The morning after the local trash collector, deaf dwarf Amel Pilkin, is seen celebrating in the Corner Bar and Grill, he is found dead in his truck, the garbage barrels missing from the truck and a contusion on the back of his head. Nobody, including new sheriff Whitey Huffer, agrees with Ryland that Pilkin was murdered. But bull-headed Ryland, editor of the Oakalla Reporter, questions everyone who could have seen Pilkin on the day he died. Only Huffer,...

When Stevey, the son of an African-American, turns up dead shortly thereafter, the hunt for answers is on. Stevey spent most of his time alone at the Corner Bar and Grill. Who would want him dead? Why would anyone burn a cross at the Old Baldwin Place, now the property of Senator Jonathan Springer? How does all this tie together? Compounding the general confusion is the new sheriff, Wayne Jacoby. He's a no-nonsense, take-charge veteran of the Gulf...

"Much madness is the eighteenth and final book in the Garth Ryland mystery series, which has taken him from the graves of Navoe Cemetery to the wilds of Mitchells Woods to the cave of Matatomah to the edge of Wamplers pit, and in and out of the arms of some of Oakallas most beautiful, intriguing, and dangerous women. Called an exemplary series hero by Publishers Weekly, Ryland lives and works in the small town of Oakalla, Wisconsin (Lake Woebegone...