Sister Holiday Walsh

Created by Margot Douaihy

In her debut, 2023’s Scorched Grace, SISTER HOLIDAY, a young nun with the Sisters of the Sublime Blood order in New Orleans,  proved herself to be a particularly effective amateur sleuth. Seems she has a thing about unanswered questions.

And isn’t that what faith is, really? The unsolvable mystery?

But this Sister ain’t no ordinary nun — she’s gay, surprisingly mouthy and smokes like a chimney when nobody’s looking, her body’s covered with tats, and she sports a gold tooth and a punk rock past.

So there.

The book wowed almost everyone, including USA Today, the New York Times, and TheGuardian, and was nominated for numerous awards, and so the inevitable  sequel, Blessed Water (2024), eased those amateur sleuth concerns by having the infinitely curious good Sister scoring a private investigator’s apprentice certificate, and joining her pal Magnolia’s Redemption Detective Agency.

Not that she’s given up on intentions to take her vows with the Order, but Christ, you know it ain’t easy.

It’ll be interesting to see how far this nun will fly.

UNDER OATH

• “The book critiqued institutions, foregrounded sexuality and retained some lyricism, without losing the compulsive page-turning playfulness of a breezy read . . . its prose would set Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade or Robert B. Parker’s Spenser at ease.”
  ― Christopher Borrelli (Chicago Tribune) on Scorched Grace
• “One chapter into Margot Douaihy’s Scorched Grace and you’ll be ready to follow Sister Holiday wherever her instincts take her. Vibrant, crackling and deliciously insubordinate, it’s a mystery full of trapdoors and surprises but with a keen emotional force that leaves you shaken, hooked.”
  — Megan Abbott on Scorched Grace
• “Sister Holiday is the best kind of detective: unafraid of the darkest parts of human nature, and yet constantly seeking the best in others. Douaihy blends edgy counterculture with sincere faith, violence and nihilism with genuine yearning for human connection, and grit with hope, all in one hell of a mystery.”
  — Gillian Flynn on Blessed Water
• “Douaihy follows up Scorched Grace with another deliriously enjoyable, relentlessly plotted adventure… This series continues to impress.”
  — Publishers Weekly on Blessed Water
• “Margot Douaihy… combines a poet’s soul and an artist’s eye with a powerful and strong authorial voice to create layered, complex characters involved in a story so well paced you cannot put it down. I am already hungry for her next book!”
  — Greg Herren on Blessed Water
  “My favorite PI series transport you to a setting unlike any other and feature unforgettable, flawed, and diverse characters in central roles. Margot Douaihy’s latest, Blessed Water, is all these things and more, bringing readers deeper into Sister Holiday’s complicated world with confidence and lyricism. A potent blend of dark noir and the travails of a tainted knight detective, Blessed Water is a one-way ticket to a New Orleans you could only imagine. A poised and unique novel.”
  ― Alex Segura on Blessed Water

NOVELS

• Scorched Grace (2023) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• Blessed Water (2024) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• Divine Ruin (2026) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Oneil’s Big Easy y Favorites
  And Other Louisiana Eyes

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.