Mary Kay Andrews Books: The Ultimate Author Guide

If you love books that combine romance, mystery, and Southern charm, then look no further! In this ultimate reading guide to Mary Kay Andrews’s books, we’ll provide an overview of her three decades worth of writing.

Table of Contents

• Best Mary Kay Andrews Books Ranked
• Mary Kay Andrews New Book for 2024
• Printable Mary Kay Andrews Book List
• Mary Kay Andrews Books in Order
• Mary Kay Andrews Series Books
• Mary Kay Andrews’ Newest Christmas Book
• Are there any Mary Kay Andrews Movies?
• Authors Like Mary Kay Andrews
• Mary Kay Andrews Biography

Full Table of ContentsShow Less

Mary Kay Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels, several short stories, and one cookbook. She is celebrated for the unique blend of Southern charm, wit, and warmth in her beach read and mystery novels. Her vivid depictions of Southern life and landscapes create distinctive backdrops for her books, with many set in Florida and Georgia.

Printable Mary Kay Andrews Book List

Looking for a printable version of this chronological Mary Kay Andrews book list? Our Buy Me a Coffee BFFs have access to a cute two-page printable tracker featuring the covers of all her novels! Join our membership site today for instant access to your copy, along with some other fun perks!

Mary Kay Andrews Series Books

At the start of her writing career, Mary Kay Andrews published two series of books under her real name. Writing as Kathy Hogan Troucheck, she penned the Callahan Garrity series and the Truman Kicklighter series. These books have since been republished under her Mary Kay Andrew pen name. Additionally, after adopting the pseudonym, she also wrote a 4-book series called Weezie & Bebe.

More Mary Kay Andrews Christmas Books

If you enjoy books set around the holidays, don’t miss Mary Kay Andrews’s other Christmas books. We highly recommend The Santa Suit (which our readers ranked one of their favorite Mary Kay Andrews books, as noted above). 

Two of the four books in Mary Kay’s Weezie and Bebe series are set at Christmas, Blue Christmas and Christmas Bliss. While these holiday books can be read as standalones, they are better enjoyed after Savannah Blues and Savannah Breeze. 

The seventh book in the Callahan Garrity series, titled Midnight Clear, is less of a Christmas book, and more a story that happens to be set during the week of Christmas. It can be read as a standalone, and it’s a great pick if you enjoy seasonally set stories, but don’t necessarily want to read a book specifically about the holiday. This mystery involves a custody dispute, a young mother who has been murdered, and a deadbeat father who is eager to redeem himself. 

One of the short-story sequels to the Callahan Garrity series, Fatal Fruitcake, is also set at Christmastime. This one is very short and is probably best enjoyed by those who have read other books in the series. As an added bonus, the story also includes Mary Kay Andrews’s personal recipe for a not-so-fatal fruitcake.

If you are looking for more fun, standalone Christmas books, check out the following lists:
Best Christmas Books for Adults
Best Christmas Romance Books 2022
Hallmark Christmas Movies Base on Books

Are there any Mary Kay Andrews Movies?

Mary Kay Andrews was one of the writers for the 2019 Hallmark Christmas, Merry & Bright, starring Jodie Sweetin, Andrew Walker, and Sharon Lawrence. In response to questions from fans on Facebook, Andrews said the film was based on one of her short stories that was “not in print… yet.” If and when the story is published, we’ll be first in line to read it. But in the meantime, you can stream this Mary Kay Andrews Hallmark movie on Hallmark Movies Now, or purchase it on DVD.

Authors Like Mary Kay Andrews

Mary Kay Andrews is the queen of mixing beach reads with an element of mystery, but sometimes one new book a year from your favorite authors just isn’t enough. That’s why we’ve put together a list of authors similar to Mary Kay Andrews that we think you’ll want to add to your TBR list.

If You Like Beachy Reads With a Side of Mystery

For more page-turning, beachy mysteries, authors similar to Mary Kay Andrews in this genre include Jennifer Weiner and Elin Hilderbrand.  

Jennifer Weiner’s novels span a variety of literary styles, but we especially enjoy her recent summery novels set in Cap Cod, Massachusetts. We particularly enjoyed the mystery element of Big Summer, in which plus-size influencer Daphne suddenly finds herself a murder suspect after attending a fancy society wedding on the Cape.

Elin Hilderbrand has an incredible backlist of beach reads, with most set against the backdrop of Nantucket, off the coast of Maine. Her stories explore themes such as love, friendship, and sometimes mystery. Several Hilderbrand titles that stand out specifically for their mystery elements include The Hotel Nantucket, Golden Girl, and the three books in the Paradise Series (set in the US Virgin Islands).

Some of Mary Kay Andrews’s books fit into the “cozy mystery” subgenre. If you’re not familiar with this term, “cozies” are mysteries that don’t take themselves too seriously. They are less graphic, scary, and intense than other books in the mystery genre. They allow readers to enjoy a murder mystery without too much violence or darkness, instead mixing in humor and light suspense. If this describes everything you love about books by Mary Kay Andrews, you’ll want to check out our curated list of Summer Cozy Mysteries Set on the Beach. Or, if you want to explore beyond the beachy vibes, we also have several other cozy lists for you to pursue, including Culinary Cozy Mysteries.

If You Like the Southern Setting

Mary Kay Andrews’s books are primarily set in coastal Florida and Georgia. If you enjoy this setting, we recommend Kristy Woodson Harvey and Mary Alice Monroe.

Kristy Woodson Harvey, who Elin Hilderbrand called “a major new voice in Southern fiction,” is the bestselling author of ten novels. Her books are set in coastal towns and dripping with southern charm. Her newest book is The Summer of Songbirds, in which four women come together to save the summer camp that means so much to them. Woodson is also the author of the popular Peachtree Bluff series, which is currently in development with NBC.

Mary Alice Monroe is the best-selling author of more than 25 novels, and she has been inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors’ Hall of Fame. She uses her writing as a way to champion the preservation of the coastal southern landscape. She does extensive academic research regarding the fragile wildlife habitats in this region and works with wildlife experts to incorporate this into her novels. If you are new to her work, a great place to start is her beloved Beach House Series or her Lowcountry Summer series.

Kristy Woodson Harvey, Mary Alice Monroe, and Mary Kay Andrews, together with two other bestselling authors, run a Facebook Group called “Friends and Fiction.” Each Wednesday evening, they do a Facebook Live to chat about books, their current reads, and their favorite independent bookstores.

If You Share Mary Kay Andrews’s Passion for Renovating Old Homes

When she’s not writing, Mary Kay Andrews enjoys flipping houses and antique hunting. Two of her most popular books, according to the vote of our readers, are The Homewreckers and The Fixer Upper. Both of these books fall into a fun subgenre called “Renovation Romance.” Some of our favorites in this category include The Beach Trap by Ali Brady (set in Destin, Florida), The Spring House by Mary Ellen Taylor (set on Virginia’s eastern shore), and The Suite Spot by Trish Doller (set on an island in Lake Erie). 

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand, which we mentioned above for its mystery element, also has a fun renovation element surrounding the historic Nantucket Hotel.

MARY KAY ANDREWS IS THE PEN NAME FOR KATHY HOGAN TROUCHECK

Beginning in the early 1990s, the author now known as Mary Kay Andrews, published her first novels under her given name, Kathy Hogan Troucheck. These early works were mysteries making up two distinct series. You’ll find more about the eight-book Callahan Garrity mystery series and the two-book Truman Kicklighter series below.

In 2002, she assumed her pen name with the publication of Savannah Blues. Since that time, her early books have been republished and remarketed under her Mary Kay Andrews pseudonym.

Mary Kay Andrews Biography

Mary Kay Andrews was born Kathy Hogan Trocheck on July 27, 1954. Originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, she graduated from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She began her journalism career at the Savannah Morning News and later worked for The Marietta Journal and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In 1992, after 14 years as a journalist, she published her first novel, “Every Crooked Nanny,” featuring the character Callahan Garrity. This was the first in a decade-long series that she wrote under her real name before adopting the pen name of Mary Kay Andrews in 2002. Three decades after launching her fiction career, she has penned more than 30 books that have regularly appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list.

She is married to her high school sweetheart, Tom Trocheck, and together they had two children, Katie and Andy. Tragically her her daughter passed away in 2022 at the age of just 39. But she gets great joy from spoiling her grandchildren!

She splits her time between her homes in Atlanta and on Tybee Island, off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. In Tybee, she and Tom have restored two beach homes that they call The Breeze Inn and Ebbtide, named after fiction places in her novels. Both of these houses are available for rent through Tybee Vacation Rentals.

When she’s not writing, Andrews has a passion for cooking and antiques – both interests that often find their way into her novels. She enjoys renovating houses and seeking out treasures to fill them with. She’s known for hosting book launches and other social events that reflect the culture and cuisine of the South, which serve as testaments to her commitment to the region’s charm and hospitality.