Big Lies in a Small Town

Diane Chamberlain obviously did a lot of research prior to writing this historical novel. I enjoyed both the past and present timeframes as both Anna and Morgan were well developed characters. The plot was a bit slow at the beginning but really picked up in the last half. I would definitely recommend this novel to fans of dual timeline books.

I really liked this book. Two women, two secrets. Can one woman figure out the mystery of the other one while trying to learn from her own past?

Told in dual timelines and alternating POV's, we meet two artists. Morgan Christopher is serving out a prison term in 2018 in North Carolina when she gets an unusual offer to get of out jail early in exchange for restoring an old mural from 1940. Of course, Morgan accepts even though she isn't an art restorer and only spent 3 years in college as an art student. She has no idea how challenging this job will be or how she will be able to complete the project in 2 short months.

The other artist is Anna Dale and in 1939, she won a contest to create a mural which was to hang in the town's post office. She is a talented artist from New Jersey and the post office is in Edenton, NC so Anna Dale travels south to gather information about the town. It becomes clear that she is an outsider and not welcome by everyone in the town for this project. It also becomes clear that for a project of this scope, she must live and work in this small town. There are many rumors circulating about Anna and before the mural is installed, she goes missing. The mural was later found in another's artist's possession and that is where Morgan comes in. She is the only artist who can restore the mural. But how? And why Morgan? Does the mural explain what happened to Anna?

There are so many good things I could say about this book but I don't want to give anything away. The characters are well developed and the story is well written. I always wanted to get back to the other timeline to find out what was going on with that character. A little slow in the beginning for me (that's why 4 stars) but once it picked up, I couldn't put it down. There are some heavy issues in this book-race, women's rights, abuse, mental illness.

Big Lies in a Small Town was my second Diane Chamberlain book to read. I was fairly confident I would enjoy it, and I was right. My favorite historical fiction are those that take real events or people and create stories around them. Diane does an excellent job fleshing out the characters, the setting, and the plot. Sometimes having two different timelines within a book can become confusing and leave me disinterested, but the opposite happened with this story. The alternating timelines were brief but informative, urging me to keep turning pages. I loved how the story was slowly revealed through both timelines, but I was actually more intrigued by the story of Morgan, the character in the present timeline, which was a surprise. If you're a fan of historical fiction or Diane Chamberlain, you will not want to miss this one!

I received an advance copy through Netgalley from the publisher, St. Martin's Press, in exchange for an honest review.

#popsugarreadingchallenge2020 (prompt #27)

Loved it!!!

This was an interesting read and I would recommend it for a book club or just as a personal read but I did not give it one of my highest reviews because those are saved for ones I just cannot put down. I enjoyed reading this book and liked the characters and the twists and turns in their lives. I also enjoy a story told in two different time periods that come together where some people find that a negative being hard to navigate or just a distracting way of telling a story. I find it fascinating how an author makes it all come together in the end. Overall a good solid story with good characters and a nice flow to the storyline.