Book Review: Maggody and the Moonbeams

Reviewed By: Dawn Dowdle

Maggody and the Moonbeams     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Joan Hess
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Cozy   Humorous   Woman Main Character
Series: Arly Hanks # 13
Pocket Books, Paperback, 1/04, 327 pages, $6.99

I loved this book so much I read it in one day! The many characters in Maggody are just that characters. It is a small town in Arkansas where Arly Hanks is the Police Chief. She has her hands full in this book as she is roped into being a chaperone for the church youth group. They are going to Camp Pearly Gates to do some volunteer work to built bleachers. Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon, the mayor’s wife, and Brother Verber, the local preacher, would make it interesting enough, but then she also has the high school shop teacher and ten teens to keep in line.

When the body of a white-robed woman turns up on the campgrounds, life gets even more complicated for Arly. Then there’s the man she found fishing on the campgrounds. Not to mention all the reported sightings of ghosts. Once her mother Ruby Bee and her best friend Estelle show up, things get even more interesting.

Ruby Bee runs Ruby Bee’s Bar & Grill. Due to a recent fire in the kitchen, she is out of business for a couple weeks. So she brings all her food up to the camp to feed the kids. They are happy because the menus that Mrs. Jim Bob had prepared were nutritional but not what the kids would want to eat!

As Arly begins investigating the apparent murder, she uncovers a community of women and children living on the campgrounds but that has a lot of mystery as to who they are and where they came from.

All the different characters plays such an important role in this book. It is told from multiple points of view, which at first I found difficult to follow. Once I got to know the various characters, I found that this story couldn’t be told from one point of view. It is very well written!

I highly recommend this book.

Dawn Dowdle

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Dawn Dowdle

Please visit Dawns website at www.mysteryloverscorner.com