What The Bayou Saw

Segregation and a chain link fence separated twelve-year-old Sally Flowers from her best friend, Ella Ward. Yet a brutal assault bound them together. Forever. Thirty-eight years later, Sally, a middle-aged Midwestern instructor, dredges up childhood secrets long buried beneath the waters of a Louisiana bayou in order to help her student, who has also been raped. Fragments of spirituals, gospel songs, and images of a Katrina-ravaged New Orleans are woven into the story.


The past can't stay buried forever Rising author Patti Lacy's second novel exposes the life of Sally, set amid the shadows of prejudice in Louisiana.

Since leaving her home in the South, Sally Stevens has held the secrets of her past at bay, smothering them in a sunny disposition and sugar-coated lies. No one, not even her husband, has heard the truth about her childhood.

But when one of her students is violently raped, Sally's memories quickly bubble to the surface unbidden, like a dead body in a bayou. As Sally's story comes to light, the lies she's told begin to catch up with her. And as her web of deceit unravels, she resolves to face the truth at last, whatever the consequences.

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Book Review: Everyone has secrets in their past. Some are more haunting than others. Patti Lacy is intriqued with those secrets and it is what gives her the inspiration for her books. Although she has only been writing since 2005, Lacy writes with a depth in her characters that will have you drawn in from the very first page of the book.

I am a southern girl. A G.R.I.T.S. - Girl Raised In The South. Even more than that I was a southern girl raised in Mississippi. It is hard to understand just how well Lacy captured the complexities of the emotions, tensions, and social structure unless you grew up in the midst of it the way we have. I found myself crying, clenching my teeth and anxiously reading through painful paragraphs.

This story was made even more "raw" by the fact that it was set during parts of Hurricane Katrina. Being able to visualize what she was writing about and parts of the city she was describing made the book very visual and alive to me.

I can't wait for Patti Lacy's next book. No matter what the topic or who the characters... I know that it will be a story that will make me explore my heart and think more about how I draw closer to Him.