in Maggody. That is, except for Chief of Police Arly Hanks, who, although she is a native, lived in Manhattan for a time, and so earned the cynical sophistication that allows her to comment on the stupidity...errr, sorry, eccentricities...of all the other residents.
This is number 12 in the Arly Hanks series, an entry whose slapdash construction is meant only to keep the franchise going.
Two stars.

[Gizzard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've come to the conclusion that I actually like the policewoman of these novels, but not the author. Too many stereotypes and not enough true humor. And this particular story, heh? It ended up somewhere far from what you might expect but at the same time... it was all over the place and for such a small town, there were way too many people involved in the last 1/4 of this book.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I realized within the first chapter that I'd read it before. Also that my sense of humor is different than the author's.

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

strange story and characters. not sure if I'd read another in the series. another random pick at the library.

[Carroll Rudy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked as much as Goodreads let me read

I was enjoyIng the story until I got near the end where I was stopped by an ad to buy a new book, and there was no way to skip the stupid ad to finish my book, then I was ordered to write a review. I'm giving. Goodreads one star, not the book which I
Like very much. The review takes forever to write because this damned Kindle keyboard is so hard to use. I hate Goodreads books because they won.'t let me finish the books I buy. Goodreads also fills my email with .Tons of SPAM every day. I' d never bought a book from Goodreads. all I want to do is finish my book. How can I do that without going through all this shit.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Yes, there are some interesting characters in this novel. However, I kind of had to force myself to keep reading. It should have intrigued me: poor teenage girl moves back into tiny hamlet with a religiously fanatic aunt and her husband; the police chief is a divorcee that wanted to escape this hole-in-the-wall, but cheating husband left her with nowhere else to go.
There were a few charming country phrases that caught my attention, but I won’t be picking up any more books by this author.

[Kyrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maggody discovers the internet with predictable results. This one disturbed me - mostly for the lack of consequences for the man who used the teens for his own porn site. It seemed to be a sidebar to the other plot about Gwennie and her child.

There were a lot of typos and that made the locals dialect even harder to follow. Not my favorite by a long shot.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know everything you have heard about the internet well it came to Maggody, AR in full force. A computer lab has been set up for the town to learn the ways of being online. And the mayhem that follows is normal for the town of Maggody.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

enjoyed this one

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The residents of Maggody sure are quirky.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book with a mystery mixed in. I find myself laughing out loud every so often as I imagine the situation as it is getting described.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one wasn't as good as the previous stories - too many unresolved loose ends. Not cliffhangers, just threads that Joan Hess didn't pick up.

[Margaret Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

👍

[Linda Selbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. Stars.

[Sharon Bezrutczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since I read a book from this series.

[Suzanne Stauffer · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF Horrible stereotypes

[Sheryl Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruby Bee and Estelle continue to get themselves into sticky situations.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little funny, a lot confusing. Very light reading.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

""

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Information Superhighway has finally plowed through Maggody, Arkansas, and depending on various views this is either a proud moment in the town's history or the first sign of the Apocalypse. When the local high school is granted the funds to install a computer lab complete with Internet access, citizens of Maggody are suddenly "wired," trading pie recipes with each other and working to construct a Web site which hopefully will help put Maggody on the map. Chief of Police Arly Hanks dismisses the concept as just another distraction and remains a bystander in all the fervor. It's difficult not to blame her, too, for the advent of the Internet has not stopped trouble in this sleepy little town.

Elderly residents of the Pot O'Gold Trailer Park are arming themselves, fitfully frightened of a new long-haired biker tenant, and wayward single mother Gwynnie Packwood struggles to eke out an existence despite help from Arly's mother Ruby and Gwynnie's disappoving aunt and uncle. When Gwynnie is found dead, Arly doesn't need a computer to tell her somebody in Maggody is guilty.

Now, I usually don't read series novels out of order, but being so active on the Internet I had to pick up this title before reading the remaining Maggody novels. I'm glad I did, too, because murder@maggody.com has great moments of hilarity and silliness. Arly is cantankerous, her mother and friend Estelle delightfully precocious, and the Buchannons are aplenty. Maybe by the next novel everybody will have mastered Javascript. I could use a few pointers myself.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am enjoying these re-reads as much, if not more, than the first time I read them. Arly Hanks is a very laid-back police officer in the little town of Maggody (pop 754) where 'nothing' ever seems to happen. But, populated with some of the oddest characters I've ever encountered, it all comes together with a lot of chuckles included. The Buchannons are numerous, and their names alone are enough to give a double take..for instance, there's Petrol, Diesel, Hiawathie, Garbonzo, Bojangles, Chicklet, Vitriol and Alcatras...but my favorite, by far, is Beelzebubba. I'd read the books just to run across new Buchannons, but the books entertain beyond the Buchannons.

[Leslie aka StoreyBook Reviews · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book was just ok. I don't know if it was the setting of the town (small "hick" town in Arkansas) or the fact that the characters all seemed to be busy bodies or what. I know this book is later in the series so I don't know if the others are better or more of the same. I won't be reading this series.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters were amusing and quirky. I felt like the ending was a little sudden but the solution of the crime was given. I haven't read any of the other books in the series and if I decide to continue with it, I will definitely chose the audio version. I think C.J. Critt makes the story more enjoyable.

[Cyndee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan Hess is my favorite 'cozy' mystery writer, and the Maggody series is my favorite of hers. The characters and their antics are so funny, and the mysteries involve many of the characters. This is the kind of fun reading that I really enjoy.

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

The internets and their associated pornography wreak havok at the local high school and across Maggody. Mayor Jim Bob figures prominently, as do the usual suspects. (This is the 12th title in the Arly Hanks series.)

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Computer age arrives in Maggody w/a grant for the schools, but with public students play aournd with area residents in compromising positions & the new arrival in town is eventually found murdered @ Robins cabin