Orem Library

Farberville, Arkansas is normally a quiet college town, where bookseller Claire Malloy tends her small store and raises her somewhat dramatic teenage daughter Caron. But this week, it's gone a bit out of control. A local group of activists calling themselves the Farberville Green Party is protesting a developer's plan to remove a copse of trees by having retired schoolteacher Miss Emily Parchester camp out in one of them while chained to it by the...

Anticipating the filming of a Civil War documentary, Maggody citizens become excited over rumors that Confederate gold may be hidden in a local cave, prompting a flood of outside visitors including an apparently murderous ghost.

In Arkansas, the appearance of crop circles in a cornfield puts Maggody, pop. 775, on the map. The novel follows police chief Arly Hanks as he copes with hysteria, the media, sightings of aliens and the murder of a ufologist.

Of course, most lawbreaking in this neck of the woods has to do with an illegal still or Raz Buchanon's pet pig getting loose. And the biggest crime, according to her mother and friends, is Arly's own unmarried state. But that's before the motorcade of televangelist and faith healer Malachi Hope rolls into town and sets up a tent revival that promises to put Maggody on the map...and put Arly on the hot seat.

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--strangled with a tightly knotted...

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 schemea 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 announceda top of the line bass boatnearly everyone in town develops a new-found...

Veronica "Ronnie" Landonwood is phoning from Chicago to ask Claire for help in tracking down a blackmailer who threatens to expose her past. Ronnie had been in jail for murder but has rehabilitated herself into a prestigious scientist with a shot at a Nobel Prize - unless her sordid past hits the tabloids. Now she wants Claire to go back to Acapulco, where, as a teenager, she killed a famous Hollywood producer who tried to rape her. This eerie call...

When an artist stages a display of environmental art on his front lawn, including a half-naked woman, a small Arkansas town is shocked. Next, someone sets fire to the house, which kills the artist's wife. Now who would do such a thing? Bookseller Claire Malloy investigates.

"Longtime bookseller and single mother, Claire Malloy has recently married her long term beau and moved out of her less than opulent apartment into a sprawling, newly remodeled house. Her daughter, Caron, is making plans for college. All of which leaves Claire with something she hasn't had in quite a while: spare time. When her attempts to learn French cooking start getting "mixed" reviews, she agrees to help Caron and her best friend Inez in fluffing...