Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755) is perceived of as a two-bit hick town, filled with one-bit hicks. But Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanan seeks to change that perception with her latest scheme - a charity golf tournament. This presents a bit of a challenge, since no one in Maggody plays golf and there is no course. But when the prize for the first hole-in-one is announced - a top of the line bass boat - nearly everyone in town develops a new-found interest in the sport. The town goes golf crazy, trying to learn the sport in time to win the bass boat, with limited success and maximum domestic disorder. Sheriff Arly Hanks, who has better things to worry about, just wishes it would all go away. When Tommy Ridner beats the odds and sinks a hole-in-one to win the bass boat on the first day of the tournament, it looks like all the excitement is over. But the next morning, when he's found dead, sitting in the parking lot in the front seat of the bass boat, the prize is once again up for grabs and nearly everyone in town is a murder suspect.

When Claire Malloy's best friend Luanne Bradshaw goes down with a badly sprained ankle, someone must fill in her shoes as Thurberfest beauty Pageant coordinator and usher a bevy of aspiring beauty queen through the two-day event. Enter Claire Malloy to the rescue. But this is one job Claire would gladly be fired from. Now, already fending off a hostile theater owner, and overly-agressive personal trainer, an incontinent show-dog, a fifteen-year-old daughter with more growing pains than she can count, and a talent contest in need of some talent, Claire must face one more problem--someone is trying to kill the reigning Miss Thurberfest.When a ghastly murder scene signals the culprit's success, Claire's investigative instincts take over, but when she digs too close to the truth, the race is on to discover the killer's identity before Claire herself is crowned the next victim...

Retired florist Theo Bloomer goes to Israel to rescue his niece from terrorists in this engrossing mystery. On the shores of the Dead Sea, Dorrie Caldicott is coming into bloom. A spoiled graduate of the finest prep schools on the Atlantic Seaboard, she went AWOL during a tour of Israel and put down roots in a kibbutz. Her mother simply won't stand for this kind of behavior, and it falls to Dorrie's uncle Theo Bloomer, a retired florist who's as meek as a daffodil, to bring the girl home. But in the sands of Israel, this gentle flower will be forced to take root or die. Theo has hardly arrived at the settlement when a pair of murders makes it unlikely he and his niece will ever make it home. Under threat by terrorists, the police, and the attentions of a few dozen intellectual farmers, Theo and Dorrie must find the killers if they wish to escape the Holy Land alive. Anyone who has envied Nero Wolfe's orchid collection will find himself...

Claire Malloy runs a bookstore in the normally quiet college town of Farberville, Arkansas-an enterprise which provides the verging-on-meager living for her and her deeply sarcastic teenage daughter Caron. So when emergency work forces Claire and Caron to abandon their apartment for a few weeks, they are in no financial position to put themselves up in style and Claire is thrilled to accept a customer's offer to let them stay at her well-stocked, well-equipped palatial home while she is traveling.Of course, nothing is ever that easy. No sooner do Claire and Caron ensconce themselves than disquieting events start to occur-dubious people show up looking for the 'traveling' owner of the house; the owner herself turns out not to be who she claimed and is now seemingly on the run; and a dead body keeps turning up-and subsequently disappearing-around the grounds of the house. Determined, for once, to stay out of the mysterious doings, Claire's hand is finally forced when the disappearing body turns out to be only the first corpse to turn up…From BooklistWhy is Claire Malloy such an appealing character? On one hand, she lives what many mystery readers would consider a dream life: amateur sleuth and small-town bookshop owner. On the other hand, Claire is endearing because she is very like most of us: far from rich and even further from perfect, she often breaks things, she messes up her relationship with handsome cop Peter Rosen, and she opens her mouth when she shouldn't. In this madcap entry in the long-running series, Claire and her teenage daughter, Caron, accept a house-sitting invitation from Claire's new friend Dolly Goforth. With her own apartment being fumigated, Claire feels like she has hit the jackpot with Dolly's invitation: a gorgeous home and use of a new Mercedes. The idyll soon turns ugly, though, with the discovery and subsequent disappearance of a dead body. The plot works itself out just fine, but face it, the real attraction here is the opportunity to spend some time with Claire Malloy. Jenny McLarinCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedReview“If you’ve never spent time with Claire and her crew, I feel sorry for you. Stop reading this nonsense and hop to it. You’ll see wit and humanity all wrapped up in a nifty murder mystery.”–Harlan Coben, author of Just One Look“Joan Hess is one of the best mystery writers in the world. She makes it look so easy that few readers and fewer critics realize what a rare talent hers is.”–Elizabeth Peters, author of Guardian of the Horizon“Joan Hess is seriously funny. Moreover, she is seriously kind as well as clever when depicting the follies, foibles, and fantasies of our lives. Viva Joan!”–Carolyn Hart, author of Death of the Party

She would have killed for a bestseller—but someone beat her to it...Professor of Passion, the smutty new romance from Mildred Twiller—a.k.a. Azalea Twilight—isn't the kind of book Claire Malloy likes to hock at her bookstore, but Claire agrees to host a book party for her friend's trashy tale. As torrid as the novel is, it's nothing compared to the evening. After the party, poor Mildred is found dead in her home—stranged with a tightly knotted silk scarf. Now it's up to Clair to find Mildred's killer, and it won't be easy—the two-bit author had offended nearly every faculty member she worked with at nearby Faber College. But who could have hated Mildred with such smoldering passion?Find out in Joan Hess' first Claire Malloy mystery novel Strangled Prose.

Police Chief Arly Hanks finds her small town, Maggody, has some new inhabitants when she returns from vacation. Soon, Robin Buchanon, local prostitute and moonshiner, disappears, and Arly finds her bloody body at the edge of a marijuana field.

A hilarious police procedural set in the strangest town in the Ozarks, where whip-smart sheriff Arly Hanks does everything she can to keep the peace. Nothing ever happens in Maggody, Arkansas, population 755. Aside from handling the occasional barroom brawl or exploding still, Chief of Police Arly Hanks spends her days sipping coffee and squashing flies. She returned to Maggody two years ago, licking her wounds after a bad Manhattan divorce, and she fell backward into the role of sheriff. From Hizzoner the Moron—also know as Jim Bob Buchanon, the pettily corrupt mayor—to Ruby Bee Hanks—Arly's mother and the town's foremost gossip—the people of Maggody are all crazy in their own ways, and that craziness is about to turn deadly. When Joanna Mae Nookim returns to work after giving birth, the bank manager bumps her down to minimum wage as punishment for taking time off. It's outrageous, but there's nothing Arly can do. But when the...