Back in the Habit: A Falcone & Driscoll Investigation

Loweecey’s entertaining second mystery featuring PI Giulia Falcone (after 2011’s Force of Habit) takes ex-nun Giulia back to exactly where she doesn’t want to be—the convent she left a year and half earlier. Giulia’s nemesis, Sister Mary Fabian, superior general of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Greater Pittsburgh (aka “the Puppet Master”), hires her to go undercover to determine the truth behind a young novice’s suicide. Giulia, confronted with her old demons, real and imagined, soon realizes that donning the habit is messing with her mind as much as the mysterious behavior of the dead novice. Outside the convent, she struggles to adjust to her new life, which includes a burgeoning romance with her present boss, Frank Driscoll. The well-paced plot and intriguing inside look at convent life more than compensate for the heroine’s often distracting internal dialogue and some over-the-top villains. Agent: Kent Wolf, Global Literary Agency. (Feb.)