Callahan Garrity Books In Order

Publication Order of Callahan Garrity Books

The Callahan Garrity mystery series is a series of mystery and thriller novels written by the well known American author Mary Kay Andrews under the real name Kathy Hogan Trocheck. It consists of a total of 8 books published between the years 1992 and 2012. All the novels of the series feature the main protagonist in the form of Callahan Garrity, who is described by the author as an ex-cop based in Atlanta, Atlanta. In the later parts of the series, it is revealed that Callahan Garrity leaves the police service in order to serve for a cleaning service. Along with that, she gets involved in a few detective works as a private eye. Garrity is depicted in the series as a middle-aged, outspoken and out of shape woman. She lives along with her mother in a bungalow, who is the one that forces Garrity into leaving the police force and joining the cleaning service business. The character of Callahan Garrity appeared for the first time in the first novel of the series, Every Crooked Nanny in the year 1992, and lasted for seven more novels over the course of 10 years.

The first novel of the Callahan Garrity Mystery series written by author Kathy Hogan Trocheck was published under the title ‘Every Crooked Nanny’. It was published by the Avon publishing house in the year 1992. The plot of the novel revolves around the life of the main character named Callahan Garrity and is set in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Callahan Garrity is shown leaving her job as a police officer, working for ten years in Atlanta, Georgia. She decides to leave the job in order join the staff of house cleaners for a cleaning service business. Her mother plays an important role in persuading her to trade her police badge with the job in the cleaning service. Even though the uniforms of the two jobs seem to be different, Callahan finds her back to the same business when a nanny known to her goes missing. Callahan Garrity gets back in the middle of a new mystery when the nanny, who was nineteen years old, beautiful, and, pretty, and worked for one of her clients disappears from the scene.

It is later found out that the nanny has run away along with the jewelry, silver ornaments, and a few sensitive and important real estate documents. Before she can get a clear understanding of what was happening, Callahan Garrity discovers herself stuck with the case. In order to find the missing nanny and help the police solve the case, she begins to deal with the instances of illicit love triangles, long distance scams, crooked deals of business, as well as a dead body. Callahan Garrity is required to roll up her sleeves again begin a high level sleuthing in order to solve the mystery of the case as soon as possible before someone else loses his or her life. She also finds the case really important to solve as she herself is involved in it and wants to come out of it and survive at all costs. Callahan Garrity worries more about her mother and the cleaning business and hence, she does want to risk her life and leave them alone. As a result, she sets herself up to the trail of the missing nanny in order to track her down. She also begins to investigate the details about the dead body and tries to establish its relation with the missing nanny. This way, she will be able to get some important clues and solve the case in lesser time.

The second novel of the Callahan Garrity Mystery series was published by the Harper Paperbacks publishing house in the year 1993. It was titled ‘To Live & Die in Dixie’. The plot of the second novel is set in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, just like the first novel and it continues to show ex-cop Callahan Garrity as the main character. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Garrity is shown as an expert cleaner of the messes in the city of Atlanta, both as a house cleaner and as a private investigator. She is considered to be extraordinary in her jobs as she has a vast experience of 10 years of service in the Atlanta police department as a former police officer. Callahan Garrity not only does an excellent job in cleaning houses, but also takes care of her aged mother. After a little while, she agrees to work for an infamous antiques dealer named Elliot Littlefield, but seems to be unaware of what she is getting herself into. On the first day of the job of cleaning the house of Elliot Littlefield, Callahan Garrity and her staff members discover a bloodied dead body of a young woman in one of the bedrooms of the house. Soon, they get on the trail of an important Civil War diary, which has been stolen by the killer of the young woman.

The case does not just include a couple of crimes and is soon followed by right wing radicals, impulsive teenagers, and deadly serious collectors, which makes it even more difficult for Callahan Garrity to solve. Along with being stuck in an untidy situation, she finds herself trapped in a dangerous web of deadly crimes. Similar to the success of the first novel of the series, the second novel too saw many positive outcomes after its publication. It was very much appreciated by a number of readers all over the world and was also praised by the critics and the fellow authors of author Kathy Hogan Trocheck. The success of the novel allowed it to be nominated for a few prestigious awards such as the Agatha Award in the year 1993 and the Anthony Award in the year 1994, in the category of the Best Novel. The readers and fans of author Kathy Hogan Trocheck liked the character descriptions of the primary characters of the novel, particularly the depiction of the main protagonist Callahan Garrity as the owner of The House Mouse Cleaning Service as well as an ex-cop at the Atlanta police force. This helped author Kathy Hogan Trocheck to receive a lot of motivation and encouragement for writing other exciting novels in the series. She also went on to write a few other successful mystery series’ as well.

2 Responses to “Callahan Garrity”

1. Linda Cooney: 3 years ago

   Callahan Garrity is one of my favorite characters of all time. I wish the series would continue! I read them all and want the story to continue.

   Reply
2. Linda Bullock: 3 years ago

   Just discovered this series and love them! I have read the 8 I know of, and I’m hoping there will be more. Are there/will there be more?

   Reply