Absolutely gripping and wonderfully captivating story by Diane Chamberlain! Chamberlain's latest story is mind-blowing! Her description of life in a small town is spot-on. The story begins in 1940, in said small town in North Carolina when Anna Dale is awarded the mural painting of a post office. She is not welcomed though and the mural is put into storage. Fast forward to 2018, and Morgan Christopher is early released from prison in exchange for restoring the mural. This is a fabulous story and thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Big Lies in a Small Town. I liked how the book used two timelines, one in 2018 and 1939. In the 2018 timeline Morgan Christopher is serving time for a crime she did not commit. Morgan is offered a chance to leave jail and restore a mural for a famous deceased artist, Jesse Jameson. Morgan has no idea why she is picked and has no experience in restoration but jumps on the chance to get out of jail. Morgan lives with Jesse's daughter, Lisa, while she works on a very short two month deadline to restore this huge mural.

The 1939 timeline is about Anna Dale that was chosen in an art contest to paint a mural for Edenton, North Carolina post office. Anna is from New Jersey and learns about the racial prejudice that existed in the south. She also learns about how a Southern Woman should act and dress. There is a man, Martin Drapple, in Edenton that people believe should be painting the mural for the town. Anna faces off and is strong in her beliefs against racial prejudices and against the beliefs that women are a lesser sex until she can no longer.

This book has strong, competent women. They both experienced unhappiness for different reasons. There are a lot of social issues addressed in this book including family abuse, mental illness, racism, sexism, rape, and injustice. I came to care for both women and was happy with the conclusion of the book. It is set up to potentially continue on into a second book but this is a stand alone book with a satisfying ending.

I would like to thank #NetGalley for an advanced readers copy of this book that will be released in January 2020. This book will be remembered for a long time.

Love this author! Never disappoints! Can't get enough!
Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed reading this book. You just imagined being in the winter all sucked in by the wonderful way it’s written. Great plot. Wondering how it’s going to play out for the characters. Very good

Two female artists, separated by almost 80 years, are linked by a WPA mural designated for the post office in a small North Carolina town. In 1940 Anna Dale won the right to paint the mural, not in her home state of New Jersey, but in Edenton, North Carolina, in a culture she was totally unacquainted with. North Carolina in the 1940s was still rife with prejudices, color barriers, secrets and fear of the unfamiliar. Anna’s Northern sensibilities and attitudes do not endear her to the political and social elite of the town. The resulting conflict resulted in the disappearance of the mural, the town’s favorite artist and Anna herself.

In 2018, Morgan Christopher was in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. but she was paroled to work on the restoration of the mural at the behest of her favorite painter, an African American man she admired but had never met. The mystery around the mural, the reason she was selected for the job and some of the mural's unusual iconography will take serious research into history and the secrets of Edenton past and present to unravel.

I loved this book. I selected this book from NetGalley on a whim. I had heard of the author and wanted to read something by her. I was not disappointed. Living in 21st California and Midwest, I was aware of historical racial divides in the South, but Diane Chamberlain brought the conflicts to life for me. Her characters were so real. Anna’s naivete, Morgan’s bitterness, Lisa’s desperation, Jesse’s fear and strength. Complexity of events and personalities as the chapters alternated between events happening to Anna and to Morgan made the book one that I couldn’t put down.

Big Lies In A Small Town is a delightful, suspenseful, captivating novel! I didn’t want to put this one down! This is an exceptional book by an author at the top of her literary game.
Morgan and Anna are connected through time and art, and I became completely immersed in the challenging lives of both women. I enjoyed the back and forth between time periods as well as the topic of art. The characters were incredible, both from the past and in the current-day. I loved the descriptions of the people and their way of life and the descriptions of the town. My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

‘Perhaps now that she’d told the story, it would lose its power over her. She hoped she would never have to repeat it to anyone ever again.’
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Synopsis:
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.
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Big Lies in a Small Town takes used a real contest in the late 1930s in which artists submitted an application and a piece of work to win the honor of printing a mural in a public building. One of these was awarded for each state. In the novel, Anna is selected to paint in North Carolina which has very different viewpoints on race relations than her home near New York City. Adjusting to the small town mentality and interfering with the high hopes of the local artist who didn’t get picked leads to a difficult road for Anna. Current day Morgan’s story is similar in her having to forge a tough path to work through her own issues as an artist. While I enjoyed both storylines, Anna’s really tugged at my heartstrings and I connected with her story.
This book is a slow, solid burn and was completely satisfying with a beautiful message. Put this on your New Year’s TBR.

I found this story captivating right from the beginning. This story follows two young women, Anna and Morgan and a mysterious mural that connects them. I enjoyed the way the stories were connected, even though the two women lived at different times. A wonderful read.

Two young women painting one mural almost a century apart. Mysterious disappearances and racial prejudice in a small southern town. Well put together though somewhat predictable.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, which had two main characters, Anna and Morgan, in different eras. The story goes back to the late 1930's when the US Post Office murals were created. Diane Chamberlain describes the expertise required and the process involved in creating the original artwork.

In 2018, the mural in Edentown, NC needs to be restored. Morgan has to quickly learn the differences between creating and restoring artwork. She also wants to discover why she was selected for the job.

The other underlying themes concern racial tensions in a small southern town and the expectations the "town fathers" have about trusting the capabilities of an attractive female artist from the North.

Big Lies in a Small Town is the latest book by Diane Chamberlain. All the fans of Ms Chamberlain will love this story and anyone who hasn't read her, this is a great novel to start with. As usual with Ms Chamberlain's work, my only regret is that the story ended. I could have continued reading more about these characters for a long time. I was given an early copy to review.

Thank you to Netgalley, St Martins Press and most of all the Author Diane Chamberlain for this ARC.
This book went to the top of my favorites! I absolutely LOVED it. I love the way it was written chapter wise from one protagonists point of view "then" to the second protagonist point of view "now".
I loved the characters, the setting and just loved the story and how it all came together.
And the Authors notes were very interesting as well.
I will definitely be following and reading more from Diane.

Big Lies in a Small Town is an accurate title. Very big lies, pretty small town.

What interested me about this book was the idea of post office murals. The book takes us through the process of both the mural creation and its eventual restoration later on. I am not well versed in visual art forms at all, other than having an admiration for great pieces. The way that the author wove the information and history into her narrative is truly great, and it kept me reading the entire time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery with alternating time lines and narration styles. Highly recommended.

Big Lies in a Small Town captured my interest from the very beginning. I was equally caught up in both stories - Anna's and Morgan's - and loved the way the story alternated back and forth between them. It made me think about family relationships and friendship, about how some people are able to overcome a rough childhood, and about starting over. I think this book would be a great book discussion title. I want to share it with family and friends.

Morgan's life has fallen apart. She has been arrested for a crime she didn't commit and has served a year of her time. Her future prospects seem slim and she wants nothing to do with her past. Everything changes as the daughter of a famous author, Jessie Williams, comes to her with a lawyer and says that she will be released on parole if she can complete a restoration of an art mural, for her late father's gallery opening in two months time. Though reluctant and surprised, Morgan wants her freedom and agrees, though her knowledge of restoration is non existent. She begins her work through the help of Oliver, but so little is known of the original artist of the bizarre mural, Anna Dale, that Morgan sets her self on a journey to find out more about her and learns more about her self in the process.

The novel takes us through the racism, sexism and bigotry of the 1940s in the South, in which Anna is painting her mural, all while intersecting it with the trials of modern times and Morgan's journey. Big Lies in a Small Town is different from anything I have read and it had me hooked the entire time. I found myself really connecting with the characters and their stories.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel.

I have always enjoyed this author and this new book does not disappoint. The history between the characters are interesting, I did anticipate the ending as it happened. I will recommend this book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This story is told by two narrators, Anna Dale in the 1940’s, and Morgan Christopher in the present. We begin with Morgan, a former art student who is now in prison for her second DUI, which resulted in an accident leaving a young woman paralyzed. Two women arrive to meet with her, and they have a fantastic offer for Morgan. She is being released on parole, with the condition that she restore a mural for an art gallery grand opening. With release from prison and the promise of $50,000 at the end of the restoration if she meets the deadline, Morgan readily accepts.

Once in Edenton, North Carolina, she learns that she is to restore the mural Anna painted for the post office in the 1940’s. Anna had won a contest to paint the mural as a depiction of the town – the cotton mill, the fishery, the peanut farms and the famous Tea Party the town is known for. But as Morgan starts the restoration, she hears the rumors that Anna had gone mad after finishing the mural and went missing. The painting’s strange symbols of violence lead Morgan to find out more about the mystery surrounding it.

I have to say that I liked the storyline of Anna and the past much more than I did the storyline of Morgan and the present. Anna decided to take the job for two reasons. First, it was a great opportunity for a budding artist, and second, her mother had just committed suicide and Anna was alone. Unlike Morgan, Anna is a strong personality with a can-do attitude, who was kind and did what was right. Morgan just seemed to have a woe-is-me attitude, which didn’t endear her to me. Perhaps it was also that Anna’s storyline was much more interesting and attention-grabbing. Anna had to deal with the town’s resentment of her for many things: being a woman, being an outsider from the north, being kind to blacks in a segregated community. Morgan dealt only with her own insecurities, and it became tiring after a while to hear her complain.

Overall, it’s a good story, well-paced with good character development, even if it was a bit predictable and the ending hurriedly tied everything and everyone together. I would have loved to have seen the mural as part of the cover.

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I do no say this lightly, but this was one of the most powerful, brilliant books I have ever read. The characters were so well written and the story was just amazing. The story was basically about redemption in many ways, however it was also the story of two women, families, and lots of painting. I love that the book goes backward and forward in time to tell the story, while also drawing in cultural references from the times as well. I have read a few books by this author and am now going to be adding all of her books to my to be read. I will be recommending that everyone read this book.

3.5 stars. This is the first book I have read by Diane Chamberlain and she didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed her characters, her description of small town living, and how her story flowed from past and present. Both main characters were believable and you came to feel for them as they endured their struggles. I take issue with a couple of items, the first is the predictable plot line for Anne. I’m kind of over the low hanging fruit sexual assault plot lines for female characters. There are so many plot lines that could be equally devastating to a female character and I wish female authors would advance those storylines in place of the most obvious storyline. I get why the author added it, which brings me to the second, the ending seemed rushed. It’s a mystery plot and everything wrapped up pretty quickly. It felt rushed. The author is a great storyteller and so I would have enjoyed an ending that took its time. Overall, it’s a book.

Diane Chamberlin is a wonderful story teller.
Told part in the past and part in the future. Anna Dale wins a competition to paint a mural for the Edenton post office and the town is a little cautious of the new come since they have their own resident artist.
In the future Morgan has been released early from jail to restore Anna’s painting with stipulations set on her by set by a famous artist that has passed. How are they all connected? Why did Jesse want Morgan to restore this mural?

I loved this story. This world felt real with the small town feel, gossip and everyone need to know what’s going on. The character had so much depth! The mystery of what happens to Anna Dale really had me hooked!