Short chapters allow the alternate timeline to immediately fill in the details that are missing from the previous timeline.

As I became involved with the story, I realized that these short chapters help the timelines merge in a way that feels like reading one complete story….one timeline illuminates the other. Timelines: Told in alternating perspectives and dual timelines, I wasn’t sure about the very short chapters at first. Restoration of a mural is the literary device that merges the timelines, connects the characters, and drives the story forward. My Thoughts:įor me, it’s a good read when I’m engaged from beginning to end! Big Lies in a Small Town came to me at a perfect time when I needed something easy reading, light, engaging, and different from my usual heavier histfic. In alternate viewpoints and dual timelines, we hear both stories, the mystery of what happened to the original artist is uncovered, and connections between the two are revealed. Two young women living several decades apart are focused on the same mural….one is creating the mural in 1940 and the other is restoring the same mural in 2018. Secrets, prejudice, and making peace with the past …. *This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Genre/Categories: Light Historical fiction, Light Mystery, Southern Fiction, Art 'Chamberlain, a master storyteller, keeps readers hooked, with a story line that leavens history and social commentary with romance and mystery.Big Lies in a Small Town: by Diane Chamberlain 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? 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. Alone in the world and in great need of work, 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.Īnna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to be free, she accepts. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. 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.

Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. 'A novel about arts and ippingly told.pulls readers toward a shocking conclusion.'- People magazine, Best New Books

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.

Little town big lies