[A] showstopper of a series debut ... Scorched Grace's power derives from Holiday’s nonstop internal struggle ... I cannot wait to read the sister’s next investigation, of mysteries and of her own self.
What do you get when you mix a poetic writer with the mystery genre? More metaphors than you can shake a stick at. Laugh out loud metaphors. Stunningly beautiful metaphors. All interlaced within an exciting mystery that is as different as it is classic in feel ... The twisty plot, gorgeous language, and the renegade nun as a main character bring this novel into its own category. One often thinks of the amateur sleuth as belonging in cozy mysteries. This is not that. Scorched Grace is a novel both exciting and profound. The crisp pacing keeps things moving briskly forward while the writing takes you deep. I can’t ask for more than that.
Douaihy handles...questions with aplomb, though there are invitations to suspend disbelief, and readers will tire of reading about how hot it is in New Orleans and how much the characters sweat. That said, Holiday is an interesting character, and her story is well plotted—a good thing, since this is obviously going to be a series.
Douaihy...immerses the reader in her hyperlocal New Orleans setting and the murky depths of Sister Holiday’s tormented soul. Her prose is frequently lyrical and often lacerating, her characters layered and intriguing ... Scorched Grace is both entertaining and devastating, dominated by a queer sleuth with a clever, curious mind and a fatalistic yet somehow still hopeful heart.
The first book from suspense novelist Gillian Flynn’s imprint at Zando. Sister Holiday’s violent, sexually provocative past life and her current language and behavior might be too outrageous for some readers, but the series has already been acquired for a prestige-television adaptation.
All of this adds up to a promising premise, but it never gels ... The plot often stalls, the tone veers from zany to noir to confessional, and seemingly important characters disappear without explanation. The book does little with its New Orleans setting except remind the reader every few pages that it’s hot and humid there, and that’s just one repetitious element in the prose. Sister Holiday can be an engaging narrator, but she deserves a better book ... The main character is intriguing, but she’s not enough to lift this muddled debut.
Stunning ... This briskly plotted master class in character development makes the most of its New Orleans setting ... Douaihy is off to a terrific start.
