From Publishers Weekly
The blend of mayhem and mirth is as potent as ever in Hess's 14th cozy (after 2001's Maggody and the Moonbeams) centered on the backwoods town of Maggody, Ark. The Stump County Historical Society has funded a documentary film on a local Civil War battle, the Skirmish at Cotter's Ridge of 1863. No one seems all that interested until Miss Harriet Hathaway of the historical society mentions that a shipment of Confederate gold was hidden somewhere during the skirmish and hasn't been seen since. Chief of Police Arly Hanks braces herself for the antics that are sure to follow, as various Maggodians devise plans to find the gold and live a life of luxury thereafter. Dedicated reenactors begin to descend on Maggody, along with various experts involved in the documentary. Among them are a well-known writer of historical romances, her shiftless son, his sluttish fiancee, a historian who often dons the uniform of a Union general and a retired accountant with a passion for genealogical research. One dead body turns up, then another, and Arly has to sort out all the comings and goings of the suspects, and the various motives, and collar the killer before he or she strikes again. With a wit sometimes mordant, sometimes gentle, Hess mines the foibles of those obsessed with the past to offer yet another deliciously funny and deviously puzzling mystery. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
*Starred Review* Break out the moonshine, whoop, and holler--Arly Hanks, chief of police, and the slightly whacked-out denizens of Maggody, Arkansas, are back. After all of the mayhem caused in the past by visiting pornographers, presumed aliens, and ill-tempered ostriches, Maggody followers can't help but wonder what could possibly happen next. Answer: the Stump County Historical Society's discovery of a Confederate soldier's diary describing a small Civil War skirmish fought nearby and the hiding of a rebel payroll (in gold) on Cotter's Ridge--now famous as the location of the feral Raz Buchanon's still. Egged on by the redoubtable Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon--wife of the Maggody mayor--the society has decided to make an educational film of the episode, engaging Yankee and Confederate reenactors, along with the services of Corinne Dawk, a Charleston, South Carolina, belle (or, rather, matron) who writes Civil War romances and acts in historical pageants. As usual, Arly anticipates nothing but trouble as everyone begins scrambling through the scrub hunting for lost gold while assorted Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs trade insults and occasional fisticuffs. Things get serious when the historical society's treasurer is found dead, pushed over a bluff, and poor old Hospiss Buchanon is found clubbed to death shortly after speaking to the treasurer. And--most shocking of all--Mrs. Jim Bob is driven to drink. Hess aims and fires her comic Gatling gun with reckless abandon and great glee, easily retaining her unofficial title as Queen of Very Funny Mysteries. Stuart Miller
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Away down south in Maggody, Arkansas, Police Chief Arly Hanks, "the sharpest small-town sleuth since Miss Marple" (Kirkus Reviews), must keep the peace when the Civil War -- or a darn good replication -- masks a modern-day murderer! Muletrain to Maggody A few dozen die-hard Yanks and Rebs, a dewy-eyed belle, and a general or two have rolled into town...and so has a documentary film crew, to re-enact a piece of Maggody history. Not that the Skirmish at Cotter's Ridge was particularly significant (it wasn't), or that folks care overly about the 1863 scuffle (they don't). But rumors are flying like musket-fire that two saddlebags of long-lost Confederate gold are holed up in a local cave, and frankly, my dear, everyone gives a damn about getting their hands on it. Authenticity goes overboard when the body count starts rising, and Arly must catch a killer to ensure that the people of Maggody can live, not die, in Dixie.


Download Description
"Under the benign watch of Police Chief Arly Hanks, things are pretty quiet in the sleepy Arkansas town of Maggody these days. Not even the prospect of a historical society-funded Civil War documentary on the locally touted (albeit historically insignificant) Skirmish at Cotter's Ridge of 1863 does much to stir up the denizens of this sleepy backwoods town. What does finally get the rumor mill buzzing, however, is the revelation that two saddlebags of Confederate gold were hidden in a local cave to keep them from falling into Yankee hands. Once word gets out that the saddlebags were never recovered, almost everyone in town has a plan to get their hands on the lost gold. Meanwhile, a colorful cast of outlanders has taken over Maggody. They include a dewy Charleston belle, a famous writer of historical romances, her ne'er-do-well son, and three dozen obsessive reenactors who have not yet acknowledged that the Civil War ended over a hundred years ago, as well as a documentary film crew and a handsome, if enigmatic, filmmaker with ties to Arly's past. Arly has more than enough on her hands trying to locate missing senior citizens and keeping the visitors from each other's throats, but when the genealogist of the Stump County Historical Society dies under questionable circumstances, and a member of the Buchanon clan is the victim of a vicious and fatal attack, Arly finds herself faced with the most baffling whodunit of her career, with a disgruntled ghost a possible prime suspect."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Under the benign watch of Police Chief Arly Hanks, things are pretty quiet in the sleepy Arkansas town of Maggody these days. Not even the prospect of a historical society-funded Civil War documentary on the locally touted (albeit historically insignificant) Skirmish at Cotter's Ridge of 1863 does much to stir up the denizens of this sleepy backwoods town. What does finally get the rumor mill buzzing, however, is the revelation that two saddlebags of Confederate gold were hidden in a local cave to keep them from falling into Yankee hands. Once word gets out that the saddlebags were never recovered, almost everyone in town has a plan to get their hands on the lost gold." Meanwhile, a colorful cast of outlanders has taken over Maggody. They include a dewy Charleston belle, a famous writer of historical romances, her ne'er-do-well son, and three dozen obsessive reenactors who have not yet acknowledged that the Civil War ended over a hundred years ago, as well as a documentary film crew and a handsome, if enigmatic, filmmaker with ties to Arly's past. Arly has more than enough on her hands trying to locate missing senior citizens and keeping the visitors from each other's throats, but when the genealogist of the Stump County Historical Society dies under questionable circumstances, and a member of the Buchanon clan is the victim of a vicious and fatal attack, Arly find herself faced with the most baffling whodunit of her career, with a disgruntled ghost a possible prime suspect.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The blend of mayhem and mirth is as potent as ever in Hess's 14th cozy (after 2001's Maggody and the Moonbeams) centered on the backwoods town of Maggody, Ark. The Stump County Historical Society has funded a documentary film on a local Civil War battle, the Skirmish at Cotter's Ridge of 1863. No one seems all that interested until Miss Harriet Hathaway of the historical society mentions that a shipment of Confederate gold was hidden somewhere during the skirmish and hasn't been seen since. Chief of Police Arly Hanks braces herself for the antics that are sure to follow, as various Maggodians devise plans to find the gold and live a life of luxury thereafter. Dedicated reenactors begin to descend on Maggody, along with various experts involved in the documentary. Among them are a well-known writer of historical romances, her shiftless son, his sluttish fianc e, a historian who often dons the uniform of a Union general and a retired accountant with a passion for genealogical research. One dead body turns up, then another, and Arly has to sort out all the comings and goings of the suspects, and the various motives, and collar the killer before he or she strikes again. With a wit sometimes mordant, sometimes gentle, Hess mines the foibles of those obsessed with the past to offer yet another deliciously funny and deviously puzzling mystery. (Feb. 23) FYI: Hess is also the author of A Conventional Corpse (2000) and 12 other titles in her Claire Malloy series. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

The latest buzz in Maggody, AR, is that Confederate gold was hidden there and never retrieved, so everyone's out looking. But the real trouble begins when a Civil War reenactor, in town for the filming of a documentary, dies under suspicious circumstances. Then Police Chief Arly Hanks has her work cut out for her. A noteworthy addition to the long-running series. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews