Maggody and the Moonbeams (Arly Hanks Mysteries) - Tapa dura

Arly Hanks - the wiliest chief of police in the Ozarks - is back on the case. And this time around, our intrepid sleuth may have met her match: she's just been pressed into service as chaperone for the church youth group. Ten hormonally challenged teenage boys and girls are spending a week at Camp Pearly Gates, accompanied by the formidable wife of the mayor, the high school shop teacher, and preacher Brother Verber. It's bad enough that Arly has to bunk with this crew, but when, on a dark and stormy night, one of the girls stumbles over the body of a white-robed woman with a shaved head, Arly knows things can only go downhill.
Investigating the murder, Chief of Police Hanks finds herself hindered by an eccentric cast of characters, from the bumbling local police and a band of spacey cultists to her own menopausal mother and an oddly intriguing (and attractive) fisherman called Jacko. Meanwhile, back in Maggody, Arkansas (population 755), Mayor Jim Bob Buchanon is up to his usual philandering antics, Raz Buchanon is looking for an animal companion to keep his pig Marjorie company, and Duluth Buchanon's wife has gone missing with their two sons.

Joan Hess is the author of twenty-four mysteries, including fourteen in the Maggody series. A former president of the American Crime Writers League and current president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance, she has won numerous awards for her work, including the American Mystery Award, the Agatha Award, the Drood Review Readers' Award, and the McCavity Award. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.