Scorched Grace

A tatted, gold-toothed Catholic nun without a filter who solves crimes? Yes, please!

Thank you, Margot Douaihy, for conjuring a devilishly entertaining amateur sleuth with an almighty irreverence for playing by the rules. I love this book for its quirky-and-them-some cast of characters, smart and sassy dialogue, and clever plot that unfolded to keep me at the edge of the pew.

Praise be that Sister Holiday (the book’s hero) is fronting a series! I am hooked!

New Orleans is a favorite city of mine, for its clammy claustrophobic parishes as much as its rollicking good times and extraordinary food. Scorched Grace delivers richly textured excursions into the heat and bent psyche of New Orleans, in a story led by Sister Holiday, a tattooed lesbian nun with grunge rocker vibes.

This exciting twist on noir and amateur sleuth tropes was fun, harrowing, heart-opening, and satisfying.

Sister Holiday is the sort of queer protagonist I yearn to read. She's full of contradictions—anger and warmth, thoughtfulness and rebelliousness, physical yearning and spiritual earnestness—and she is dedicated to solving a series of deadly arsons at Saint Sebastian's School in New Orleans, a setting equally full of these contradictions.

I connected with her, as many other readers have, queer or otherwise, because she's constantly navigating this in-between space by doing the hard work of solving a crime and seeking justice, so perhaps, she can resolve some of these contradictions. Does she in the end? Well, you'll have to read… show more.

I have never read anything like this before or encountered a main character as intriguing as Sister Holiday.

The mystery is tightly plotted and satisfying and the characters full of suspicion and secrets. The descriptions of New Orleans give a really immersive experience to the book. But mostly I love Sister Holiday – and being a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed queer nun turned amateur detective – how could you not?

Margot and I were roommates at the wonderful Monson Arts Residency, and I heard a lot about this book before I ever read it - although I am admittedly biased, it did not disappoint.

Margot’s protagonist, the queer, chain-smoking, Sister Holiday, will disabuse you of any preconceived notion of what a nun is supposed to do or be. My favorite stories are about people who have failed themselves or the people they love, and are trying to do better. Yes, this is a crime story, but it’s also one of hope and redemption - with humor.

You must immerse yourself… show more.

I immediately fell for the premise of Scorched Grace—a lesbian, chain-smoking, tattooed, former punk-rocker nun—becomes an amateur sleuth when a series of fires threatens her school.

Then this mystery novel went deeper than I expected, following two intriguing questions: who’s setting the fires and how did Sister Holiday end up in a convent? Both storylines do something important and compelling: expose the extreme traumas that women can suffer and show us the ways they survive.

I can’t wait to see what Sister Holiday is up to next.