Thursday, December 15, 2016

ARC Review: Forgotten City by Carrie Smith

Forgotten City
Author: Carrie Smith
Series: A Claire Codella Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (December 13, 2016)

Description: NYPD Detective Claire Codella is chomping at the bit for a new case. Lieutenant McGowan is determined to keep her out of the news, but she’s about to be back in the public eye in a big way.

Broadway legend Lucy Merchant has tragically succumbed to early onset Alzheimer’s. At age fifty-six, she’s tucked away in the dementia care unit of the ultra-exclusive Manhattan care facility Park Manor. When she falls asleep and doesn’t wake up, her billionaire husband is ready for the funeral, but her daughter demands an investigation.

Only three months back on the job after cancer treatment, Codella finds herself at the center of a high profile case nearly everyone--especially her lieutenant--wants to shut down. But the forensic evidence raises alarming questions and Codella needs answers. To find them, she will have to crack the defenses of slippery administrators, frightened caregivers, and unobliging family members, all while unlocking some of her own dark memories.

Forgotten City, Carrie Smith’s gripping follow-up to Silent City, pits the unrelenting detective against a cast of diverse New Yorkers driven by their desires and ambitions and haunted by their pasts. But can she piece together the truth before the murderer kills again?

My Thoughts: FORGOTTEN CITY is the second Claire Codella mystery. This time the case begins when a young woman comes to her with suspicions about her mother's death. Julia Merchant isn't convinced that her mother, famous Broadway star Lucy Merchant, died of complications from her dementia.

Claire decides to look into it and begins her investigation at the exclusive Park Manor nursing facility where she meets all sorts of characters with their own agendas and secrets. Constance Hodges is the director of the facility and enjoys the opportunity to meet with New York's movers and shakers and hides a secret drinking problem. Brandon Johnson is Lucy's primary caregiver. He is transgender and dealing with all those issues while trying to get his degree and a job as a respiratory therapist. Baiba Lielkaja is in charge of the memory care unit and is conducting a secret affair with Lucy's husband financier Thomas Merchant.

This book is told in alternate viewpoints from a number of characters and follows Codella's investigation which is mostly hindered by her Lieutenant who seems to resent her success and is constantly bringing up her battle with cancer. Her life is also complicated by her developing relationship with Brian Haggerty who is a fellow police officer with an interesting past of his own.

The mystery was intriguing as were the well-developed characters. I can't wait to read more Claire Codella adventures.

Favorite Quote:
Were any diseases purely accidental, she wondered as she took a bite, or were they all blueprinted in the primordial language of DNA the moment your life began? She had experienced the awfulness of the body's betrayal. But how could that begin to compare with the mind's?
I got this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

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