SACRAMENT OF LIES

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 fiancé, 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.