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Joan Hess

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Joan Hess
Born(1949-01-06)January 6, 1949
DiedNovember 23, 2017(2017-11-23) (aged 68)
Austin, Texas, U.S.
Pen nameJoan Hadley
OccupationWriter
GenreMystery fiction
Notable awards

Joan Hess (January 6, 1949 – November 23, 2017) was an American mystery writer, a member of Sisters in Crime, and a former president of the American Crime Writers League. She wrote two popular mystery series: The Claire Malloy Mysteries and The Maggody Mysteries (also called The Arly Hanks Mysteries), and contributed to multiple anthologies and book series, including: Crosswinds, Deadly Allies, Malice Domestic, Sisters in Crime, and The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. She also wrote the Theo Bloomer mystery series, under the pseudonym Joan Hadley.[1][2]

Series

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The Claire Malloy series is set in Farberville, Arkansas, and centers around Claire Malloy, who owns a small bookstore across from the campus of Farberville College. It has been suggested that Farberville is a stand-in for Fayetteville, Arkansas, with many landmarks, including the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Dickson Street, and even well-known local citizens, thinly veiled in the prose.

The Arly Hanks series is set in Maggody, Arkansas, population 755. The main character is Arly Hanks, Maggody's irreverent young female police chief. The first book of the Arly Hanks series, Malice in Maggody, was the basis for the 1993 CBS television pilot Arly Hanks.[3]

In the Theo Bloomer series the eponymous protagonist, "a dignified offshoot of old Connecticut money and prestige", is a retired bachelor-botanist who formerly worked as a florist. In each book, family obligations take him to an exotic vacation destination, where he becomes embroiled in a mystery: in the first book, he travels to Israel to retrieve his niece, who is staying at a kibbutz hotel,[4] and in the next he accompanies her party to a "luxurious villa" in Montego Bay, Jamaica, as a chaperone.[5]

Awards

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Awards for Hess's writing
Year Title Award Result Ref.
1987 Strangled Prose Anthony Award for Best First Novel Finalist [6]
1988 Mischief in Maggody Agatha Award for Best Novel Finalist [6][7]
1990 "Too Much to Bare" in Sisters in Crime 2 Agatha Award for Best Short Story Winner [7]
1991 Macavity Award for Best Mystery Short Story Winner [8][9][10]
1992 "The Last To Know" in Malice Domestic 1 Agatha Award for Best Short Story Finalist [7]
1993 O Little Town of Maggody Agatha Award for Best Novel Finalist [6][7]
1994 Anthony Award for Best Novel Finalist [6]
1995 Miracles in Maggody Agatha Award for Best Novel Finalist [6][7]
Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery Novel Award Finalist [6]

Personal life

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A longtime resident of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Hess lived in Austin, Texas, where she died at her home November 23, 2017.[11][12]

Bibliography

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Novels

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Claire Malloy series by Joan Hess[Notes 1]
  1. Strangled Prose
  2. The Murder at the Mimosa Inn
  3. Dear Miss Demeanor
  4. A Really Cute Corpse
  5. A Diet to Die For
  6. Roll Over and Play Dead
  7. Death by the Light of the Moon
  8. Poisoned Pins
  9. Tickled to Death
  10. Closely Akin to Murder
  11. Busy Bodies
  12. A Holly, Jolly Murder
  13. A Conventional Corpse
  14. Out on a Limb
  15. The Goodbye Body
  16. Damsels in Distress
  17. Mummy Dearest
  18. Deader Homes and Gardens
  19. Murder as a Second Language
  20. Pride v. Prejudice
Maggody series by Joan Hess[Notes 2]
  1. Malice in Maggody
  2. Mischief in Maggody
  3. Much Ado in Maggody
  4. Madness in Maggody
  5. Mortal Remains in Maggody
  6. Maggody in Manhattan
  7. O Little Town of Maggody
  8. Martians in Maggody
  9. Miracles in Maggody
  10. The Maggody Militia
  11. Misery Loves Maggody
  12. Murder@maggody.com
  13. Maggody and the Moonbeams
  14. Muletrain to Maggody
  15. Malpractice in Maggody
  16. The Merry Wives of Maggody
Theo Bloomer Mystery series by Joan Hadley[Notes 3]
  1. The Night-Blooming Cereus (1986)[4]
  2. The Deadly Ackee (1988)[5]

Standalone Teenage Romance

  1. Future Tense (1987)[13]

Short stories

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  • Hess, Joan & Wallace, Marilyn, ed. (1990). "Too Much to Bare". Sisters in Crime 2. New York: Berkley. ISBN 9780425119662. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Hess, Joan & Greenberg, Martin, ed. (1992). "The Last to Know". Malice Domestic #1. Pocket Books. ISBN 9780671738266. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Maggody Files: Hillbilly Cat Great Cat Mysteries: An Anthology of Feline Capers (audio edition by Phoenix Books, 1996). She also has two books of solely her own short stories.

She co-authored Elizabeth Peters' last book, The Painted Queen. After Elizabeth Peters died, Joan Hess completed this last novel in the popular Amelia Peabody series.

Notes

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  1. ^ Numbers are those assigned by MacMillan publishers in their latest release of these books and do not necessarily reflect the order of first publication.
  2. ^ The Maggody books are listed in reading order.
  3. ^ The Theo Bloomer books are listed in reading order.

References

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  1. ^ "Joan Hess". Goodreads. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  2. ^ "Joan Hadley". Goodreads. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  3. ^ "Q&A: Your questions". Dallas Morning News. 11 September 1994.
  4. ^ a b Hadley, Joan (November 28, 1986). The Night-Blooming Cereus. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312572808.
  5. ^ a b Hadley, Joan (March 1, 1988). The Deadly Ackee. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312014162.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Joan Hess". Stop, You're Killing Me!. Retrieved 2024-05-11.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Agatha Awards Past Winners". Malice Domestic. Archived from the original on 12 April 2010. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  8. ^ "Obituary Notes: Joan Hess". Shelf Awareness. November 28, 2017. Archived from the original on 2022-12-25. Retrieved 2023-01-01.
  9. ^ "Macavity Awards". Mystery Readers International. Archived from the original on 2019-04-05. Retrieved 2023-01-01.
  10. ^ "Macavity Awards". Lincoln City Libraries. September 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-01-02. Retrieved 2023-01-02.
  11. ^ "Joan Hess". Macmillan.
  12. ^ "Joan HESS's Obituary on Austin American-Statesman". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 2017-11-29.
  13. ^ Hess, Joan (May 1987). Future Tense. Silhouette books. ISBN 0373062338.
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