Death is hot right now, so Hastings, Minnesota, 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, North Dakota, 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.”

“I write two at a time sometimes, and if I get stuck on one, I’ll switch to the other. One might be a stand-alone book and the other a genre novel for adults,” said Davidson. “And I write in all genres, not just the paranormal. If you’re stuck on a novel about vampires, you could switch to a book about cooking figs with wine.”

What with all the vampires and grim reapers, the Hastings author’s books sound darker than they actually are. Her ironic humor and gift for spoofing tropes keep things light.

“I’m a pretty upbeat, happy person. Which is why my books tend to be funny. My ‘Betsy the Vampire Queen’ books tend to be funny because, before I thought of Betsy, most of the vampire books I knew were dark and male. But I thought, ‘Where are the secretary vampires?’” asked Davidson.

Now, they’re typing and filing in several of Davidson’s books — in which Betsy, after getting fired from her office jobs, is hit by a car and becomes undead. Like “Reaper,” there’s plenty of romance in the Betsy books because, as Davidson says, “You can be as cynical as you like but who doesn’t get a kick out of reading about two people finding each other? Or even two nonpeople?”

Of course, the course of true love does not run smooth. No spoilers here but the romantic lead of “Reluctant Reaper” was a different person in early drafts than he is in the final version, a switcheroo that forced Davidson to go back to the beginning and make a bunch of changes so that it would all make sense. I suggested to her that, in a way, that sort of writing is like traveling through time.

“It’s so funny you should say that,” replied Davidson. “Stephen King use to call it ‘falling into the hole’ when he would sit at the typewriter and come out five hours later. Writing is absolutely time travel, and not just in books about time travel. When you’re deep in it and you look up and realize two hours have gone by, that’s magical.”

The hope, she adds, is that time-traveling readers can experience the same thing.

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The Reluctant Reaper

By: MaryJanice Davidson.

Publisher: Blackstone, 251 pages.

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