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Callahan Garrity Mystery is a series of mystery novels written by Mary Kay Andrews (aka Kathy Hogan Trocheck). The books chronicle the adventures of a private detective who also cleans houses.
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Order of Callahan Garrity Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Every Crooked Nanny | 1992 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | To Live and Die in Dixie | 1993 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | Homemade Sin | 1994 | Description / Buy | |
| 4 | Happy Never After | 1995 | Description / Buy | |
| 5 | Heart Trouble | 1996 | Description / Buy | |
| 6 | Strange Brew | 1997 | Description / Buy | |
| 7 | Midnight Clear | 1998 | Description / Buy | |
| 8 | Irish Eyes | 2000 | Description / Buy | |
| 9 | Fatal Fruitcake (Short Story) | 2012 | Description / Buy | |
| 10 | Killer Fudge (Short Story) | 2012 | Description / Buy | |
| 11 | The Family Jewels (Short Story) | 2014 | Description / Buy |
Callahan Garrity was born in Atlanta. She attended the University of Georgia and went on to carve out a place for herself on the Atlanta Police Department.
As smart and disciplined as she was, Garrity’s future should have been bright. But by the time readers meet her in Every Crooked Nanny, the first novel in the Callahan Garrity Mystery series, the detective is hardly thriving.
Garrity abandoned law enforcement when she was passed up for a promotion and then she realized that her colleagues’ sexist attitudes would never permit her to succeed.
So now Garrity runs a cleaning company. The venture was her mother’s idea. Garrity only took the route because she had no other appealing prospects open to her.
In Every Crooked Nanny, a job takes an interesting turn when the heroine’s client is seemingly burglarized by a young, pious nanny and Garrity decides to deploy her detective skills.
The Callahan Garrity Mystery series tells Callahan Garrity’s story as she tries to balance her cleaning duties with her sleuthing work.
The protagonist encounters most of her mysteries at work, typically through her interactions and engagements with clients whose homes she has been charged with cleaning.
Even though the idea of running a full-time hands-on business whilst also investigating crimes should be more than any one person can handle, Garrity successfully juggles all her responsibilities because she isn’t alone.
The heroine relies heavily on her employees who use their connections and access to client homes to collect clues for Garrity.
At first, the detective is reluctant to dip her toes back into police work. She initially attempts to pursue the sleuthing as a hobby. But over time, she comes to the realization that she is never happier than when she is out chasing clues, interviewing suspects and putting bad guys behind bars.
It is worth noting that the first Callahan Garrity book was the first novel Mary Kay Andrews ever wrote.
Before that, she was a journalist working for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Andrews had always been an avid fan of mysteries. So once she decided to abandon journalism, there was no question in her mind that she would pursue fiction and, in particular, mystery novels.
Because her Callahan Garrity novels take place in the 1990s, there isn’t much emphasis on the use of technology to get results.
Callahan Garrity Mystery Awards
The second novel in this series was nominated for an Agatha Award in 1993.
Best Callahan Garrity Mystery Books
These novels are praised as much for their supporting cast of characters—Garrity’s crew of house cleaners—as they are for the heroine herself, with some of the best books in this series including:
Strange Brew: Callahan’s neighborhood is changing and a lot of people are unhappy. They know that the gentrification will put a lot of them out of business. One such victim of the transformation is an aging shopkeeper who falls under suspicion when a microbrewer is murdered.
Callahan isn’t convinced that the suspect in question is guilty. So the former cop dons her PI hat and digs into the murder.
Midnight Clear: Callahan is happy. Things are going well for both her cleaning and detective businesses.
Brian changes all that. Callahan’s brother barges into her life a few days before Christmas with his daughter in hand; the same daughter he kidnapped from his horrible estranged wife.
When the woman dies, Brian becomes the primary suspect. To secure his future, Callahan must find and expose the truth.
Other Book Series You May Like
You may also like the “B&B Spirits Mystery” Series by Pamela Kopfler. Holly Davis’ husband cheated on her and then bankrupted her B&B. And then he died. Holly is doing what she can to keep her business afloat. This is as she deals with all the ghosts who keep coming to her for help.
Another good series to read is the “Mattie Winston Mysteries” Series by Annelise Ryan. Mattie Winston was a nurse. Then her husband, a doctor, cheated her. Now she is a deputy coroner in a small Wisconsin town. Mattie spends more time than she would like out in the field, taking a first-hand approach to the apprehension of criminals.
What Is The Next Book in The Callahan Garrity Series?
There doesn't seem to be an upcoming book in The Callahan Garrity Series. The newest book is The Family Jewels and was released on February, 10th 2014.