Scorched Grace

Oh this was a FUN ride, for sure! While the cover, and the premise - lesbian former (?) punk rocker becomes a nun and solves crimes - are definitely appealing the quality of the writing solidify the promise of both cover and premise. In the first three paragraphs one can almost HEAR Sister Holiday???s cigarette-and-punk-rock-roughened voice, and the overall quality of that voice and the author???s writing does not let up for one second over the course of the novel.
It also helps that Sister Holiday herself is FASCINATING. Though there is an overall mystery that needs to be solved (i.e. the arson case that burns down a huge portion of St. Sebastian???s School), the Sister herself is a mystery all her own - one that gets untangled throughout the novel as she gets lost in memories and narrates events from her life before moving to New Orleans and joining the Sisters of the Sublime Blood. The contrast between her past and her present is also incredibly fascinating to read about, not least because the one thing that bridges the two halves of her history is her genuine faith. That???s another thing about this novel that makes it so enjoyable to read: Sister Holiday???s faith is rock-solid and real. It???s not a BLIND faith though; she is entirely aware of how damaged Christianity in general and Roman Catholicism in specific is, and how damaging they are to their believers. This is something she knows from her own personal experience, something that the reader can pick up whenever Sister Holiday narrates her reminiscences on her past.
But despite knowing the downsides, Sister Holiday also knows the strengths of her religion, and it is those strengths that she embraces and holds on to as hard as she can. She regularly extols the virtues of worship, ritual, and a far more progressive lived practice than some people might think is possible while being a devout Catholic. To be fair, this assumption is entirely deserved, but it also neglects a type of Catholicism where socialist thought borne from the hard realities of colonialism and imperialism have interwoven with a Catholic emphasis on action-as-devotion and community service to create a brand of the faith that, in some ways, is very progressive.
Despite all these positives, there are a few minor nitpicks that might rub some readers the wrong way. The first might be the author???s repeated descriptions of how hot New Orleans gets. The language used is very good, so it might not bug the reader too much the first few times it happens, but by around the midway point it DOES get a bit tiresome.
The second nitpick might be the way the mystery is laid out. Sister Holiday is not exactly the tidiest of narrators despite her insistence that she is a fantastic amateur detective, so this means that the reader can get taken for a wilder ride than is strictly necessary. Some readers may find this fun, not least because Sister Holiday???s narrative voice is so compelling, but there might be some other readers out there who won???t be too happy with how the story is laid out.
Overall, this was an amazingly absorbing read, despite a few tiny nitpicks. The characterization of Sister Holiday is stellar, as is the overall quality of the writing, that it easily hooks readers from the beginning and doesn???t let go until the very end. If the cover and/or the premise appeals to the reader, then rest assured that the contents definitely back them up.