A Deadly Habit – 5 Stars

Andrea Sisco

Five Star, 2009, 270 Pages

ISBN No. 978-1594147951

Who is Penelope Santucci?  She’s not a Catholic although she tends to go to confession on occasion.  She is not a murderer although the police suspect she might have killed her husband.  She is fearless and determined to prove that although she was getting a divorce that she most certainly did not kill her husband.

She discovered her husband Paul’s body when she broke into his house to recover her belongings.  Being a good citizen, she did call the police and report what she found but she failed to give her name and she did disguise her voice.  After explaining all of this to Father Daniel Kopecky, he advises her that she had better get a lawyer and do it quickly.

Father Kopecky refers her to Mario Silva, a defense lawyer, who agrees to take the case as a favor to Father Kopecky.  Mario soon finds he has his hands full as Pen Santucci decides to head up her own investigation.

Pen manages to include not only Father Kopecky in her antics but gets her sister, Germaine, who is a real Catholic and a real Nun, to participate as well.   Pen takes her reader on a wild ride with never dull moment. 

Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid