Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of A Deadly Habit by Andrea Sisco. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
A Deadly Habit by Andrea Sisco
A Penelope Santucci Mystery
Five Star (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59414-795-7 (1594147957)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59414-795-1 (9781594147951)
Publication Date: July 2009
List Price: $25.95
Review: Andrea Sisco introduces Twin Cities probation officer Pen Santucci, who's trying to avoid being arrested for the murder of her ex-husband, in A Deadly Habit.
Pen, short for Penelope, had broken in to her ex-husband's house to retrieve among other things her first edition of Sue Grafton's A is for Alibi, a book definitely worth committing a felony for, when she stumbles over the body of the former man of her dreams. As a probation officer she knows a thing or two about how the law works, and realizes she will be suspect number one (and maybe suspect number only one). She asks a local priest she's known since childhood for help, which arrives in the form of a high-powered attorney, Marco Silva. While Marco does his best keeping Pen out of jail, Pen does her best to discover who killed her ex ... and why.
A Deadly Habit is one of those books that can be defined by its opening line; if it causes the reader to grin, it's definitely worth reading on: "'It's been seventeen years since my last confession, Father.' I didn't bother to add 'and seven months and thirteen days.' It didn't make a difference since I'm not Catholic." Pen is almost the very definition of irreverent, but in a respectful way. If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, it is ... and so is Pen. This is really a character-driven mystery, the character being Pen.
Though Pen's ex was a successful, if less than totally ethical, attorney, there should be no shortage of people who might want him dead. Yet it isn't until halfway through the book that credible suspects are introduced. For some, that may be a little too long to wait for the whodunit element to get started. Still, Pen is a personable companion to pass the time with and her antics in A Deadly Habit will keep many smiling throughout.
Special thanks to Andrea Sisco for providing an ARC of A Deadly Habit for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
If you are interested in purchasing A Deadly Habit from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.
Synopsis (from the publisher): When Probation Officer, Penelope (Pen) Santucci was a child, she dreamt of being a nun. She dressed in bed sheets and roller-skated regularly into the confessional of Father Daniel Kopecky. There she bared her soul, fabricating sins only a precocious eight-year-old could invent. As a twenty-seven-year-old woman, she's doing the same thing, sans the roller skates and bed sheets. Only this time, she isn't inventing stories. She's confessing her involvement in a murder; a murder she didn't commit, but one in which she is the most promising suspect.
Wisecracking, safecracking Pen lures an elderly priest and a young nun into committing felonies on their wild search for the truth. Hardly appropriate behavior for the dedicated probation officer, but while Pen believes in her job, she has little faith in the justice system. Unfortunately, Pen digs herself deeper into trouble and straight into a muddy grave, dragging her sexy attorney in with her. If they ever get out of it alive, he plans to wring her neck himself. That is, if the thugs who are after the money she found don't get her first.
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