Arkansas Special Agents

Arkansas Special Agents began as a three-book series written by Maggie Wells (pen name for Margaret Ethridge) and published by Harlequin in May–July 2023 under the Harlequin Intrigue imprint, which offers a fusion of the thriller and traditional romance genres called romantic suspense. The first three books feature the Arkansas State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and take place in northwestern Arkansas, highlighting the growing divide between rich and poor and the corruption bred by a tremendous influx of wealth into the region. Two additional books in the series were published in 2026.

The first book in the series, Ozarks Missing Person, opens with Mallory Murray riding in a speedboat on Table Rock Lake with Tyrone (Trey) Powers III and his friends. Trey is an Ivy League–educated lawyer at the firm of Powers, Powers & Walton (PP&W); his family is immensely influential in the region, his grandfather having built his wealth, in part, by serving as “the personal attorney for a childhood pal who had a hankering to expand his local five-and-dime into a nationwide discount chain” (that is, Sam Walton). Mallory is a waitress at Stubby’s Bar and Grill on U.S. Highway 62 and has, just before the novel opens, informed Trey that she is pregnant with their child. She expects that he will agree to marry her, but instead he murders her in the boat and dumps her body into the lake.

After Mallory is reported missing, the case is assigned to Grace Reed, a special agent of the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division (CID), based out of Fort Smith (Sebastian County). She connects with Mallory’s estranged brother, Matthew, an assistant district attorney in Bentonville (Benton County). Mallory’s body is soon found washed ashore at Table Rock Lake, and suspicions point toward Trey, as it was known she was with him at a crawfish boil on the lake that night—but then Mallory’s car is found in Beaver Lake.

Grace manages to get access to the social media account of Taylor Greene, a young lawyer for PP&W who, as they discover, has been having an affair with Matthew’s boss, prosecuting attorney Nate Able, both of whom were present the night Mallory was murdered. After assembling enough evidence, Grace is able to arrest Trey and several of his fellow lawyers, as well as Nate, who was later revealed to have participated in the dumping of Mallory’s car. The book ends with Matthew and Grace confessing an attraction to each other and having burgers at Stubby’s after the burial of Mallory’s ashes. At Stubby’s, Grace finds Mallory’s second pregnancy test in a bag with her driver’s license, hidden away in case anything should happen to her.

The second book, Ozarks Double Homicide, opens with the double murder of Trey and his father, Tyrone, current head of the family law firm. Circumstantial evidence points toward Tyrone’s second (and much younger) wife, Kayla Powers, and suspicions arise after a revised will emerges, giving her both her husband’s share of the firm and significant wealth and property. Kayla enlists PP&W’s top criminal defense attorney, Michelle Fraser, to represent her, but it turns out that Michelle is actually an undercover FBI agent investigating a shell company established by the firm that is funneling unreported contributions into a political action committee (PAC) supporting U.S. Senator William Powers, the younger brother of Tyrone. Michelle and Ethan Scott of the Arkansas State Police eventually arrest Harold Dennis, a partner in the firm, for various crimes, but the double murder remains unsolved.

At the beginning of the third book, Ozarks Witness Protection, which is set soon after the second, someone shoots Kayla Powers while she is checking the mail, wounding her arm. Kayla suspects Delray Powers, the son of Senator William Powers. While recovering in the hospital, she discovers that she is pregnant with the child of her late husband. Fearing for Kayla’s safety, Ethan Scott arranges for another State Police agent, Sergeant Ryan Hastings, to provide protection. However, it soon becomes clear that the perpetrator is able to follow their movements, as he leaves cryptic clues wherever they go. The ongoing investigation into the money laundering and murder turns up the fact that Harold Dennis, William Powers, and Delray Powers were all directly involved in a real estate scheme that earned the group federal and state housing subsidies. Kayla returns to the family house on Table Rock Lake, setting up a final confrontation with Delray, who admits that he was the person behind the murders but had intended Kayla, rather than Trey, to be the second victim. The authorities are able to arrest Delray, and, as the other two books ended, this one also ends with both male and female lead characters anticipating some kind of relationship together.

The series proved popular with readers and led to a sequel trilogy, Arkansas Special Agents: Cyber Crime Division. In addition, two new books in the original series were published in 2026. The first, Danger on the Midway, takes place in Little Rock (Pulaski County) the day before the Arkansas State Fair is set to open in October. Cassidy Walker, head of security for the fair—and a former U.S. Air Force lieutenant once stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base (LRAFB)—is helping to guard Governor James Henry Beauford as he is doing a media event with children on a carousel. She receives a text from an unknown number saying that multiple bombs have been planted throughout the fairgrounds—and that she is to remain on the carousel as it continues running.

Captain Jake Donovan of the ASP (coincidentally an ex-boyfriend of Cassidy’s) arrives to oversee the response with police dog Max. Cassidy had managed to retrieve a suspicious backpack from a child, and Max identifies it as containing explosives. As they are talking, the north ticket booth explodes. Later, a corndog stand explodes. Messages from the suspect indicate that there are twelve bombs hidden throughout the fairgrounds and that one will explode each hour until midnight. Combined Little Rock and North Little Rock (Pulaski County) bomb squads locate one device at a ride, and Jake and Max find another in a cattle barn and then, later, the poultry barn. When the bomber discovers that some of his devices have been disarmed, he proceeds nonetheless with other bombs, causing law enforcement to pull back from disarming the devices since they believe that Cassidy’s will be the last to explode.

Emma Parker (previously featured in Arkansas Special Agents: Cyber Crimes Division) starts digging through records for people Cassidy arrested while working at LRAFB, hoping to find an obvious suspect, since the bomber frequently references her former military rank. Suspicion falls upon one Trevor Baker, and Emma visits his house, only to have her car hit with a stun grenade. However, Cassidy remembers that Trevor’s brother Troy was also arrested in the same incident, and it turns out that he is site supervisor for the amusement company responsible for the rides at the fair. At 5:00 p.m., a bomb at the Ferris wheel explodes, and the wheel falls upon the carousel, hurting Max in the impact, but it gives Jake and Cassidy a chance to leave the carousel and the bomb behind. They find the RV Baker had used, abandoned but rigged with explosives, and they later determine that Troy had moved through the area disguised as a Little Rock Fire Department trainee. The pair and Max track down Baker and arrest him. The epilogue finds Jake being Cassidy’s date to a fair that opens properly after a short delay.

A second addition to the series, Arkansas Abduction, is scheduled for release in October 2026.

For additional information:
Clancy, Sean. “Ozarks Gets Triple Threat Thriller Treatment.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 15, 2024, pp. 1D, 3D. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/jul/14/books-ozarks-gets-triple-threat-thriller/ (accessed July 15, 2024).

Lancaster, Guy. “Harlequin Heats up Arkansas with Thrillers Set in the Natural State.” Arkansas Times, August 12, 2023. https://arktimes.com/rock-candy/2023/08/12/harlequin-heats-up-arkansas-with-thrillers-set-in-the-natural-state (accessed September 15, 2023).

Maggie Wells–Margaret Ethridge. https://maggie-wells.com/ (accessed September 15, 2023).

Wells, Maggie. Danger on the Midway. New York: Harlequin Intrigue, 2026.

———. Ozarks Double Homicide. New York: Harlequin Intrigue, 2023.

———. Ozarks Missing Person. New York: Harlequin Intrigue, 2023.

———. Ozarks Witness Protection. New York: Harlequin Intrigue, 2023.

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas