![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ruin.jpeg\")
<\/a>A gold-toothed, tattooed ex-punk rocker lesbian, called Twisted Sister, or Sister Hol-i-gay by her students, Sister Holiday is a novice nun \u201c\u2026with a nose for trouble.\u201d\u00a0After a long period, filled with murders and crimes she helped solve, she is about to be ordained in the Sisters of Sublime Blood in New Orleans. Just as she starts to rehearse, however, one of her favorite students overdoses on fentanyl, and dies. Devastated by the loss, she heads off with her crime-solving mentor, Magnolia Rivaux, to find the source of the drug while simultaneously continuing her preparation.<\/p>\n
To flush out the gang that gives the kids in the convent school drugs, she goes \u201cnundercover.\u201d\u00a0In a challenge to her sobriety, she takes a trip to a local dive bar, where she takes another trip \u2013 on drugs \u2013 to ingratiate herself with the gang\u2019s lieutenant. She extracts a lead and thinks she extricates herself safely, but a shocking event late in the novel is tied directly to her return to booze, drugs and rock \u2019n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n
As her initiation grows closer, so does her and her partner\u2019s uncovering the head of the gang. It\u2019s a roller coaster of a ride, with Sister Holiday appearing at the arrest in her ceremonial veil.<\/p>\n
Each of the three novels in the series has been redolent with the New Orleans atmosphere, but this latest is by far the best. The author captures the city\u2019s\u00a0atmosphere as well as the internal battle Sister Holiday suffers between her faith and her failings. Sometimes she\u2019s shocking, as when the Sister claims Eve was \u201ca boss-ass bitch who dared to take a bite.\u201d\u00a0At times she can be supremely lyrical, as when the Sister gets high, and \u201cThe future, present and past were all there as I rolled in that grimy club. Time lost its spine and its forward thrust. It spiraled into a crown of thorns, then a lava lamp from Spencer\u2019s and then it became pure sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some great writing and a plot where the resolution is hidden till the very end make Divine Ruin<\/em>\u00a0a divine read.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bob Moyer loves good mystery novels, and he loves New Orleans, so it’s no surprise that he is reviewing the latest Sister Holiday mystery, No. 3 in the series. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer DIVINE RUIN. A Sister Holiday Mystery. By Margot Douaihy. Gillian Flynn Books. 336 pages. $28, hardcover. A gold-toothed, tattooed ex-punk rocker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1356,590,5,426,4],"tags":[607,1564,1338,88],"class_list":["post-3532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-fiction","category-detective-fiction-mysteries","category-mysteries","category-popular-fiction","category-southern-fiction","tag-crime-fiction","tag-margaret-douaihy","tag-sister-holiday-mystery","tag-southern-fiction-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3534,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3532\/revisions\/3534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}