When the arsonist loose in New Orleans decides to set fire to Saint Sebastian School, with a deadly outcome, everything changes for the community that runs it, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood. Especially for the foul-mouthed Sister Holiday, a nun who smokes and is tattooed from head to toe, and whose virtues do not exactly include patience. Tired of waiting for the police investigation to progress and of being repeatedly doubted, she decides to take matters into her own hands.
Her mission will take her down a tortuous path full of suspicion under the stifling heat of New Orleans. She will persistently interrogate fellow teachers, students, and even some of her sisters. Without a doubt, Sister Holiday has more faith than many, but she is no saint either: if she wants to find out what happened, she will also have to face some of the sins of her own secret past. What she doesn’t know is which of the two tasks will be easier.
In this original mystery novel, we meet Sister Holiday, a lesbian nun, covered in tattoos and a former punk, who has left her previous life behind to join the convent. With her sharp mind and rebellious character, she becomes an improvised detective who must uncover the truth while dealing with her internal contradictions. Amid the smoke of the fire and the smoke of her thoughts, she will discover that the truth can be as dangerous as it is liberating.
About Margot Douaihy
Margot Douaihy is an American author of Lebanese descent, currently based in Massachusetts. She holds a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University (UK), has published several volumes of poetry, and is the founder of the Creative Writing Studies Organization, as well as an active member of Sisters in Crime and Radius of Arab American Writers. She has received the Mass Cultural Council’s Artist Fellowship and has been a finalist for awards such as the Lambda Literary Award, the Aesthetica Magazine’s Creative Writing Award, and the Hemingway Shorts from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation. Her stories and pieces have appeared in outlets such as Queer Life Queer Love, Colorado Review, Diode Editions, The Florida Review, North American Review, PBS NewsHour, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Portland Review, and Wisconsin Review. She is currently an associate professor at Emerson College, Boston, and co-editor of the Elements in Crime series from Cambridge University Press.
