BLESSED WATER (Gillian Flynn Books, 2024)

Second book in the Sister Holiday series! A lacerating and lyrical plunge into deception, the blood oath of siblings, and questions that hold us captive, Blessed Water is a lights-out mystery that will leave you breathless.
💧A New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year
💧The Publishing Triangle’s Joseph Hansen LGTBQ+ Crime Writing Award (Winner)
💧NPR’s Fresh Air: Crime & Suspense Summer Pick
💧Left Coast Crime, Best Mystery Novel of the Year (Finalist)
💧A Feminist Book Club’s Favorite Book of the Year
💧A Scribd/Everand Best Crime Novel of the Year
💧Bookseller Favorite: Barnes & Noble
💧Editors’ Pick & A Best Book of March 2024: Amazon
💧Must-Read Mysteries of the Month: BookBub
💧A Most Anticipated Mystery: Apple Books, Novel Suspects, LGBTQ Reads, BookRiot, BookPage, Barnes & Noble, Criminal Element
💧Best Releases This Week: Tertulia
💧Best New Crime Novels of April 2024: The Herald (Scotland) & The Times (London)
💧Audiobook narrated by MARA WILSON!

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 during Easter weekend, Sister Holiday and Riveaux follow the clues, and the mystery becomes a family matter. With the stakes rising alongside the relentless floodwaters, our favorite punk nun-sleuth throws herself into the deep end yet again.

Published March 2024. Buy today💧🙏☔️

PRAISE FOR BLESSED WATER

“Returning to New Orleans with my favorite punk-rock nun is such a thrill. Douaihy blends edgy counterculture with sincere faith, violence and nihilism with genuine yearning for human connection, all in one hell of a mystery.” –Gillian Flynn

“Pure hard-boiled Patti Smith” –Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

“Douaihy follows up Scorched Grace with another deliriously enjoyable, relentlessly plotted adventure for chain-smoking ‘punk nun’ Sister Holiday Walsh … the mystery itself is even more gripping this time out. This series continues to impress.” —Publishers Weekly

“Featuring larger-than-life characters…Blessed Water is a fast-paced tornado of unpredictability that will further endear you to Margot Douaihy and the unique brand of mystery she’s built.” –Barnes & Noble Editors

“A literary treat.” –The Center for Fiction

“This delightfully irreverent sleuthing adventure. This fresh, tongue-in-cheek mystery abounds with snark, heart-pounding thrills, vibrant characters, and the sweetness of found family … outstanding series.” —Library Journal

“Douaihy’s writing stings and soothes, echoing Sister Holiday’s so-human contradictions. The author uses water as her main natural force and metaphor, just as she used fire in Scorched Grace. I’ve always been a fan of rebels with a heart and anyone ready to take on the power elite, and what’s more powerful and untouchable than the Catholic Church? Like a Trojan Horse entering Troy, so too does Sister Holiday enter the Catholic order to save herself and conquer its patriarchal stranglehold. Heaven help them and bring on more heroes like Sister Holiday. She might be my favorite character of all time.” –Valerie J. Brooks, Mystery & Suspense

“Beautifully constructed with writing like a fine razor, Blessed Water bathed me in the mysteries of faith. Sister Holiday is slowly healing my deep religious trauma, one page at a time. As much as I loved Scorched Grace, the quick pace and increased character development in Blessed Water made this book even better than the first. I didn’t want to put this book down and ended up powering through it in less than 48 hours.” –Renee Powers, Feminist Book Club

"Powerful … plumbs the depth of human cruelty" –The Times

“It’s very difficult to think of a similar series; quite an achievement in a genre as popular as crime fiction. The waters in this novel run deep, but I would urge every reader to dip a toe in. Just have a little faith. 5 Stars.” –Crime Fiction Lover

“Fans of smart hardboiled thrillers will love it.” –Peterborough Telegraph

“Brutal and poetic” –Maxim Jakubowski, CrimeTime

“Uniquely riveting” –Isabel Montero, Murder & Mayhem

“Our favorite nun-slash-sleuth is back in all her tattooed, chain-smoking, punk rock, and queer glory in this continuation of the Sister Holiday series. While Douaihy’s “Scorched Grace” sizzled from start to finish, its sequel, “Blessed Water,” drowns us in fast-paced twists, questions of faith, and a literal New Orleans downpour over Easter weekend. As Sister Holiday prepares to take her vows, she also joins Magnolia Riveaux’s Redemption Detective Agency. Their first case? Solving a mystery involving two priests — one murdered, one missing.” —Everand Editors

“Water weeps from the clouds, streaks the faces of the grieving, and revives a fragile faith. The writing in Blessed Water is utterly delightful. By the time the flood receded, and the case was solved, I’d already begun yearning for the next Sister Holiday Mystery.” -Cheryl A. Head, LA Times Book Award-nominated Time’s Undoing

"Margot Douaihy follows up an extraordinary debut with an even more exceptional sophomore novel! She combines a poet’s soul and an artist’s eye with a powerful and strong authorial voice to create layered, complex characters involved in a story so well paced you cannot put it down. I am already hungry for her next book!” -Greg Herren, Lambda Award–Winning Author of Death Drop and The Scotty Bradley Mysteries

“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.” –Booklist

“My favorite PI series transport you to a setting unlike any other and feature unforgettable, flawed, and diverse characters in central roles. Margot Douaihy’s latest, Blessed Water, is all these things and more, bringing readers deeper into Sister Holiday’s complicated world with confidence and lyricism. A potent blend of dark noir and the travails of a tainted knight detective, Blessed Water is a one-way ticket to a New Orleans you could only imagine. A poised and unique novel.” -Alex Segura, Bestselling Author of Secret Identity

“Margot Douaihy is fast becoming one of the biggest names in genre writing. The writing is incisive and lyrical, and the mysteries at the heart of these books are always filled with incredibly surprising twists and turns. It’s no wonder that Gillian Flynn herself is the publisher. These books are seriously that good.” –The Lineup

"Rollicking sequel … (Sister Holiday) is the quintessential hardboiled detective… But her interior dialogue reveals the brilliance of Douaihy’s enterprise in this series: to put a queer religious woman into a literary role that is traditionally occupied by men, and to show that she can thrive there. Blessed Water is itself a revelation.” –The Christian Century

"Douaihy does another exceptional job of examining the meaning of faith in the life of perhaps the world’s unlikeliest nun. The author’s background as a poet is readily apparent not only in the occasional exquisite turn of phrase, but also in the oft-repeated imagery of water as both cleanser and curse. … These books are certainly a necessary critique of entrenched power, as well as a reminder of the power of love and faith even when up against overwhelming odds.” –Criminal Intent