Rating: 
Summary: Terrific book, I read it in one day!
Review: I loved this book so much I read it in one day! The many characters in Maggody are just that characters. It is a small town in Arkansas where Arly Hanks is the Police Chief. She has her hands full in this book as she is roped into being a chaperone for the church youth group. They are going to Camp Pearly Gates to do some volunteer work to built bleachers. Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon, the mayor's wife, and Brother Verber, the local preacher, would make it interesting enough, but then she also has the high school shop teacher and ten teens to keep in line. When the body of a white-robed woman turns up on the campgrounds, life gets even more complicated for Arly. Then there's the man she found fishing on the campgrounds. Not to mention all the reported sightings of ghosts. Once her mother Ruby Bee and her best friend Estelle show up, things get even more interesting. Ruby Bee runs Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill. Due to a recent fire in the kitchen, she is out of business for a couple weeks. So she brings all her food up to the camp to feed the kids. They are happy because the menus that Mrs. Jim Bob had prepared were nutritional but not what the kids would want to eat! As Arly begins investigating the apparent murder, she uncovers a community of women and children living on the campgrounds but that has a lot of mystery as to who they are and where they came from. All the different characters plays such an important role in this book. It is told from multiple points of view, which at first I found difficult to follow. Once I got to know the various characters, I found that this story couldn't be told from one point of view. It is very well written! I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific book, I read it in one day!
Review: I loved this book so much I read it in one day! The many characters in Maggody are just that characters. It is a small town in Arkansas where Arly Hanks is the Police Chief. She has her hands full in this book as she is roped into being a chaperone for the church youth group. They are going to Camp Pearly Gates to do some volunteer work to built bleachers. Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon, the mayor's wife, and Brother Verber, the local preacher, would make it interesting enough, but then she also has the high school shop teacher and ten teens to keep in line. When the body of a white-robed woman turns up on the campgrounds, life gets even more complicated for Arly. Then there's the man she found fishing on the campgrounds. Not to mention all the reported sightings of ghosts. Once her mother Ruby Bee and her best friend Estelle show up, things get even more interesting. Ruby Bee runs Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill. Due to a recent fire in the kitchen, she is out of business for a couple weeks. So she brings all her food up to the camp to feed the kids. They are happy because the menus that Mrs. Jim Bob had prepared were nutritional but not what the kids would want to eat! As Arly begins investigating the apparent murder, she uncovers a community of women and children living on the campgrounds but that has a lot of mystery as to who they are and where they came from. All the different characters plays such an important role in this book. It is told from multiple points of view, which at first I found difficult to follow. Once I got to know the various characters, I found that this story couldn't be told from one point of view. It is very well written! I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Whodunit? Who cares?
Review: I recently decided to stop reading Joan Hess's Claire Malloy books after the last in the series, "A Conventianal Corpse," was so...well, bad. I think I've come to the same decision regarding the Maggody books. I'm about one-third of the way through this, the latest in the series, and I'm putting it down. There are so many great books out there to discover (not just mysteries, but fiction, biographies etc.) that I can't justify spending time on a story of so little substance. To be fair, Hess's books have never been much more than trifles, fun ways to waste some time. But really, enough is enough. What was once fun has now become tiresome, each book nothing more than a retread of the one before. And the mysteries themselves (the actual whodunit aspect of these whodunits) have never been their raison d'etre. So I'm just not going to bother anymore. Sorry, Joan, but P.D. James, Tim Cockey, John Irving and David McCullough are going to have my attention from now on. The two stars are for past pleasures only.
Rating:
Summary: Whodunit? Who cares?
Review: Joan Hess continues to work her charms in this latest installment of the Arly Hanks series. Alas, unlike some of the earlier, more zany books, this one is all too predicatable - I found myself guessing (correctly) the ending while only half way through the quick read. For those not familiar with Ms. Hess's looney tunes Arkansas cast, picture Green Acres in the Twilight Zone. Hess peppers her stock of hayseed characters with a horny mayor and his sanctimonious wife, a bevy of inner bred Buchanans, and enough wit and surprises to keep the reader enthralled. If only she had given more thought to the plot, this would be the perfect book to spend an afternoon or more with. Even so, revisting Maggody is like having some familiar, if shop worn, acquaintences stop in for a spell.
Rating: 
Summary: Western Union Book
Review: Joan Hess continues to work her charms in this latest installment of the Arly Hanks series. Alas, unlike some of the earlier, more zany books, this one is all too predicatable - I found myself guessing (correctly) the ending while only half way through the quick read. For those not familiar with Ms. Hess's looney tunes Arkansas cast, picture Green Acres in the Twilight Zone. Hess peppers her stock of hayseed characters with a horny mayor and his sanctimonious wife, a bevy of inner bred Buchanans, and enough wit and surprises to keep the reader enthralled. If only she had given more thought to the plot, this would be the perfect book to spend an afternoon or more with. Even so, revisting Maggody is like having some familiar, if shop worn, acquaintences stop in for a spell.
Rating:
Summary: Murder and Mayhem in Maggody.....
Review: Maggody, Arkansas (population 755) Police Chief, Arly Hanks, thought she'd dealt with some really tough cases in the past, but isn't sure she's prepared to handle this latest assignment. It seems, she's been "volunteered" to help chaperone the church youth group during their week of spring break. They're off to Camp Pearly Gates, in nearby Dunkicker, to rebuild the bleachers and fishing dock. If that isn't bad enough, the formidable and always officious wife of the mayor, Mrs Jim Bob, and the ever-creepy preacher, Brother Verber, will be going along too. But before the kids can even get settled in, a youth grouper stumbles over the body of a dead woman, a member of the "Moonbeam" cult whose followers dress in white choir robes, shave their heads, wear magenta lipstick, and are often mistaken for space aliens. As murder and mayhem ensues, Arly is pressed into service by the County Sheriff's Department to investigate the murder, and find out what's really going on in Dunkicker..... Joan Hess is back with another rip roarin', good time romp through Maggody. This is a light mystery that has it all...a well paced plot, full of vivid and hilarious scenes, smart, crisp writing, and witty and irreverent dialogue, complete with down-home, southern colloquialisms that will have you laughing out loud and shaking your head. But it's Ms Hess' wacky and quirky cast of original characters that really makes this novel stand out, and once you've been introduced to Maggody's finest, you'll be hooked for sure. So put up your feet and get comfortable, because once you begin reading, you won't be able to put this book down until you've finish the last satisfying page. Maggody And The Moonbeams is the latest in a terrific series that just gets better and better with each book. If you're new to Arly Hanks and company, start at the beginning with Malice in Maggody, and read them all. If you're already a fan, this installment doesn't disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: Murder and Mayhem in Maggody.....
Review: Maggody, Arkansas (population 755) Police Chief, Arly Hanks, thought she'd dealt with some really tough cases in the past, but isn't sure she's prepared to handle this latest assignment. It seems, she's been "volunteered" to help chaperone the church youth group during their week of spring break. They're off to Camp Pearly Gates, in nearby Dunkicker, to rebuild the bleachers and fishing dock. If that isn't bad enough, the formidable and always officious wife of the mayor, Mrs Jim Bob, and the ever-creepy preacher, Brother Verber, will be going along too. But before the kids can even get settled in, a youth grouper stumbles over the body of a dead woman, a member of the "Moonbeam" cult whose followers dress in white choir robes, shave their heads, wear magenta lipstick, and are often mistaken for space aliens. As murder and mayhem ensues, Arly is pressed into service by the County Sheriff's Department to investigate the murder, and find out what's really going on in Dunkicker..... Joan Hess is back with another rip roarin', good time romp through Maggody. This is a light mystery that has it all...a well paced plot, full of vivid and hilarious scenes, smart, crisp writing, and witty and irreverent dialogue, complete with down-home, southern colloquialisms that will have you laughing out loud and shaking your head. But it's Ms Hess' wacky and quirky cast of original characters that really makes this novel stand out, and once you've been introduced to Maggody's finest, you'll be hooked for sure. So put up your feet and get comfortable, because once you begin reading, you won't be able to put this book down until you've finish the last satisfying page. Maggody And The Moonbeams is the latest in a terrific series that just gets better and better with each book. If you're new to Arly Hanks and company, start at the beginning with Malice in Maggody, and read them all. If you're already a fan, this installment doesn't disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: A fun to read mystery
Review: Maggody, Arkansas Chief of Police Arly Hanks feels that her current task is probably the worst assignment of her career. She, accompanied by the mayor's self-important wife Mrs. Jim Bob, despicable Preacher Brother Verber, and shop teacher Larry Joe Lambertino are chaperoning teens at the Camp Pearly Gates. The teens are a tough enough crowd, but her companions make for a long weekend. All that becomes moot when one of the kids finds a corpse of a woman. The victim turns out to be a member of the Moonbeam sect, a bunch of space cadets who refuse to cooperate with Arly on the investigation. To make matters even more pressing, a local person is missing and though probably safe could be a second victim. Then there is the usual demands of her position involving pigs, family members, and a suspect who seems to spend more time out of jail than in a cell. The latest tale in the long running Maggody series, MAGGODY AND THE MOONBEAMS, retains its freshness, something not usually seen by book fourteen. The story line is light, but quite amusing as readers watch beleaguered but competent Arly deal with a crowd of misfits. In some ways this tale satirizes its own series and other regional who-done-its, but does so in a kind reverent manner as Joan Hess provide her audience with a fun to read tale in which the laughs keep on coming. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Murder at the Pearly Gates
Review: Sometimes it is hard to keep a long running series feeling fresh and fun, but Joan Hess manages to bring a bit of revitalization to her Maggody series by sending Police Chief Arley Hanks off with some hormone laden teens, the good Brother and Mrs. Jim Bob to Camp Pearly Gates. While Arley tries to ride herd on the cosmetic mad girls' bodies, Mrs. Jim Bob works on their souls and the good Brother works on a bottle of sacramental wine. Meanwhile back in Maggody, Mr. Jim Bob is enjoying his new found freedom with some friends he has made over the internet. Then one of the girls at Camp Pearly Gates stumbles over a body of a local cult member and things begin to get complicated, as Arley says. A fun romp in the woods with the Maggody crew. Actually I have to note that the description of Camp Pearly Gates raised certain childhood memories of church camp-- laced with the scent of mildewed towels and sweaty sneakers.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Her Best work
Review: when ever Hanks and Co. leave Maggody (ie Moonbean or Maggody in New York) the stories generally are not as fun to read. This is no exception. Stick with the Maggody based works they are much more enjoyable.
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