Away down south in Maggody, Arkansas, Police Chief Arly Hanks, "the sharpest small-town sleuth since Miss Marple" (Kirkus Reviews), must keep the peace when the Civil War -- or a darn good replication -- masks a modern-day murderer!

Muletrain to Maggody

A few dozen die-hard Yanks and Rebs, a dewy-eyed belle, and a general or two have rolled into town...and so has a documentary film crew, to re-enact a piece of Maggody history. Not that the Skirmish at Cotter's Ridge was particularly significant (it wasn't), or that folks care overly about the 1863 scuffle (they don't). But rumors are flying like musket-fire that two saddlebags of long-lost Confederate gold are holed up in a local cave, and frankly, my dear, everyone gives a damn about getting their hands on it. Authenticity goes overboard when the body count starts rising, and Arly must catch a killer to ensure that the people of Maggody can live, not die, in Dixie.