triple blackmail leads to murder

This is a book is a re-issue of one that originally came out in the 1980’s. I found it difficult to keep my interest, and this may have been one of the reasons. Arly Hanks, recovering from personal disasters in her life, has moved to Maggody Arkansas and is the Chief of Police (and the only police employee in this town of 750 persons) because she is the only person who applied for the job. This is normally a quiet, little town, until the local bank branch head teller is demoted, after taking a longer than expected maternity leave. Angered by this move, this disgruntled employee, and a hard-charging women’s rights lawyer, gets the town’s women to join together to demand equal rights from their husbands, who would just as soon they remained as passive and docile as they have been and are. Trouble, in the form of a multi-women protest, ensues, as the women band together to protest their oppressed, unequal lives. Then, a murder of the newly minted head bank teller is killed in a bank fire. Now, Arly must sift through the clues and events to determine just what happened and who is responsible for the death.

This book is interesting, but not nearly as good as I had hoped it would be. I found the actions and events dated and not all that realistic. I could never figure out why the author did not make Arly an assertive woman/law enforcement officer, but rather allowed her to remain, quiet and unassuming, in the background, doing very little to assist the state and other law enforcement agencies and personnel with this murder investigation. In addition, there was a lot of attempted humor throughout, which just fell flat. I grew tired of some of the supporting characters, in particular, Arly’s mother who runs the local bar/eatery. Somehow, she never seemed to show any of the motherly concern and love you would expect from a mother. She also never really succeeded in effective meddling, which is what the author intended, I think. I found the dialogue okay, though not all that great, and it could easily have helped make this book much better. The use of “bad” language really did not bother me too much, though I agree it really did nothing to further the storyline or plot. Finally, the plot also was oaky, but I had just about figured out the ending about half way through. I think the book would have been better if it had been reviewed and updated a bit to eliminate some of the very out-of-date dialogue, ideas, conversations, etc. that were contained within it, if the author wanted to reissue the book today. Sometimes a reissued book can be a success, but, for me, this one just did not cut it. I have not read anything by this author and am not sure how to compare this book to her others because of that. I think the book will appeal to anyone who enjoys her other books or is looking for a quick throw-back to another time and place, when things were different. I received this from NetGalley to read and review. ( )

very light reading