Big Lies in a Small Town

Title: Big Lies in a Small Town
Author: Diane Chamberlain
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: January 14, 2020
Format: Advanced reader copy
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher

North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women's Correctional Center. Her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to leave prison, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.

North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and desperate for work, she accepts. But what she doesn't expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.

What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?

My review:

I am not a stranger to Ms. Chamberlain's books, she is a go to author for me. She does a fantastic job of setting the scene and portraying characters that keeps me coming back for more and more! This latest novel is one more in a long line of superb stories.

Told in dual timelines, there is present day Morgan and 1940's Anna. What the two have in common is a painted mural. Anna (the original artist) and the mural mysteriously disappear from town amid rumors of her going crazy. When it shows up again decades later, Morgan is tasked with restoring the mural for a gallery opening, all the while trying to understand what really happened to the original artist. I loved the snippets we were given about art restoration, I found them fascinating. The characters were well drawn, and the clues given along the way kept steamrolling and pushing me to find out how it was all going to come together. The only minor fault I had was the obligatory romance, which thankfully does not take up much of the story line. While one part of the ending is not resolved, I kind of liked it, since I'm not one to like my books to always end with everything tied up in a neat bow.

Another great story from this author! I'm excited to see what she'll come up with next.