Lies: Based on True Stories

Kirkus Reviews: A tantalizingly kaleidoscopic look at an event that altered its witnesses’ lives forever. Six witnesses relate their divergent interpretations of a violent incident that took place during the Civil War in this novel based on true stories.

Caroline Anderson lives in Greenbrier County, Virginia, at the Elmhurst house, a “magnificent place” before the Civil War erupted. President Martin Van Buren once picnicked there, but it has since decayed into ruins from neglect.

Caroline’s husband, John, suddenly joins the Confederate Army, never to be seen or heard from again, leaving her to fend for herself and her two stepchildren, 8-year-old Sally and glum teenager Samuel. When bedraggled Union soldiers come marching through town, a group of them forcibly enters Caroline’s home, first looking for medical supplies and then a reprieve from their nomadic discomfort.

On May 22, 1863, while Elmhurst is occupied by “horrid Yankees,” a “dreadful incident” occurs, one that leaves two men, one of them a Union soldier, dead. Years later, the incident is investigated by Gen. George L. Scarborough, under the authority of the Department of State.

This ingeniously inventive novel by Smith is largely composed of the records of the testimony culled by Scarborough, collected from interviews with six witnesses, including Caroline and two of the soldiers who were in her home that day.

The plot is bewitching—the author slowly, with aching suspense, inches toward the incident in question. Meanwhile, a romantic tension and rivalry brews between Caroline and Capt. James Tobin, a “sweet talking” and “handsome” soldier who will be among those who witness the event. Smith cleverly juxtaposes the different accounts, illuminating the paradoxical nature of storytelling, which reveals and conceals simultaneously.

As Caroline explains, “What I mean to say is: the information you are after cannot be told in one simple story since it is actually many tales stitched up with each other.”

During the Civil War, the Elmhurst estate in western Virginia was ransacked, her outbuildings burned, and two men died. Six witnesses relate their accounts of this violent incident that altered their lives. Read their testimonies and discover the truth among the lies.

With her Confederate husband missing in action and presumed dead, Caroline Anderson struggles not only to overcome the hardships of life during war, but also to contend with her demanding family that includes her hypochondriac mother-in-law, two frivolous sisters-in-law, sullen teenage stepson, and quirky nine year-old stepdaughter.

Caroline’s situation turns from difficult to dire when Union scouts take the family captive and threaten to destroy their home. The leader of these northern spies is an ardent crusader against slavery.

Also in the group is an exceptionally handsome but rakish surgeon intent on seducing Caroline.

This well-researched novel allows readers to experience a twenty-four hour period in May 1863 and to learn about daily life from six different perspectives – everything from preparing meals, beauty concerns, and sexual harassment to cadavers and medical practices to gathering reliable information to the meaning and importance of freedom.