MAGGODY AND THE MOONBEAMS

Under normal circumstances, wild horses couldn’t induce Maggody’s Chief of Police Arly Hanks (murder *************** maggody.com, 1999, etc.) to chaperone a group of hormonal teenagers from the Voice of the Lord Almighty Assembly Hall during their week-long retreat at Camp Pearly Gates. But circumstances are anything but normal in this no-horse town. First, Raz Buchanon’s pedigreed sow Marjorie takes a fancy to Perkins’s mule, whose owner threatens to blow the odiferous Raz clear out of Stump County if he so much as sets foot on Perkins property. Then Earl Buchanon provokes the wrath of his daughter-in-law, Dahlia, by suggesting that her adorable offspring Rose Marie and Kevin Jr. might not be identical twins. The last straw, though, comes when Arly’s mother, Ruby Bee, in what must be a menopausal daze, sets fire to the Bar and Grill, putting Arly’s sole source of nutrition out of commission. Faced with the prospect of three weeks of burritos from the Dairee Dee-Lishus, Arly capitulates, accompanying Brother Verber and Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon out to Dunkicker, an even pokier burg than the one she left behind. But small doesn’t always mean quiet, and soon enough a vacationing fisherman brings to her attention a corpse on the campground. Someone’s snuffed out one of the Daughters of the Moon, a cult of biblically named females headquartered at Camp Pearly Gates. Deputized by Sheriff Harve Dorfer to investigate, Arly follows the meager trail of clues to its inevitable conclusion.

Even predictable Hess is fun, with smart-mouthed Arly as sassy as ever.