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Longtime favorite sleuth and priest Father Blackie Ryan is now a bishop who is quite possibly headed for retirement. He is called to one of his inner city neighborhood parishes where three bodies are found in front of the altar, brutally murdered and mutilated. The church and school, old as they are, contain a state-of-the-art computerized surveillance system that is supposed to be unbreachable by the most sophisticated hackers. How were the bodies of the three illegal aliens, who had been killed elsewhere, dragged into the sanctuary without tripping the alarms or being seen on the cameras?
A special ops squad of the Chicago Police Department, headed by Dragon Lady Captain Huong, is assigned the covert task of discovering the hacker and tracking down the unknown suspects. Suspicions arise, pointing to possible Al Qaeda terrorists, local drug lords, illegal alien smugglers, or revenge. Dashing young police lieutenant Declan O'Donnell, the Dragon Lady's Number One Boy, is assigned to the undercover electronic search for the murderers.
The community is in the throes of gentrification. The mid-1970s had experienced white flight as blockbusting drove middle class whites into the suburbs. The nature of the neighborhood changed but successfully settled into a racially diverse community with thriving businesses and good schools. Pockets of crime were beginning to develop in some areas, however, and enterprising developers were creating plans to tear down older buildings and homes to appeal to younger, white, successful business people who wanted to live closer to their work in Chicago's loop. Huge condominium clusters, upscale McMansions, and rehabilitated older homes would drive the racially mixed community out to the suburbs because they couldn't afford the higher rents and property taxes. Tensions were high, and the confusion caused by the grisly killings were resulting in upheaval in the local police department, Chicago PD, FBI, and even Homeland Security.
Blackie's Cardinal dispatches him to investigate the atrocities and reconsecrate the church and school. Threats are directed at Blackie and the parish priest, a former Polish prince with great charisma and power in the parish. The plot thickens as Blackie is directed to a long-sealed letter from his late father, detailing events of over sixty years ago that may shed light on the perpetrators.
THE BISHOP IN THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD is a satisfying, page-turning, locked door mystery that finds Andrew Greeley in his prime. All the elements of his longtime bestselling mysteries are present --- a touch of romance and Blackie's own self-effacing humor and sense of place are all here. St. Lucy's was the church where Andrew Greeley was baptized, and while the community in the book is fictional, effects of gentrification on inner cities is as current and accurate as the front pages of your newspaper.
--- Reviewed by Roz Shea
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