"Despite their rocky history, Detective Claire Codella and Precinct Detective Brian Haggerty come together when senior churchwarden Philip Graves’s bloody body is found lying in the herb garden of historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side just two days before Good Friday. Upon first glance, it looks like a random act of big city violence, but it soon becomes clear churchwarden Philip’s death was the result of a meticulously calculated ploy by someone who knew him.

There are five vestry members and a choir director in addition to the ten homeless men asleep in the church basement. Any one of them could have done it, but what did Philip Graves do to warrant such a merciless death? Struggling to share the case and salvage their personal relationship, Claire, Brian and trusted Detective Eduardo Muñoz work around the clock to uncloak the desires, secrets, and resentments that find home through the iron gates and into the hidden beauty of one historic Romanesque church in Unholy City, the haunting third installment in Carrie Smith’s Claire Codella mysteries."

A church, a murder, a certain time of year... yeah, it's must read.

I'm glad to discover Carrie Smith's mysteries!!!! I could hardly put this book down, and the identity of the killer eluded me until the end. Those elements make me a fan wanting to read more of the series. Smith's talent for character development is impressive, and I especiallyenjoyed the interactions among Codella, Haggerty, and Munoz. As an Episcopalian who has served on a church vestry, I found most of the details about the church and its members to be accurate and an important part of plot development. I look forward to Codella and crew's next case!!

Unholy City
Carrie Smith
Crooked Lane Books
November 7, 2017

Review by Sheila Sobel

Secrets, lies and motives abound in the third book in Carrie Smith’s Claire Codella Mystery series. Three bodies and a plethora of suspects bring Detective Claire Codella, Detective Brian Haggerty and Detective Eduardo Muñoz back together again. The rector, the vestry members, the organist and the homeless men living in the church basement shelter find their lives under the microscopic lens of Detective Claire Codella in this fast-paced mystery set in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Still struggling with post-cancer perceptions of the fragile female and anxious to get back on top of her career, Claire inadvertently snatches the investigative lead on the murder of senior churchwarden Philip Graves from Detective Brian Haggerty, creating tension in both their professional and romantic relationships. As the story unfolds and the body count rises, the lives of the prime suspects unravel and long-standing church associations splinter.

Once again, Carrie Smith deftly weaves common issues which face women in the workplace together with an exciting who-dun-it.

For fans of Silent City and Forgotten City, books one and two in A Claire Codella Mystery series, Unholy City is a must-read. If one is new to the series, Unholy City quickly educates the reader to recurring characters. A good standalone, a terrific series.

This was a well-written drama that captured my attention immediately and I could not put this book down until it was all said and done. The pacing was on par with the ease in which this tightly woven story was told. The author did a great job in keeping all the suspects involved throughout giving each one a voice that was heard amidst all that was happening as the detectives worked their case. I liked the way the author directed the storyline so that systematically those secrets were exposed and would eventually lead to the revelation of the killer’s identity. Bonus to me was the outcome with her Lieutenant. This was one of the best in the series and I can’t wait to see where we go next with Codella and her friends.

The third Claire Codella mystery concerns the death of two members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church's vestry committee. Claire has a nice assortment of vestry members and the priest, Mother Anna, as suspects. Almost all of them had reasons why the death of Phillip Graves would be a blessing though not so much for the death of Emily Flounders. Each of them also has secrets that they are determined to keep.

As Codella, Haggerty and Munoz investigate, the suspects all try to keep their secrets. Meanwhile, Haggerty and Codella are still working on their personal relationship and Codella is dealing with a Lieutenant who is making her work life hard for her.

I liked that the story was told from a number of different viewpoints. I liked finding out some of the secrets the suspects were trying to hide before the police did. I liked seeing the dedication of the police officers as they tried to find out who killed Phillip Graves, Emily Flounders and later Stephanie Lund.

Codella is a nicely complex character whose dedication to her job as a homicide investigator grew out of her own past experiences. I liked that she was a cancer survivor forever changed by her experience.

Fans of police procedurals with nicely complex characters will enjoy this mystery.

4 stars

Philip Graves’ body was found in the garden of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan. Philip was a churchwarden at St. Paul’s.

Detective Claire Codella and Precinct Detective Brian Haggerty, in spite of their rather interesting relationship history (and the fact that they are sleeping together), are called to investigate the murder. It’s not the case of random street violence that it was originally thought. Instead it is a clear cut case of a cold and calculated stalking and murder by someone Philip knew. When another church member’s body is found inside her car, the tension mounts.

The suspect list is long. There are the combative and infighting vestry members. They can’t seem to have a civilized conversation. When called by the doctor to assist with Philip, they fight over the defibrillator and the fact that it’s not charged up.

As the police officers begin to interview the “suspects” they react with a wide variety of responses. Some are cooperative, some are combative and some are secretive. As the book goes on, they all seem to have secrets. They are busy scurrying behind the scenes scheming and planning to keep those secrets away from one another and the cops.

Codella and Haggerty weave back and forth interviewing and re-interviewing the church members until things begin to give. Interesting little factoids come out – and some secrets. The identification of the murderer is really no surprise, but getting there was sure an adventure.

This novel is well written and plotted. I truly enjoyed it. If you like reading about characters you love to hate, then this book is for you. What a despicable bunch of churchgoers, lol. The suspense starts immediately in this book and keeps the reader gripped until the last page. It was a very good read. This is my first Claire Codella novel, but I immediately went to Amazon to look at the other books in the series.

I want to thank Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advance copy of Unholy City, the third novel to feature detective Claire Codella of the Manhattan North Homicide Squad.

Claire is feeling jealous when her boyfriend, Brian Haggerty, is called out to a murder scene. Philip Graves has been found dead in the garden of St Paul's church. He soon realises that the investigation will be less than straightforward and calls in Claire to help.

I thoroughly enjoyed Unholy City. It has what can only be described as an old fashioned approach in that it is written from Claire's point of view, concentrates on solving the crime and the reader knows nothing more than the detectives. It's a puzzle as, in time honoured tradition, Philip Graves is not as lily white as his position in the church would suggest and most of the suspects, members of the church hierarchy, have reason to dislike him. I hadn't a clue about the perpetrator until the reveal as I swallowed all the false leads and information.

Again in a traditional vein Claire doesn't have her troubles to seek. She is the daughter of a murderer and has recovered from cancer. These facts do not crowd the novel but rather serve to inform her character. Her more pressing problem is the treatment she receives from Lieutenant McGowan who doesn't want her, the only woman, on his squad and is looking for an excuse to get rid of her. I loved their showdown as it shows Claire as a feisty, determined, tenacious detective who gets on well with most people.

The only thing thing I felt was a bit overdone is the nature of the secrets some of the characters were hiding. One in particular is very dramatic and would probably have been better as something less to demonstrate the pettiness of the murder.

Unholy City is a good read with interesting characters and an absorbing plot so I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Churchwarden Philip Graves’s body has been found in the herb garden of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan and while it seems at first to be a random killing, it soon proves to be anything but. Detectives Claire Codella and Brian Haggerty may not always see eye to eye, but they are willing to overlook their differences to solve this murder. With a number of homeless men sleeping in the church basement and a number of church elders who might benefit from Graves’s death, there’s no lack of suspects. Codella, Haggerty and fellow detective Eduardo Munoz dig in to find the killer. Smith’s book is full of such vividly described people and places that you can feel the tenseness of the atmosphere and the melancholy beauty of the old church