Summers at the Saint

Mary Kay Andrews is the pen name of best-selling American author Kathy Hogan Trocheck. Trocheck studied journalism at the University of Georgia and worked for several newspapers, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, before publishing her first novel in 1992. After writing 10 mysteries under her legal name, Trocheck adopted the pen name Mary Kay Andrews for Savannah Blues (2002), a women-focused mystery set in the American South. These elements have become her trademarks; as Andrews, Trocheck averaged a novel a year. After Hissy Fit (2006) became a New York Times bestseller, Trocheck’s earlier Callahan Garrity series, featuring amateur sleuth Weezie, was republished under the name Mary Kay Andrews.

Several of the Andrews novels are connected: Savannah Blues, Savannah Breeze (2006), Blue Christmas (2006), and Christmas Bliss (2013) are all Weezie mysteries; Change of Scene (2016) is the prequel to Beach Town (2015). The novels are often referred to as beach reads; often center on the holiday season, which features in Bright Lights, Big Christmas and the short story “Holiday Hideaway” (both 2024); and incorporate a romance subplot alongside the central mystery, as in Summers at the Saint and Homewreckers (2022). The novels are often set in the American South, particularly in the states of Georgia or Florida, and highlight regional culture.

Andrews is one of the members of Friends & Fiction, a podcast and online community comprising other Southern women’s fiction authors; she also published The Beach House Cookbook in 2017.