Helen Reilly


Helen Reilly, was an American mystery writer known for a series of novels featuring Inspector Christopher McKee, head of the fictitious Manhattan Homicide Squad. She wrote mostly under her own name but also under the pseudonym Kieran Abbey. A member of the Mystery Writers of America, she served as its president in 1953.
Born Helen Kieran in New York City in 1891, she attended Hunter College, graduating in 1914. In that same year, she married Paul Reilly, an artist. Two of their four daughters, Ursula Curtiss and Mary McMullen, also became published mystery writers.
Reilly died on January 11, 1962, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was preceded in death by her husband in 1944.

Inspector McKee series

As Kieran Abbey