Publication Date: February 21, 2023
When Saint Sebastian’s School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos.
Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn’t satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way. And to piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must at last reckon with the sins of her own past.
An exciting start to a bold series that breathes new life into the hard-boiled genre, Scorched Grace is a fast-paced and punchy whodunnit that will keep readers guessing until the very end.
Sister Holiday is far from a typical nun, but that doesn’t stop her from investigating an arson fire at Saint Sebastian’s School.
Author Margot Douaihy introduces readers to Sister Holiday in Scorched Grace. It is the first installment in Sister Holiday Mystery.
Told in first person through Sister Holiday’s voice, New Orleans and Saint Sebastian’s School are brought to life. As a former punk rocker, Sister Holiday bucks tradition with her tattoos and propensity for an occasional cigarette. Her queerness plays a role in her resolving issues from the past.
The author’s writing style is dynamic, with a skilled approach to building each chapter. Someone is responsible for the fire. Frustrated that the formal investigation is stalling, Sister Holiday starts her own investigation, leading to a powerful “whodunit” where everyone is a suspect.
Scorched Grace is, at times, irreverent and laugh-out-loud hilarious, but it delivers an interesting mystery with an unforgettable cast of characters.
Margot Douaihy is a Lebanese American originally from Scranton, PA, now living in Northampton, MA. She received her PhD in creative writing from the University of Lancaster in the UK. She is the author of the poetry collections Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, Scranton Lace, and Girls Like You. She is a founding member of the Creative Writing Studies Organization and an active member of Sisters in Crime and the Radius of Arab American Writers. A recipient of the Mass Cultural Council’s Artist Fellowship, she was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, Aesthetica Magazine’s Creative Writing Award, and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation’s Hemingway Shorts. Her writing has been featured in Queer Life, Queer Love; Colorado Review; Diode Editions; The Florida Review; North American Review; PBS NewsHour; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Portland Review; Wisconsin Review; and elsewhere. Margot teaches creative writing at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH, where she also serves as the editor of the Northern New England Review. As a coeditor of the Elements in Crime Narrative Series with Cambridge University Press, she strives to reshape crime writing scholarship, with a focus on the contemporary, the future, inclusivity, and decoloniality.
