Scorched Grace

Starred review from December 5, 2022
Sister Holiday Walsh, the narrator of poet Douaihy’s stunning fiction debut and series launch, calls herself “the first punk nun.” This cursing, chain-smoking queer nun who wears gloves and a heavy scarf to hide her tattoos is unlike any nun encountered on the page or in real life. Yet Holiday is most sincere about her faith in God, her devotion to the Catholic Church, and finding a home among the Sisters of the Sublime Blood in New Orleans. When Saint Sebastian’s School where she teaches is targeted by an arson attack in which a beloved janitor dies, Holiday turns sleuth to find the attacker and save the school, which is in danger of being closed by the diocese. More fires—and deaths—occur as Holiday’s investigation heats up, pitting her against her fellow sisters and staff. Given her background, she becomes a prime suspect. This briskly plotted master class in character development makes the most of its New Orleans setting, “the crucible... of miracles and curses.” Douaihy (Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr) is off to a terrific start. Agent: Laura Macdougall, United Agents.

January 1, 2023
Let's face it, Sister Holiday--openly queer and heavily tattooed--is not your grandmother's nun. And yet here she is in New Orleans, a nun of the Order of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood. And, oh, yes, she is a self-styled detective to boot, working unofficially on a sensational case. There has been a terrible fire at Saint Sebastian School, and one of the custodians died in the conflagration. A case of arson, with the burning question being, Who set the blaze? The stakes are raised when there is a second fire, and one of the nuns is found dead, not from burns but from falling down a staircase--or was she pushed? Douaihy handles these questions with aplomb, though there are invitations to suspend disbelief, and readers will tire of reading about how hot it is in New Orleans and how much the characters sweat. That said, Holiday is an interesting character, and her story is well plotted--a good thing, since this is obviously going to be a series. Next!

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February 1, 2023
A nun with a wild past investigates crimes close to home. Sister Holiday has a somewhat unusual background for a Catholic nun: former punk musician, lesbian with a chaotic romantic history, enthusiastic substance abuser, and survivor of family tragedy. But she's been welcomed into the tiny order of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood (total members: four nuns) and is doing her best at "serving the impossible truth of queer piety" as a music teacher at a struggling parochial school in New Orleans. Then someone sets a fire at the school that results in serious injuries to two students and the death of one of the school's janitors. Sister Holiday is horrified but also galvanized--she's determined to solve the crime despite having no background in investigation. As the number of suspects multiplies, more fires and more deaths occur, and Sister Holiday's mission becomes more urgent. All of this adds up to a promising premise, but it never gels. Sister Holiday is terrible at investigation, mishandling physical evidence and hiding it from the police, and quickly becomes a prime suspect herself. The plot often stalls, the tone veers from zany to noir to confessional, and seemingly important characters disappear without explanation. The book does little with its New Orleans setting except remind the reader every few pages that it's hot and humid there, and that's just one repetitious element in the prose. Sister Holiday can be an engaging narrator, but she deserves a better book. The main character is intriguing, but she's not enough to lift this muddled debut.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2023

DEBUT The first novel by poet Douaihy, coeditor of Cambridge's Elements in Crime Narratives series, features punk rocker--turned--music teacher Sister Holiday, the only chain-smoking, tattooed, queer nun of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood in New Orleans, who tends to confiscate her students' cigarettes. She's sneaking a smoke in the alley beside the convent when the school erupts in fire and the janitor's flaming body drops from a second-floor window. Sister Holiday rushes in, finds two students trapped in a classroom, and helps save them. When she overhears the fire investigator declaring the blaze an arson, Sister Holiday turns investigator to expose the firebug; though she never went to college, her father was a cop, and she's read plenty of old PI novels. Then the police rule a second death accidental, and Sister Holiday concludes that only she cares enough to find the arsonist who seems determined to shut down her small religious order. VERDICT The first book from suspense novelist Gillian Flynn's imprint at Zando. Sister Holiday's violent, sexually provocative past life and her current language and behavior might be too outrageous for some readers, but the series has already been acquired for a prestige-television adaptation.--Lesa Holstine

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