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Sacrament of Lies [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Dewberry (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)


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Hardcover, February 14, 2002 --  
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Book Description

February 14, 2002
An allusive psychological mystery filled with murders, corruption, politics Southern-style, and shadowy conspiracies.

"In Sacrament of Lies, the line between certainty and madness is as thin as a razor and equally as dangerous. Elizabeth Dewberry has given us a rare gift, a literary thriller that will keep us up all night. This book is riveting. " (Ann Patchett)

When Grayson Guillory begins to suspect her power-hungry father, the governor of Louisiana, and her new husband of murdering her mother, she finds herself questioning her own sanity. She knows her mother suffered from manic depression and believes she committed suicide. But then Grayson discovers a video in which her mother accuses the governor of plotting her murder, and those bitter accusations strike a chord.

Is it murder or suicide? As she searches for clues to help divine the truth, Grayson both fears that she has inherited her mother's delusional illness, and fears that she hasn't. In this world of ghosts and ambiguous facts, no evidence seems final. Grayson is torn between loyalty to the memory of the mother she loved and loyalty to her father, whose charismatic ambition at once attracts and repels her. To make matters worse, her father has hastily married her mother's younger sister, Audrey. And while her father's marriage seems happy, Grayson's own new marriage is faltering under the weight of her suspicions.

Written in a fluid and captivating dramatic monologue that leads to a stunning showdown, Elizabeth Dewberry's atmospheric story explores how some families nurture cruel secrets at the expense of truth and redefine love in attempts to accommodate evil. Sacrament of Lies raises questions about family, love, loyalty, ambition, and morality in a kind of modern-day Hamlet set in New Orleans with the genders reversed.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A deftly plotted literary thriller that will hold the reader's attention on a tight leash until the very end, this psychological mystery set in contemporary New Orleans crackles with tension. The plot centers on Grayson Guillory, the daughter of a recently widowed (and recently remarried) influential Louisiana governor up for reelection. Grayson, distraught over her mother's recent death, finds a strange memento that seems to indicate that Mrs. Guillory's passing may not have been a simple suicide. Suddenly everyone and everything falls under suspicion her friends, her fianc‚, even her own father. Grayson's world begins to slowly tumble around her, each glance, each errant word ringing with her newfound knowledge and the reader can't help tumbling with her. The ones she loves most have betrayed her, and as Grayson begins to uncover the truth, she believes her investigation has put her own life in danger or has it? Has Grayson uncovered an unthinkable evil that now threatens to devour her as well or, shaken by her loss, is she traveling down the same dark path to madness as her notoriously unbalanced mother? The tension between the two possibilities is gripping, and Dewberry (Break the Heart of Me; Many Things Have Happened Since He Died) produces a riveting page-turner in which the line between truth and madness is thin as razor wire and always in doubt. Mystery-lovers and aesthetes alike will take pleasure in this well-paced novel that manages to be both taut with suspense and fluidly lyrical. The true mystery here is not whodunit, but if anything has been done at all. (Feb.)Forecast: A flowery jacket sends the wrong message, but blurbs from Richard Ford, Ann Patchett and Tim Gautreaux should help this Hitchcockian gem find the readership it deserves.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this compelling page-turner, set in New Orleans and framed by two Mardi Gras seasons, Dewberry (Break the Heart of Me) shows that some families need look no further than their own homes for murder, mayhem, and madness. Grayson Guillory, daughter of the governor of Louisiana, suspects her father of killing her mother and marrying her aunt in his quest for the White House. In this twist on Hamlet, the murder is revealed not by a ghost but by a videotape left by the dead woman for Grayson to find. One is sucked into the story on the first page, but rushing to the end is futile. The writing is so skillful and the wordplay so exquisite that one wants to savor each paragraph the way the characters savor their Sazaracs. Perfection from start to finish; for all fiction collections. Rebecca Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Product Details

  • Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Blue Hen; First edition. edition (February 14, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 039914854X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0399148545
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,018,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

HIS LOVELY WIFE is my fourth novel, the second one written since I married Robert Olen Butler in 1995. He's much more well-known than I am, and often, especially in the early years of our marriage, we were introduced as, "Pulitzer-prize-winning author, Robert Olen Butler," now a slight pause, and the volume goes down a notch, then, "and his lovely wife, Elizabeth Dewberry." In the beginning I sort of liked it--my first husband was unemployed for the last five years of our marriage, and I was never introduced as his lovely wife--but after a while, I started feeling irritated by it. I hated that I found myself wanting to tell complete strangers whom I'd just met that I, too, was an author, but I felt like I was disappearing. HIS LOVELY WIFE is not autobiographical--I know, all writers say that, and half of them are lying, though in this case, it's true!--but it was easy to find the empathic connection with my narrator, who feels that at least in other people's minds and to a certain extent in her own mind, as well, she feels defined by who she's married to more than by who she is. I'm lucky, though, to have been able to use this experience to take my next step as a writer, which, ironically, means that it helped me figure out something about who I am.

I'm not sure why anybody would want to know this, but it's standard biographical information, and I'm not trying to be difficult, so: I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, received a BS in English from Vanderbilt, and a PhD in twentieth-century American fiction, with a dissertation on Hemingway, from Emory. I've published four novels (or did I mention that already?), and my work has appeared in ZOETROPE: ALL-STORY, SOUTHERN LIVING, THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO HEMINGWAY, and MY NEW ORLEANS, among other places. I live outside Tallahassee, Florida.

 

Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Tale, February 25, 2002
By 
Janice Pitts "Mayerivergal" (Bluffton, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Sacrament of Lies (Hardcover)
A keen insight into Louisinan polictics by the wife of Robert Olen Butler.

Grayson Guillory finds a clue that leads her to suspect her father, soon-to-be husband, and other family members and friends of the murder of her mother. Although it appears Grayson's mother committed suicide, the clue and her intuition lead her to believe otherwise.

At the same time she must fight her own fears that perhaps she, like her mother, is suffering from paranoia and may have inherited some of her mother's mental problems.

Given this, Grayson, must examine her past life with her father and mother and her present relationships with her fiance. We are left to wonder if Grayson could be wrong in her suspicions.

Although the ending is somewhat predictable, we are led there by captivating monologue which will raise questions about family,love and most of all loyalty. Along the way we are treated to a nice taste of New Orleans and Mardi Gras.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it!, February 17, 2002
This review is from: Sacrament of Lies (Hardcover)
Upon being dragged, by my husband, to a book reading for Ms. Dewberry's husband, Robert Olen Butler, I surprisingly found myself purchasing Elizebeth Dewberry's novel, Sacrement of Lies.
I suppose I was intrigued, since the novel's backdrop is based in my hometown, New Orleans. Whatever the reason, I am thouroughly pleased with my purchase as I was unable to put the book down. Ms. Dewberry tells a fascinating murder mystery through the mind and encounters of her protagonist, Grayson Giullory. Using analogies which are clever and easy to relate to, her writing style is refreshingly different. Truly a pageturner, Sacrament of Lies, is now one of my top ten favorite reads. I look forward to reading her other works!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Bewildering, frightening and beautifully written, August 30, 2007
By 
Just_Karen (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Sacrament of Lies (Paperback)
"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you..." A mentally ill woman in her thirties unravels, then unravels the truth. If you loved A Thousand Acres as a retelling of Lear, you will enjoy this book as a modern retelling of Hamlet, replete with visits from beyond the grave and a male Ophelia who meets a watery death. The writing is fantastic, and the story is a maze, winding tighter and tighter until the center is reached. Readers looking for a standard psychological thriller might want to keep looking, as there's not much sleuthing here. What the book does show, and show perfectly, is the effect of fear and depression on a person's ability to function on even the basic level. Highly recommended.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
IT'S THE LAST AFTERNOON OF MARDI GRAS, and I sit here, very still, on the steps outside. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Sandy Adams, Huey Long, Baton Rouge, First Lady, Ash Wednesday, Fat Tuesday, Jackson Square, Mike Fontenot, Earl Long, White House
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