Book Summary and Reviews of Divine Ruin by Margot Douaihy

Divine Ruin by Margot Douaihy

Divine Ruin

Sister Holiday Mysteries #3

by Margot Douaihy

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Published:
  • Jan 2026, 336 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

In the latest in the USA Today bestselling, award-winning, critically acclaimed series, New Orleans punk rock nun-detective Sister Holiday plunges into a "hellish underworld of drug trafficking, addiction, and her own dark past in a journey that is both riveting and sacred." (Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines)

It's a steamy, restless end of the school year in New Orleans. Sister Holiday is finishing her music classes and preparing for her permanent vow ceremony, a pivotal moment in her journey of faith. But when one of her favorite students is found dead of a fentanyl overdose, Sister Holiday and her partner-in-PI, Magnolia Riveaux, are determined to track down the drug dealers. As students continue to fall prey to this sinister drug, Sister Holiday becomes more desperate to stop the epidemic—while facing her own past with addiction, a demon that is never too far.

With Douaihy's signature mix of grit, heart, and faith, Divine Ruin tests the limits of Sister Holiday's devotion in her darkest and most shocking case yet.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Though Douaihy brilliantly ties up this entry's loose ends, there's more than enough juice left in the setting and characters to fuel Sister Holiday's future adventures." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The mystery is sharp and the solution surprising, but the biggest draw here is Holiday's anguished attempts to balance the demands of the flesh against the call of the spirit." —Kirkus Reviews

"New Orlean's most unlikely nun goes undercover to stop the drug at its source, taking readers on a fast-paced adventure featuring a wildly colorful assortment of lowlifes while spotlighting the heartbreaking human damage they leave in their wake." —Booklist

"With Divine Ruin Douaihy deftly lures readers in by revealing a stunning new facet of Sister Holiday. What's revealed in the process is a novel that challenges the vows we make to ourselves, others, and the divine. Sparkling with depth and darkness, this installment proves that there is so much more to learn about Sister Holiday. I, for one, cannot wait to see what Douaihy has in store. Divine Ruin is a tour de force." —Erin E. Adams, author of Jackal and One of You

"Margot Douaihy goes deeper, darker, harder with Divine Ruin, where Sister Holiday dives into the seamy world of fentanyl traffickers and finds herself walking the razor's edge of addiction. Douaihy proves noir can have a heart—then promptly rips it out. Intimate and lyrical, this devastated me in the very best way." —K.T. Nguyen, Agatha Award-winning author of You Know What You Did

This information about Divine Ruin was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Margot Douaihy

Margot Douaihy lives in Northampton, MA, and is a professor of creative writing at Emerson College. She is the author of the award-winning, nationally bestselling Sister Holiday series, in addition to the poetry collections Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, Scranton Lace, and Girls Like You. Her debut mystery, Scorched Grace, won The Pinckley Prize in Crime Fiction and was named a Best Crime Novel of the Year by the New York Times, Guardian, and others.

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