O little town of Maggody : an Arly Hanks mystery

When country music superstar Matt Montana returns to his small, depressed Arkansas hometown for a holiday benefit concert, murder undermines the celebration, prompting Arly Hanks to investigate. Reprint. Chief of Police Arly (Ariel) Hanks is still hiding out in her hometown of Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755), the land of moonshine and Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill, country roads and Nashville on the radio, cheatin' hearts and, well, maybe murder. It all starts when Matt Montana, country music's number one superstar of the year, decides it's a great PR move to come home to Maggody for the holidays. For a town in the grip of a recession, the news means Christmas is bringing a savior. Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanan, the mayor's wife, quickly sets up the Matt Montana Official Souvenir Shoppe, the amply endowed Dahlia Buchanan drives tourists around in the "Matt-mobile, " and beer costs two dollars a bottle at the Matt Montana Hometown Bar & Grill. Only one thing is missing: Aunt Adele, Matt Montana's one and only living relative. The elderly lady has mysteriously disappeared from the local nursing home, and Arly - even with the loan of the Fayetteville's PD's tracking dog - can find neither hide nor hair nor corpse of her. Now Arly gets to peek behind the scenes at a singing star's very private life to discover the manager who isn't above using blackmail, the wife who may be willing to kill to keep her man, and the pretty young singer who is giving Matt Montana an achy breaky heart. Is one of them a killer? Why has Dahlia Buchanan confessed to murder? What did happen to Aunt Adele? And what does moonshiner Raz Buchanan's pig Marjorie have to do with it all? Since Arly is the smartest, spunkiest, most off-beat sleuth in the Ozarks, it's up to her to save Christmas and restore order to the wacky, delightful community of Maggody, where anything can happen - and usually does. Joy to the world! Arly Hanks, chief of police in Maggody, Arkansas, is back. It's Christmas in Maggody, and the town is all agog over the impending visit of country-western singer Matt Montana, who hopes to jump start a booze-ravaged career with press coverage of his heart-warming return to his hometown. One small problem: Matt's only relative in Maggody is an aging aunt who lives in the county home and has a tendency to listen to aliens from outer space on her hearing aid. Not to worry. Before you can say "money-spending tourists," the pious mayor's wife, Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon, has sprung into action. Soon stores have been renamed in Matt's honor, souvenir shops opened, and the Montana homestead refurbished in country-cosy style. The disappearance of Matt's aunt from the home puts something of a wrinkle into the plans, leaving Arly to sort out the mess while trying to avoid Mrs. Jim Bob and her relentless badgering. Things go tolerably well until the dead body of Matt's promoter turns up, dressed as a Matt Montana mannequin in the window of Mrs. Jim Bob's souvenir shop. All in all, this is another delightful installment in a superbly comic series