Description:
Just when it seems that the denizens of Maggody, Arkansas, and their chief of police, Arly Hanks, have seen everything, author Joan Hess manages to find a way to embroil them in yet another hilarious adventure. This time around, Ruby Bee, Estelle, and their big hair have embarked on a cut-rate package tour to Graceland to pay homage to the King. Before the end of the tour, one of the other pilgrims is found dead outside her hotel room, Ruby Bee is in the hospital, and Mayor Jim Bob Buchanon has been arrested for murder. Arly drives through the night to bring order out of chaos and make sure all the citizens of Maggody return home safely--with or without their dignity intact. As usual, there are more laughs than at a log-rolling festival--Brother Verber's hymn listing sins from A to Z (to the tune of Gilligan's Island) is particularly choice. Joan Hess has made quite a reputation for herself and garnered several awards (including Agatha and Anthony nominations) with this series set in a wide spot in the road in northwest Arkansas. Misery Loves Maggody is the 11th and continues the saga of the dull-witted Buchanons, the Voice of the Almighty Lord Assembly Hall, and Arly herself. Typically, the murders and Arly's (occasionally muddled) course to their solution are really the icing on the cake of these rich parodies of Southern Living. Although Hess's wit is a bit sharper when her cast of characters sticks closer to home, as they do in Martians in Maggody or Miracles in Maggody, an Elvis sighting or two fits right in with the general wackiness and lovable mayhem. --K.A. Crouch
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