Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

Big Lies in a Small Town

by Diane Chamberlain

A decades-old disappearance, and a quest to find the truth . . .

From the bestselling author Diane Chamberlain, Big Lies in a Small Town is an emotional novel about two women connected by a painting that holds many dark secrets.

'Excellent' – Jodi Picoult, author of Small Great Things

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 Centre. Her dream of a career in the arts 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. 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 for 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?

‘Fans of Jodi Picoult’s style will love how Diane Chamberlain writes’ – Candis

From the author of The Last House on the Street.

Reviewed by Jeff Sexton on

5 of 5 stars

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Solid Tale Solidly Told. This is a solid story of two women and two timelines. In 2018, a young lady is released from prison on parole on the condition that she restore a mural from the 1940s. In the 1940s, another young woman is painting this mural. The present day timeline is told in first person and the past timeline is told in third, which makes it easy to pick up and know which period you're in. I personally suffered some family tragedy and what felt like a pretty significant reading slump while reading this book, but I managed to get through it and finish the book within the month. And let me be clear, I do not feel that this book itself had anything to do with the slump, it really is a solid tale with an interesting curve at the end. Very much recommended.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 1 February, 2020: Finished reading
  • 1 February, 2020: Reviewed