Margot Douaihy at Harvard Book Store

presenting 

Scorched Grace:
A Sister Holiday Mystery

in conversation with KELLY J. FORD

Date

Apr
17
Monday
April 17, 2023
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store welcomes MARGOT DOUAIHY—author of Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr and Scranton Lace—for a discussion of her new book Scorched Grace: A Sister Holiday Mystery. She will be joined in conversation by KELLY J. FORD—author of Real Bad Things and Cottonmouths.

A Return to In-Person Events

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About Scorched Grace

When Saint Sebastian’s School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos.

Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn’t satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way. And to piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must at last reckon with the sins of her own past.

An exciting start to a bold series that breathes new life into the hard-boiled genre, Scorched Grace is a fast-paced and punchy whodunnit that will keep readers guessing until the very end.

Praise for Scorched Grace

“Within five pages, I was in love with this novel. The voice is unique and confident, the sense of place deeply present, and the plotting completely assured: every time I was about to ask a question about Sister Holiday, her background, her drive, the mystery—the answer magically appeared. . . I just loved it!" —Gillian Flynn

“Margot Douaihy’s bold entry into the hard-boiled genre revitalizes it for our times. Skillfully plotted, propulsive, and deeply engaged with the communities it represents, Scorched Grace is one of the best crime fiction debuts I’ve come across in a long while.” —Don Winslow, author of The Power of the Dog

“One chapter into Margot Douaihy’s Scorched Grace and you’ll be ready to follow Sister Holiday wherever her instincts take her. Vibrant, crackling and deliciously insubordinate, it’s a mystery full of trapdoors and surprises but with a keen emotional force that leaves you shaken, hooked.” —Megan Abbott, author of The Turnout

Margot Douaihy
Margot Douaihy

Margot Douaihy

Margot Douaihy is a Lebanese American originally from Scranton, PA, now living in Northampton, MA. She received her PhD in creative writing from the University of Lancaster in the UK. She is the author of the novel Scorched Grace: A Sister Holiday Mystery and the poetry collections Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, Scranton Lace, and Girls Like You. She is a founding member of the Creative Writing Studies Organization and an active member of Sisters in Crime and the Radius of Arab American Writers. A recipient of the Mass Cultural Council's Artist Fellowship, she was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, Aesthetica Magazine's Creative Writing Award, and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation's Hemingway Shorts. Her writing has been featured in Queer Life, Queer Love; Colorado Review; Diode Editions; The Florida Review; North American Review; PBS NewsHour; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Portland Review; Wisconsin Review; and elsewhere. Margot is an Assistant Professor in Popular Fiction Writing & Literature with Emerson College in Boston. As a coeditor of the Elements in Crime Narrative Series with Cambridge University Press, she strives to reshape crime writing scholarship, with a focus on the contemporary, the future, inclusivity, and decoloniality.

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

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