LEXINGTON, Va. Sept. 9, 2025 — “Holy City,” a novel written by Maj. Henry A. Wise III ’05, assistant professor in the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies (ERHS) at Virginia Military Institute, was recently published in France under the name, “Nulle part où revenir,” meaning “Nowhere to Return.” The book has been favorably reviewed by French national newspapers and journals including Transfuge, a prestigious cultural and arts journal, which conferred upon Wise its “Transfuge Prix Polar” award for best crime novel. The novel was also discussed on a segment of Radio France and featured in Rolling Stone magazine. Publication in France marks the third international publication of the book. It has been released in Italy and the United Kingdom, and during the next several months it will be published in Germany, Hungary, and Japan.

In addition, “Holy City” won the Mystery Writers of America 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Award in the Best First Novel by an American Author category last spring, and was nominated for three awards granted at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention held recently in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Col. Emily Miller, professor of English and department head said the honor is richly deserved. “My colleagues and I are thrilled that Henry’s novel is receiving such wonderful recognition both here and abroad.” 

“Holy City” was originally published last year and tells the story of Will Seems, who after a decade of exile precipitated by the tragic death of his mother, returns home from Richmond to rural Southern Virginia and takes a job as a deputy sheriff. Seems’ efforts to go about his life are disrupted when a mysterious, brutal homicide claims the life of an old friend, forcing Seems to face the true impetus for his return: not to honor his mother's memory, but to pay a debt to a Black friend who, in an act of selfless courage years ago, protected Seems and suffered permanent disfigurement for it. 

Wise teaches American literature and creative writing and serves as faculty adviser to Cadence, VMI’s annual fine arts journal, which he edited as a cadet. He is part of a VMI family legacy which includes his uncles, Anderson Wise ’60 and Richard S. Wise ’68, as well as his grandfather, Henry A. Wise, Class of 1927. His great-great-great grandfather was Henry A. Wise, governor of Virginia (1856-1860), whose son John S. Wise, Class of 1866, was one of the cadets wounded in the Battle of New Market in 1864. Wise believes that when he matriculated in 2001, he was 32nd of the Wise family to do so. His cousin, Ethan Wise ’24 was the 33^rd.

Marianne Hause
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE