Hess, Joan 1949-

(Joan Hadley)

PERSONAL: Born January 6, 1949, in Fayetteville, AR; daughter of Jack D. (a wholesale grocer) and Helen (a building contractor; maiden name, Tidwell) Edmiston; married Jeremy Hess, 1973 (divorced, 1986); children: Rebecca Hadley, Joshua Hadley. Education: University of Arkansas, B.A., 1971; Long Island University, M.A., 1974. Politics: "Yellow dog Democrat."

ADDRESSES: Home—Fayetteville, AR. Agent—Dominick Abel, 146 W. 82nd St., New York, NY 10024.

CAREER: Writer and novelist. In real estate sales in Fayetteville, AR, 1974–80; art teacher in Fayetteville, 1980–84; freelance writer, 1984–.

MEMBER: Mystery Writers of America, American Crime Writers League (served as executive secretary and president), Sisters in Crime, Whimsey Foundation.

AWARDS, HONORS: Anthony Award nomination, Malice Domestic Convention, 1986, for Strangled Prose, and 1988, for Mischief in Maggody; American Mystery Award, Midwest Mystery and Suspense Convention, 1989, for A Diet to Die For; winner of Agatha Award and Macavity Award.

WRITINGS:

"CLAIRE MALLOY" MYSTERY SERIES

Strangled Prose, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Dear Miss Demeanor, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1987.

A Really Cute Corpse, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1988.

A Diet to Die For, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Roll over and Play Dead, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Death by the Light of the Moon, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1994.

Poisoned Pins, Onyx (New York, NY), 1994.

Tickled to Death, Wheeler (New York, NY), 1994.

Busy Bodies, Dutton (New York, NY), 1995.

Closely Akin to Murder, Dutton (New York, NY), 1996.

A Holly, Jolly Murder, Dutton (New York, NY), 1997.

Death of a Roomance Writer & Other Stories, Five Star (Waterville, ME), 2002.

Out on a Limb, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2002.

Big Foot Stole My Wife! and Other Stories, Five Star (Waterville, ME), 2003.

The Goodbye Body, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2005.

"ARLY HANKS MAGGODY" MYSTERY SERIES

Malice in Maggody, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1987.

Mischief in Maggody, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1988.

Much Ado in Maggody, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Madness in Maggody, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Mortal Remains in Maggody, Dutton (New York, NY), 1991.

Maggody in Manhattan, Onyx (New York, NY), 1993.

O Little Town of Maggody, Onyx (New York, NY), 1994.

Martians in Maggody, Dutton (New York, NY), 1994.

Miracles in Maggody, Dutton (New York, NY), 1995.

The Maggody Militia, Dutton (New York, NY), 1997.

murder@maggody.com, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

Maggody and the Moonbeams, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

Muletrain to Maggody, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

Malpractice in Maggody, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2006.

YOUNG ADULT MYSTERIES

Future Tense, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1987.

Red Rover, Red Rover, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1987.

Also author of No Martians, Please, for Silhouette.

"THEO BLOOMER" MYSTERY SERIES; UNDER PSEUDONYM JOAN HADLEY

The Night-blooming Cereus, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1986.

The Deadly Ackee, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1988.

OTHER

Columnist for Mystery Scene. Contributor of articles and stories to magazines, including Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Fiction Writer, and Clues: Journal of Detection. Contributor to anthologies, including The Year's Twenty-five Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, 1997.

ADAPTATIONS: Miracles in Maggody adapted to audio by Blackstone Audio Books, 1997.

SIDELIGHTS: Joan Hess's enthusiasm for mystery writing is evident in the fact that in her first four years as an author, she published eleven novels spanning three series and two novels for young adults. While each of her series is distinct, they all display Hess's wit and irony as well as surprising plot turns. What distinguishes the three series are their settings, continuing characters, and points of view. In Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Hess commented: "I've always loved traditional mystery fiction's fine balance between the complexity of the plot and the simplicity of the solution…. In my work, I struggle to share with the reader the sense of possibility—that this could happen to either of us. I also enjoy the op-portunity to make sardonic observations about the vagaries of society, and to be able to do so from the relative sanctuary of my office."

Her best-known series is set in Arkansas and told in the first person by Claire Malloy. As a young widow, Claire opens a bookstore in a refurbished train station so she can support herself and her teenage daughter, Caron. In Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Mary Jean DeMarr commented on the importance of the mother-daughter relationship throughout the series. She wrote: "Claire views Caron with an amusing mixture of detachment, love, and dismay, and Ca-ron's antics and enthusiasm are comically but sympathetically depicted." Hess presents a range of themes throughout the Claire Malloy series. Strangled Prose is set in the academic world where Claire's husband was a professor. The secrets of the faculty in the English department are revealed, including the identity of an author of steamy romance novels. Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn is about a mystery murder weekend in which the fictitious mystery becomes real. Claire substitutes for a journalism teacher accused of embezzlement in Dear Miss Demeanor. A Really Cute Corpse and A Diet to Die For are satiric looks at the world of beauty pageants.

In Tickled to Death, Claire continues to deal with Caron's teenage turmoil and contemplates bankruptcy for her bookstore, all the while trying to warn off her friend Luann from an affair with a local dentist, Dick Cissell. The dentist's last two wives died under unexplained circumstances, and Clair does not want Luann to meet a similar fate. Luann continues undaunted, but when Cissell is hauled in for questioning in connection with the death of his second wife, Luann comes to Claire for help. To help assuage her friend's ire, Luann finds Caron a much-needed summer job at a bird sanctuary run by the Dunling Foundation. However, Claire uncovers connections between Cissell, his dead wives, and the foundation, and her investigations lead her to fear even more for Luann's life. Jailed by a cranky and resentful local sheriff for withholding evidence, Claire is rescued from incarceration by her police officer boyfriend, Peter Rosen. She becomes even more determined to solve the case of the murdered wives, and to protect her daughter and friend from danger connected with Cissell, the Dunling Foundation, and the bird sanctuary. Booklist contributor Stuart Miller called the novel "another enjoyable comedy/mystery from the entertaining and prolific Hess." A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that "Hess's low-key humor and bull's-eye dialogue are reason enough to read anything she writes."

An elderly woman becomes a tree-sitter and environmental activist in Out on a Limb. Encouraged by the local Green Party, Emily Parchester chains herself to a platform in a tree to protest, and prevent, the bulldozing of the landscape and the construction of a new housing development. Meanwhile, Daphne, the daughter of housing developer Anthony Armstrong, has abandoned her infant daughter Skyler on Claire's doorstep. When Armstrong is found murdered, Claire has to help find the runaway mother and convince Emily to come down out of the tree, all the while keeping Skyler out of the reach of social services. In The Goodbye Body, Claire and Caron are temporarily displaced from their apartment while exterminators go after an infestation of rats. The two receive an offer from Dolly Goforth, a wealthy new resident in the area, to house-sit at her luxurious home while she travels. Joined by Caron's best friend, Inez, the Molloy women think they have a perfect situation until the two younger women discover a body on the premises, one that mysteriously keeps appearing and disappearing. Claire's attempts to contact Dolly go nowhere, and the unexpected appearance of Dolly's nieces complicates matters. When Claire is assaulted and her bookshop trashed, her stake in the case becomes even more personal. Hess "handles the complicated plot with consummate ease, and her trademark humor is stamped on every page," remarked a reviewer in Publishers Weekly.

Hess's "Arly Hanks" series is set in the backwoods Ozark town of Maggody, Arkansas. DeMarr likened this series to Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road and William Faulkner's Snopes novels. The main character is the female police chief, Arly Hanks, whose detachment and worldliness are the result of having lived in New York City. The point of view varies; Arly's narration alternates with third-person sections containing information not available to Arly. Hess introduces more recurring characters than in the Claire Malloy series, and she gives extra attention to specific settings. The effect is that Maggody itself becomes central to the series. DeMarr observed that "the comedy is often broad and the view of rural life anything but romantic." Arly frequently finds herself dealing with outrageous situations and characters such as members of the inbred but prolific Buchanon family; porno-graphic filmmakers; ill-tempered swine; cult members; UFO enthusiasts; and "legions of other, equally loony characters," noted Miller in a Booklist review of Maggody and the Moonbeams.

In Maggody and the Moonbeams, Arly gets manipulated into serving as a chaperone for a group of unruly church teenagers who are working to renovate Camp Pearly Gates in the nearby town of Dunkicker. The campground also serves as home to a sect known as the Moonbeams, an all-female commune characterized by their shaven heads and white robes—an appearance that sometimes has them mistaken for aliens. As Arly works to keep the randy group of teenagers out of each other's cabins, one of the Moonbeams is found dead. Though she is determined to crack the case, Arly's investigation is hampered by the refusal of the other Moonbeams to cooperate. Further complications arise from an inept local deputy and a handsome local fisherman who rouses Arly's considerable interest. "There may not be too many surprises, but Hess makes sure there are plenty of laughs from first page to last," noted a Publishers Weekly critic.

Muletrain to Maggody chronicles the chaos that ensues when a local Civil War historian reveals that the Maggody terrain might conceal a lost shipment of Confederate gold. In addition to a surfeit of treasure-hunters, Arly has to manage a group of reenactors, assembled to create a documentary film on a local Civil War battle. When murder victims begin to accumulate, Arly must get beyond the blue, the gray, and the gold to find out who is responsible for the killings. Hess "mines the foibles of those obsessed with the past to offer yet another deliciously funny and deviously puzzling mystery," observed a Publishers Weekly contributor. "Hess aims and fires her comic Gatling gun with reckless abandon and great glee," commented Stuart Miller in another Booklist review.

Malpractice in Maggody finds the whole town in a stir over what's going on at the local old folks' home. The site has been quickly bought and renovated as the Stonebridge Foundation, leaving the few residents without a place to stay and often remanded to the care of their families. Rumors abound that the foundation is an insane asylum, or perhaps a rehab clinic for Hollywood stars. Locals Ruby Bee Hanks, motel owner and Arly's mother, and her best friend, Estelle Oppers, even start studying Spanish so that they can ask the Spanish-speaking staff about the place. When the foundation's receptionist, Molly Foss, is found dead, Arly steps in to investigate. The death of facility psychiatrist Randall Zumi convinces Arly that the Stonebridge Foundation has secrets it does not want to give up. "Zany as ever, Hess's latest is a sure cure for whatever ails you," remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor.

Hess's third series is being published under the pseudonym Joan Hadley. The central figure is Theo Bloomer, a retired florist, and Hess uses names of exotic plants and flowers in the book titles for symbolic impact. This series differs from the other two in that the protagonist is a man, the setting is outside of Arkansas, and the entire series is told in the third person. The stories follow a pattern: Theo receiving a call from his sister to go rescue his niece, Dorrie, a Wellesley student. In The Night-blooming Cereus, Theo must go all the way to Israel, and in The Deadly Ackee, Theo chaperones Dorrie and her spoiled friends on a vacation in Jamaica.

Hess told CA: "I've always been a compulsive reader, particularly of mystery fiction. I'm also an avid game player and a devotee of cryptic crossword puzzles, which I believe is evident in my approach to writing mysteries. The genre provides a vehicle in which to present both an intellectual challenge and a contemporary morality play."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, 3rd edition, St. James Press, 1991.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1994, Stuart Miller, review of Tickled to Death, p. 1518; May 1, 2001, Stuart Miller, review of Maggody and the Moonbeams, p. 1632; January 1, 2004, Stuart Miller, review of Muletrain to Maggody, p. 832.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2005, review of Malpractice in Maggody, p. 1257.

Publishers Weekly, April 4, 1994, review of Tickled to Death, p. 60; May 28, 2001, review of Maggody and the Moonbeams, p. 52; October 21, 2002, review of Out on a Limb, p. 58; January 26, 2004, review of Muletrain to Maggody, p. 234.

ONLINE

Maggody.com, http://www.maggody.com (February 27, 2006), author's home page.