SUMMARY

Escaping the heat and heartbreak of New York City for a summer in rural Pennsylvania sounded like the perfect plan to Nicky D'Amico. Little did he know that what began as a heavenly idea would turn out to be a hell of a job!

Each year the nuns of rural St. Gilbert's College hire a city slicker to help with their summer theater festival. As the stage manager, Nicky has a lot to handle--a truly awful musical script, bickering school staff, a huge crush on the cute guy in the chorus but things are about to get a whole lot worse. Convent of Fear, the school's play, features a serial nun killer. When several cast members are murdered, the mystery moves from the stage to real life. With its suspenseful plot, loveable characters, and laugh-out-loud humor, A Habit for Death is one habit you won't want to break.

REVIEWS

"For those theater aficionados among you, Carnegie Mellon drama graduate and San Diego theater director Chuck Zito has crafted his first (hopefully of many) Nicky D'Amico mystery, A Habit for Death. Nicky thinks he has scored an easy summer gig when he escapes the New York theater rat race to become stage-manager for a summer theater festival at a rural Pennsylvania college. Summer stock turns to summer schlock turns to stark reality, as Nicky and his crew work toward a denouement that features plenty of hilarity along the way."

"Zito's background in theatre is clearly an asset--he has a great ear for dialogue and the ability to set believable scenes both in the theatre and out...laugh until you weep you will find A Habit for Death a mystery worth reading."

"The panache of theater director Zito's debut augurs well for a lively series."