While walking home from a marriage counseling session, Tracy Newman stumbles across a dead body lying in the middle of the St. Margaret's Church driveway. The body has a knife in its back, and Tracy runs to the police department for help. As the medical examiner looks at the body, he believes the cause of death to be a cracked skull. It appears that the person was killed then the body was moved to the church driveway where the person stuck a knife in its back. Why would the body be moved?

Tom Holder is the Harton police chief and a member of St. Margaret's Church. They very rarely have crime, and now they have a murderer on the loose. Once the body is identified as Mason Blaine, the head of the Spanish department at Harton University, they have no shortage of suspects. Blaine was not a well-liked man. There are the members of his department whom would benefit from his death with promotions and tenures, there are his students whom he treated as slaves, and there are the women whom he appeared to have aplenty. Which of these people could have killed him?

Kathryn Koerney is a priest and teaches at the Seminary. Since she has connections with the University, she helps Tom, a beloved friend, with his investigation into the murder of Mason Blaine. As they uncover more clues, they realize that the true target may not have been Mason Blaine. That in fact, he was killed to throw the investigation away from the true target. Who is the murderer really after? Will they find the killer before another person has to die?

Christina Sumners has written a wonderful mystery. Her characters are likable and easy to relate to. Tom and Kathryn make great partners for a by the book police chief and a not so by the book priest. FAMILIAR FRIEND is a fun and entertaining read. This is the third book in the series, and I am looking forward to a fourth.