Homemade Sin: Callahan Garrity Mystery, A (Callahan Garrity Mysteries) [Kindle Edition]

Kathy Hogan Trocheck (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The third appearance of Callahan Garrity, the quondam PI and owner of the House Mouse cleaning service who was last seen in Every Crooked Nanny , is a page-turner. When her cousin Patti McNair is shot to death in her new Lexus near the Garden Homes project in Atlanta, Callahan refuses to believe it was a senseless murder resulting from a random robbery. Learning that things may have been amiss in Patti's marriage to successful, secretive attorney Bruce, Callahan employs her clue-ferreting skills to stay ahead of the official investigation. She tracks an allegedly wayward priest, Bruce's Dixie mob clients and a crack-dealing gang leader before figuring out the identities of the bad guys and barely escaping with her life from a confrontation in a cemetery. While Trocheck captures more of the geography than the texture of Atlanta and seems to limit African American characters to the roles of domestics, gang lords and project-dwellers, Callahan, still dealing with breast cancer and living with longtime lover Mac, remains a gutsy '90s heroine.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When Patti McNair is senselessly blown away in an Atlanta carjacking with her young son asleep on the back seat, her cousin Callahan Garrity suspects that it may not have been a random act. Callahan is a part-time PI, a former Atlanta cop, and the full-time owner of the House Mouse cleaning service, catering to wealthy Atlanta suburbanites. She sweeps into action, tapping all of her best contacts, despite her family's insistence that she leave widower Bruce and his children alone. There are just too many unanswered questions. Why has Patti's sister moved in with Bruce and the kids? Why has Bruce split with his law partner to team up with a clutch of seedy comedy-club owners? Callahan threads her way through project gangs, a tax-starved public infrastructure, and her obstreperous and wacky family to nail the murderer. In Callahan, Trocheck (To Live and Die in Dixie, LJ 7/93) has given us another worthy member of the lady PI genre. Recommended for general collections.
Susan Clifford, Hughes Aircraft Co. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 347 KB
• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books (March 17, 2009)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0017098E6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,295 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Kathy Hogan Trocheck has published 17 novels, 10 critically-acclaimed mysteries under her own name and seven other bestselling novels writing as Mary Kay Andrews.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Trocheck earned a B.A. in journalism from the University of Georgia in 1976. She started her professional journalism career in Savannah, Georgia, where she covered the real-life murder trials which were the basis of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She left journalism after a ten-year stint as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Her first book, Every Crooked Nanny, featuring a clever, snoopy housecleaner named Callahan Garrity, appeared in 1992. It was followed by seven other Garrity novels including To Live and Die in Dixie (1993), Homemade Sin (1994), Happy Never After (1995), Heart Trouble (1996), Strange Brew (1997), Midnight Clear (1998), and Irish Eyes (2000). The two Truman Kicklighter novels were Lickety Split (1996) and Crash Course (1997).

The first novel to be published under the name Mary Kay Andrews was Savannah Blues (2002). It was followed by Little Bitty Lies (2003); Hissy Fit (2004); the New York Times bestseller, Savannah Breeze (2006); the New York Times bestseller, Blue Christmas (2007); Deep Dish (2008); and the New York Times bestseller, The Fixer Upper (2009).

Her mysteries have been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, and Macavity Awards.

As a lifelong "junker" the author claims to know the location of every promising thrift store, flea market, and junkpile in the southeastern United States, plus many parts of Ohio.

She is a frequent lecturer and writing teacher at workshops including Emory University, The University of Georgia's Harriet Austin Writer's Workshop, the Tennessee Mountain Writer's Workshop, and the Antioch Writer's Workshop. Her mysteries have been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Awards.

Married to her high school sweetheart, she is the mother of two grown children and a proud grandmother. After a brief hiatus in Raleigh, NC, she and her husband moved back to their old neighborhood in Atlanta, where they live in a restored 1926 Craftsman bungalow. She divides her time between Atlanta and her restored beach cottage on Tybee Island, GA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cut Above, May 24, 2001

By 

Born to Read (East Coast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Homemade Sin (Callahan Garrity Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

These may be considered cozies, but they have a distinct edge. The characters are fun, but also well developed, and the plots are decent. The characters and their personalities are complex. The books improve as they go along. I was panting for the last one, "Irish Eyes." I even bought the hardback. Am waiting for the next one. Begin at the beginning if you can, but not necessary.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Light, Enjoyable Read, September 25, 2000

By 

Jennifer Hall (Rockmart, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homemade Sin (Callahan Garrity Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I don't usually go for such light-hearted mysteries, I prefer more gore and murder. But I picked this up after a friend recommended it to me, and I was not disappointed. Having grown up in and around Atlanta my whole life, it was fun to read the fictional events and actually picture where they were taking place. I could just see where the murder occured, where Callihan lived and ate, where her relatives lived. I guess that was the most appealing thing about this book. You may have to live in Atlanta to truly like it.

That said, the story was quick and interesting. You know almost from the beginning 'whodunnit', but keep reading to see him get caught. I don't think this book was as close to the Tokars case as some may think, but there were some similarites. I picked this book up on Saturday morning and was done by the next day. I may read more of her books, if just to enjoy the local setting a bit more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quick and easy., October 30, 2001

By 

"bibliofiend" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Homemade Sin (Callahan Garrity Mysteries) (Hardcover)

The thing I enjoyed most about this book was the pace of the story. It didn't drag on and on with pages of boring details. Even though it was a fairly quick read, there was enough information about people's surroundings, the family connections, etc., to make it interesting and hold the reader's attention. As for the whodunnit, that was fairly easy to figure out, but it didn't take away from the book. I will definitely take the time to read more books by this author.