Martians in Maggody

Arly (Ariel) Hanks is still chief of police in Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755), a sleepy little town in the Ozarks where nothing ever happens - until the day UFOs, Martians, Bigfoot, and tabloid reporters descend on Maggody...and bring along a case of murder. The summer starts out normal enough. The molting neon sign outside the Flamingo Motel reads V CAN Y, Ruby Bee is serving up chicken-fried steak at her bar and grill, and somebody is making moonshine up on Cotter's Ridge. Then strange geometric designs appear in Raz Buchanan's cornfield. Before Arly can remind people that Raz Buchanan lives with a pedigreed sow named Marjorie, tells tall stories by the bushel, and is charging folks a dollar apiece to look at his land, the media is setting up a UFO watch. Soon hysterical reports of strange lights, silver-headed Martians, cattle mutilations, and a hairy creature with very large feet are pouring into Arly's office. Most pesky of all, however, is the arrival of a pair of reporters from rival supermarket tabloids and two "professors" who specialize in writing books about alien phenomena. And when Maggody's buxom newlywed, the 300-pound Dahlia Buchanan, agrees to undergo hypnosis to recount her abduction and impregnation by Martians, Arly figures things have gone a tad too far. But that's before she finds the dead body out by Boone Creek. Now Arly's got a very down-to-earth puzzle on her hands, and she suspects it's directly connected to an extraterrestrial hoax. Only it's easier to believe a story about a dinosaur swallowing someone's Chevy than to find the real reason why some Maggody teenagers are telling lies, why Ruby Bee's best friend Estelle has disappeared, and what is really fishyabout Dahlia Buchanan's trance. And then there's the unsettling matter of the mysterious orange lights Arly sees with her very own eyes. Believe it or not, every bit of this happens in Joan Hess's zany new outing to the hills of Arkansas where mystery is down-home - and delightful