Blessed water

"Sister Holiday is back with a newly minted PI apprentice certificate, a twisty mystery to solve, and something to prove. Tattooed from her neck to her toes, and sporting a gold tooth as sharp as her wisecracks, Sister Holiday struggles to stay on the righteous path. Never one to make things easy for herself, she's committed to taking her permanent vows with the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and joining former fire inspector Magnolia Riveaux's latest venture, Redemption Detective Agency--both in service of satisfying her eternal quest for answers. When Sister Holiday and Riveaux are stood up by their very first client, they arrive at the rendezvous location, only to find the body of a priest floating in the swollen Mississippi River, and with it, Redemption's next case. It's significantly more gruesome than their original mission to catch a philandering husband in the act, but Sister Holiday feels called on by God to hunt down the murderer and keep her community safe. As a torrential rainstorm drowns New Orleans for three harrowing days over Easter weekend, Sister Holiday and Riveaux uncover extortion, murder, kidnapping, and corruption. With the stakes rising alongside the relentless floodwaters, Sister Holiday finds herself into the deep end yet again. Solving this puzzle will require divine intervention." --

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	MYSTERY DOU	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	MYSTERY DOU	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Sister Holiday is back with a newly minted PI apprentice certificate, a twisty mystery to solve, and something to prove in this fast-paced, blistering follow-up to Scorched Grace .

Tattooed from her neck to her toes and sporting a gold tooth as sharp as her wisecracks, Sister Holiday struggles to stay on the righteous path. Never one to make things easy for herself, she's committed to taking her permanent vows with the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and joining former fire inspector Magnolia Riveaux's latest venture, Redemption Detective Agency--both in service of satisfying her eternal quest for answers.

When Sister Holiday and Riveaux set out to bust a philandering husband, they instead find the body of a priest floating in the swollen Mississippi River, and with it, Redemption's next case. It's significantly more gruesome than their original mission, but Sister Holiday feels called on by God to hunt down the murderer and keep her community safe.

As a torrential rainstorm drowns New Orleans for three harrowing days over Easter weekend, Sister Holiday and Riveaux follow the clues. With the stakes rising alongside the relentless floodwaters, our favorite punk nun-sleuth throws herself into the deep end yet again.

A lacerating and lyrical plunge into obsession, deception, and the questions that hold us captive, Blessed Water is a lights-out mystery that will leave you breathless.

Author Notes

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 is an Assistant Professor in Popular Fiction Writing & Literature with Emerson College in Boston. 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.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Douaihy follows up Scorched Grace with another deliriously enjoyable, relentlessly plotted adventure for chain-smoking "punk nun" Sister Holiday Walsh. Sister Holiday spends her days teaching music at Saint Sebastian's School in New Orleans, and her nights operating the newly established Redemption Detective Agency alongside former fire inspector Magnolia Riveaux. After a potential client stands the women up for a consultation, they stumble on a priest's corpse floating in the Mississippi River. They go straight to the police, who hire the Redemption detectives to aid with the investigation. Over a rain-soaked three-day Easter weekend, Magnolia and Sister Holiday uncover a trail of secrets that may be linked to both the murder and the disappearance of the parish's other priest--and that could mean danger for more clergy members if they don't act fast. Douaihy is more concerned with Sister Holiday's faith in this entry (a key subplot involves her preparing to take her final vows), but there's still plenty of local color and high-stakes action to keep fans of the first book on board, and the mystery itself is even more gripping this time out. This series continues to impress. Agent: Laura Macdougall, United Agents. (Mar.)

Booklist Review

Readers who first encountered Sister Holiday in Scorched Grace (2023) will be eager to ride along on her second adventure. But even series newbies can jump right in, the water is . . . everywhere. New Orleans is under siege from an epic rainstorm. Recently apprenticed as a PI in the newly formed Redemption Detective Agency, Sister Holiday braves the deluge to keep an appointment with her first customer and finds the mutilated body of her parish priest floating in the local marina. The sleuthing begins, made more interesting by the fact that the former punk-rocking, cigarette-sneaking Sister Holiday is not the typical recruit of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood order. She's young, queer, abundantly tattooed, and haunted by a troubled past. Having taken provisional vows, she's reinventing herself in search of redemption and rebuilding her life in the convent at St. Sebastian Parish, which has truly never seen the likes of her. Mystery readers haven't either, which makes this hard-boiled nun with secret warm, fuzzy feelings an amateur sleuth with original, fresh appeal.

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

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