The Novels of Joan Hadley

The late Joan Hess wrote more than three dozen books before her death in 2017, most of which were her Claire Malloy mysteries or Maggody mysteries. The two were very different series but both were centered around women, novels that were defined by voice, and were funny.

Early in her writing career Hess also wrote two books of another series. Writing as Joan Hadley she wrote two novels featuring Theo Bloomer, a retired florist who earlier in his life had done something rather hush hush for the government that remained classified. But the truth is that it didn’t much matter.

The Night-Blooming Cereus and The Deadly Acklee were published in 1986 and 1988. In the three years between 1986 and 1988, Hess published nine books by my count. Which I don’t think is a record, but it’s very impressive.

Neither of the Theo Bloomer books are that impressive. They’re not bad books by any stretch, but in her two successful series, Hess’ work was defined by their very distinctive voices, by the humor, by the characters and relationships. The Bloomer books are very eh, in every regard. The main character and none of the characters really pop or are especially exciting. In each of the books, the retired florist is dragged oversees for one reason by his sister because of something involving his niece and namesake Theodora.

There is also what I consider a third Joan Hadley novel, Mummy Dearest, the 17th novel of Joan Hess’ Claire Malloy series. In the book Malloy has just married and she along with her daughter Caron and her friend Inez are in Egypt on a honeymoon which is doubling as cover for her husband working on a terrorism and smuggling case. The events and the backstory were inspired by a trip that Hess took with her friend, the late writer Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters).

As a nod to her friend, there is a small role in the novel of Lady Emerson Peabody who does little, but lives off the money from the published journals of her ancestor.

One of the other supporting characters in the book is loud mouthed obnoxious American named Sitterman, who works for the CIA and is just as loud and obnoxious as he was in both Bloomer books two decades earlier.

I wouldn’t categorize the book as one of the better Claire Malloy novels, but I do think it manages to point to why the Theo Bloomer novels never quite took off. The concept is okay. That he was a florist but he also spent some time during and after the war doing something for the government. He’s a waspy old money type and his namesake and niece is entertaining, but a lot of the amusement comes from laughing at her.

By the second book, a lot of the amusement comes form laughing at the people around her, but she still never managed to grow much as a character in the course of the two books. Caron and Inez were entertaining supporting characters, in that sometimes they were simply comic relief, sometimes they gave Claire a headache, sometimes they were off causing trouble on their own (does anyone remember the biology class frogs?), while other times Claire would delegate work to them to assist on the case.

Also Claire’s voice, which has always been the draw and the highlight of those novels shines through. Hess has always been something of an oddity among mystery writers because she is so voice driven. The concepts of her books – Malloy runs a bookshop – is the entire idea behind many cozy mystery series, but they never have the heart or the humor that Hess manages to inject in the character. (Perhaps because some of those writers spent so much time on the concept – mystery-loving bookstore owner dating a police detective – that they forgot to think about the type of people who might populate such a story, much less give them a personality and a voice).

Bloomer, while he was entertaining enough, was never a particularly compelling character. He was never quite comic enough or dramatic enough. It’s one thing to have a mild mannered character who gets dragged into trouble but is able to handle himself as well as anyone, but bringing that idea of a character to life is something much more complex. Joan Hess was able to do a lot of things, and do them well, but that just wasn’t one of them.