Rating: 
Summary: The first Arly Hanks
Review: This is ground zero, the first in the Maggody series and now rather difficult to obtain (the first hardcover edition sells at a premium as a collector's item). Actually you don't get a lot of extra detail about Arly Hanks that you wouldn't have figured out from the later books. This is not a roman fleuve (pardon my French) like, for instance, Sue Grafton's alphabet series that we read almost as much to follow what will happen next in Kinsey Milhone's life as for the plot of the individual book.
The series is set in a a small town in the Ozarks, populated by simple country rubes, where Arly Hanks, a displaced and divorced New Yorker is chief of police. The stories are told partly in the first person by Arly but switch to other characters' points of view. There are the usual faults that we criticize Joan Hess for. Delia is funny because she is fat and eats a lot. Brother Verber is funny because he is a blatant hypocrite. I suspect that Hess is faux naif (French again) and the cartoonish drawing of supporting characters is a deliberate ploy to fix the town of Maggody in our minds. She never makes any bones about saying what a depressing place Maggody is, and often describes stark tragedy, yet the effect is somehow cheerful and reading a Magoddy book is a delightful relaxation.
Rating: 
Summary: How did I miss this????
Review: This is just the type of mystery I love. Small town filled with eccentric characters, lots of humor, not to mention plenty of sex! I had seen this series for years, but always assumed it was a very cozy, sweet little series. Wrong! Laugh out loud funny in the style of Kathleen Taylor's Dakota series. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Down-home, interesting read
Review: You know you're living in a small town with simple folk when the smartest resident manages to pass the GED exam on the third try, and her biggest ambition lies in a beauty school at the state capital.Okay, so fictional Maggody, Arkansas isn't that archaic, but it certainly has its share of interesting folks, most of whom are name Buchanon (you'll just have to read the book for the explanation). Keeping, or trying to keep, order among the good citizens of Maggody is sheriff Arly Hanks, a native who fled and eventually reverted for a quieter life. Fat chance. All the malice in Maggody seems to be happening at once, with an escaped rapist threatening to make his way back to town to his ex-wife, the would-be beautician (the novel's victim), and the mysterious disappearance of a state official come to survey a nearby reservoir as the home of future sewage, and one wonders if Arly will flee back to the serenity of Manhattan. She doesn't, though, much to the delight of mystery fans, and the "malice" in Maggody turns into hilarity in its final scenes.
Rating:
Summary: If Jeff Foxworthy wrote mystery novels....
Review: You're a redneck if... You don't see the humor in this, the first, in the Arly Hanks Ozark mystery series. Seriously, this book rises or falls on the readers willingness to enjoy some corn-pone silly humor. Some days I can do it, other days I can't. Fortunately, I read this in a good mood and was able to enjoy it (tho I swear I never watched the Dukes of Hazzard). The characters are caricatures of southern small town life. Still, it's only a three star effort in my book. The mystery component is rather weak - certainly not a page turning suspense novel. I'm willing to give the series another try as several later books in the series have garnered Agatha nominations.
Rating:
Summary: If Jeff Foxworthy wrote mystery novels....
Review: You're a redneck if... You don't see the humor in this, the first, in the Arly Hanks Ozark mystery series. Seriously, this book rises or falls on the readers willingness to enjoy some corn-pone silly humor. Some days I can do it, other days I can't. Fortunately, I read this in a good mood and was able to enjoy it (tho I swear I never watched the Dukes of Hazzard). The characters are caricatures of southern small town life. Still, it's only a three star effort in my book. The mystery component is rather weak - certainly not a page turning suspense novel. I'm willing to give the series another try as several later books in the series have garnered Agatha nominations.
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