Sister Holiday is not your average nun. She came to the Church later in life, after a misspent youth full of punk rock, tattoos, and a love affair that broke her heart. But she’s committed her life going forwards to the Sisters of the Sublime Blood, a very small progressive order located in New Orleans, and the only order in the whole country that would accept her. As one of the sisters, she’s also expected to teach at St. Sebastian’s, the parochial school attached to the church & convent. Thanks to her background in the punk scene of New York, she’s a fairly competent guitar teacher, and while she sometimes misses her old life, Holiday is dedicated to her new path.
Then the fire happens. Sister Holiday is sneaking a cigarette (confiscated from one of the students) when she sees smoke pouring out of the east wing of St. Sebastian’s. She heroically saves the lives of two students trapped by the flames and smoke, but the fire claims the life of the school janitor, whose burnt body fell (or was pushed?) out of a second-story window. The fire is immediately identified as arson, and the New Orleans police and a perfume-making fire inspector are looking for suspects. Within a few days, a second fire is set at the school, and one of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood is found dead nearby. The police say that she simply fell, but Sister Holiday is convinced that the arsonist was behind this death, too.
At this point the community is scared and everyone is a suspect, including Holiday herself. Determined to find the true culprit, Sister Holiday begins looking more closely at everyone involved with St. Sebastian’s: the delinquent student, the custodian, the other teachers, and even her fellow sisters. As the mystery twists and turns around her, she reflects on her own troubled past: growing up queer in a Catholic family, sabotaging her own band, drinking too much, and her years-long relationship with a married woman. The true tragedy of Holiday’s past is being revealed asshe works to discover the person behind the fires and murders that have plagued her newfound family.
Scorched Grace’s strength is its lush descriptive prose. The New Orleans heat feels like its very own character, and Sister Holiday’s ruminations on her faith and her relationship with god are thoughtful and thought-provoking. Holiday is far from perfect, but she is a fascinating character, and being in her head keeps the story engaging. The story’s weaknesses were a shortage of actual sleuthing (she talks about investigating but doesn’t really *do* a lot of it), and the lack of clues ahead of the final reveal. The confrontation was great, and bonkers, but there was a distinct lack of build-up which hurt the overall conclusion to the story. All that being said, Scorched Grace is an enjoyable read, and worth taking a look at. It is the first of a planned series featuring Sister Holiday (I believe the second one is already out), and I’m planning to give her, and the author, another try.
