Irish Eyes

Irish Eyes is one of Mary Kay Andrews’s earlier mystery novels, written under her actual name Kathy Hogan Trocheck before she fully transitioned to her better known Mary Kay Andrews byline for her contemporary southern fiction. The book is part of the Callahan Garrity mystery series, which followed the Atlanta cleaning service owner and former police officer through a series of cases that combined small business management with the kind of amateur sleuthing that the cozy mystery genre rewards.

Callahan Garrity is a particular kind of female mystery protagonist. A former Atlanta police officer who left the force after a difficult incident and now runs the House Mouse, a cleaning service that gives her access to the homes and lives of various Atlanta residents whose secrets occasionally turn out to involve the kind of trouble that requires her police background to sort out. The Callahan Garrity novels gave Andrews room to develop both the Atlanta setting that she would later use in her Mary Kay Andrews contemporary fiction and the warm, character driven storytelling that distinguishes her work in either genre.

Irish Eyes works in the cozy mystery territory that combines a real crime with a manageable level of violence and a focus on community, character, and small town or small neighborhood relationships. Atlanta is too large to be a small town, but the corners of the city that Callahan moves through have the kind of village quality that the cozy genre relies on. The Irish element of the title points to a specific aspect of the case that the novel works through, with Andrews drawing on her interest in regional culture and traditions to give the mystery its particular flavor.

For longtime Mary Kay Andrews fans curious about her earlier career as Kathy Hogan Trocheck, the Callahan Garrity series is a fun deeper cut. The voice is recognizably the same writer, but the genre is different enough that the books offer a distinct reading experience from her contemporary southern fiction. For cozy mystery readers, the Callahan Garrity novels are a comfortable series with a likable protagonist and a strong sense of place. Many of these earlier novels have been reissued under the Mary Kay Andrews byline since her contemporary work made her a bigger name.