The title seems to say it all about this comic private-eye mystery set on Alabama's Mussel River. But not quite. The Redneck Detective Agency isn't a detective agency at all (later it fulfills its own destiny). And its proprietor, fifty-five year old Rusty Clay, asserts he is no redneck. His old friend and new lover, Gloria Davenport, begs to differ. Rusty has married and divorced the same woman three times, makes his own whiskey and dynamite, and as a kid grabbled (catch with one's bare hands) a catfish greater than his own body weight. "Isn't that redneck enough for you?" Gloria argues. When Rusty is accosted by a mysterious man with five thousand dollars in cash to find out who stole his two hundred fourteen pound catfish, the story begins. Complications arise when news of the big man's death appears in the local paper. Rusty estimates himself to be last person to see this rich owner of a catfish restaurant chain alive. If that's not complicated enough, the surgeon fiancee of Rusty's ex-wife is blown up in a classic two-seater Mercedes. Rusty knows he has to stay out of jail long enough to find out who weighs in a two hundred fourteen pound catfish at the annual catfish grabbling rodeo on Mussel River - because that is the real multiple murderer, Rusty is sure. Always funny, and no matter how wild this ride may be, we can all see a little of ourselves in Rusty as he must also face life's hardships and disappointments that everyone must deal with one time or another.