Big Lies in a Small Town

By Diane Chamberlain

Book Overview

From New York Times bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes a novel of chilling intrigue, a decades-old disappearance, and one woman's quest to find the truth...

"A novel about art and secrets...grippingly told...pulls readers toward a shocking conclusion."--People magazine, Best New Books

North Carolina, 2018:
Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, her dream of a career in art is put on hold--until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will get her released from prison immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to be free, 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 in great need of 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?

"Chamberlain, a master storyteller, keeps readers hooked, with a story line that leavens history and social commentary with romance and mystery."--Lexington Dispatch

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250087341
• ISBN13: 9781250087348
• Release Date: January 2021
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Read

9/17/26 - 9/26/26 Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain I received this novel as a book gift from a book buddy. I found this novel very intriguing and interesting in its format. The author went back and forth to the 1940 and to the 1940’s. A history lesson of how the South was segregated from the black people and how the North people didn’t see it the same way. It’s a lesson in humility, a lesson in learning, a lesson in men taking advantage of women and expecting it it, subterfuge and twists and turns. Excellent!

Excellent Read!

Reading the lives of several people with decades of history between them, revealing secrets of the past. Keeps it exciting and well worth the read.