Death is hot right now, so Hastings writer MaryJanice Davidson is very on trend.
The latest from the wildly prolific (more than six dozen books in 25 years) novelist is “The Reluctant Reaper,” a comic romance about Amara, a Minnesotan whose father is the Grim Reaper and who, because dad is sick, may get stuck inheriting his title. For whatever reason, reapers are having a pop culture moment: A musical called “Grim” just opened in California and another comic novel called “A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death” just hit stores.
Davidson could have taken grimspiration from the zeitgeist but, instead, it came courtesy of her daughter, C.M. Alongi, who is very much alive. A former door-to-door salesman, C.M. saw that job disappear in the pandemic, so she decided to take a stab at the family business (Davidson’s husband, Anthony Alongi, is a former Hastings City Council member and published author; Davidson’s son, the “black sheep of the family” by dint of not being a writer, is a psychologist). The result was C.M.’s science fiction novel “Citadel.”
“She didn’t say anything to anyone about her mom being a New York Times bestselling author and her dad also being a published author until after she signed the contract,” said Davidson by phone. “She was so worried about being thought of as a nepo baby that it fired my imagination. What if Death had a daughter and needed her to step up?”
In “Reluctant Reaper,” Amara and a friend-or-is-it-something-more travel to the family estate in Minot, N.D., to spend time with her ailing father and his work associates, one of whom is clearly into her. While Amara is sorting out her complicated romantic life, she’s also figuring out what inheriting her dad’s job would mean for someone as death-averse as she is.
Most of Davidson’s books take place in the Midwest but “Reaper” is her first in Minot, where she was born in a military base hospital. She thinks being a “military brat” contributed to her becoming a full-time writer (after stints in administrative work, modeling and being a medical test subject). Always the new kid in school, she turned to writing short stories.
“Kids would see me writing and I would let them read the stories,” said Davidson. “Eventually, kids were waiting by my locker to hear what happened next.”
These days, Davidson — who used to crank out four books a year because she was reluctant to say “no” to offers but now sticks to one a year — likes to genre-hop. Once dubbed the “queen of vampires” by former Star Tribune books editor Laurie Hertzel, Davidson has also written cookbooks (in collaboration with her daughter), a series about a mermaid who can’t swim, thrillers and many comic romances like “Reaper.”
