Chief of police Arly (that's short for Ariel) Hanks makes sure there's law and order in Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755), which isn't too difficult considering the only weapon she needs to tote around is a radar gun. Aside from Raz Buchanon's moonshine still up on Cotter's Ridge, Maggody is a peaceful little Ozarks town snuggled in the heartland of America, until a group of camouflage-clad patriots march in with maneuvers - and murder. It all begins when a pretty widow named Kayleen opens a pawnshop over the hardware store and buys an old farm out on County 102. The widow is letting a group of survivalists use her back pasture for paint-ball war games during the first weekend of hunting season when bourbon-swigging good ol' boys with deer rifles shoot at anything that moves...and that might include make-believe soldiers in fatigues. Suddenly Arly has her hands full: burglars are breaking into remote homes throughout the county; Mayor Jim Bob is a missing person, and his wife is having a hissy fit; the very pregnant Dahlia Buchanon is behaving more bizarrely than usual; and Estelle, of Estelle's Hair Fantasies, gets a surprise inheritance that has the residents of Maggody running for cover. So when a survivalist gets killed, Arly is hunting for a motive, a means, and a murderer.