Book Review: ‘Big Lies In A Small Town’ Is The Next Great Diane Chamberlain Novel

I love reading Diane Chamberlain books and her newest Big Lies In A Small Town does not disappoint. Set in a small North Carolina town and spanning over 78 years. Two women that have never met or knew each other find their lives have a lot more in common than either knew.

In 1940 Anna Dale won an art contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. She was from New Jersey and knew nothing about this town. She goes there to get a feel for it and to submit what her mural will be. Not everyone welcomes her, feeling a local artist should be the one doing the drawing. Anna is passionate about it and works day and night on it. She even gets help from Jessie Williams, a 17 year old black teenager, who’s passionate about art as well. People don’t take to a white woman and a black man spending so much time together. Then something shocking happens and everything changes for Anna and Jessie.

In 1918 Morgan Christopher is one year into her prison sentence for DUI and injuring a young girl. She was not driving at the time but pleaded guilty to protect her boyfriend at the time. She later tried to recant but no believed her. Today is her lucky day. Jessie Williams daughter has arrived with a lawyer to get her out of jail. Jessie became a famous artist over the years and has died recently. He left in his will that he want Morgan to restore the mural for opening of his art museum in two months. Morgan is released and on parole and has no clue how to restore the painting. She is an art major but has never done restoration.

As she begins her work the past and the present collide. The mural is not what the original pictures looked like. She soon starts researching Anna’s life and finds out the shocking secrets of Anna and Jessie’s past and it leads to a shocking reveal about herself.

Diane Chamberlain is the queen of these type of mysteries. The setting in small town North Carolina works perfect her. The book alternates between Anna and Morgan from their respective eras and has the reader engaged emotionally right from the start. You can’t help but read on and on to find out what happened to Anna and Jessie and how it impacts on Morgan. Another well written book from Diane.

You can pick up Big Lies In A Small Town in stores on Tuesday, January 14th from St. Martin’s Press.