Big Lies in a Small Town

612

ISBN: 9781250087331 | BUY HERE

The novel opens in 2018 in North Carolina, where artist Morgan Christopher is serving time for a crime she didn’t commit. Her chance to go free comes about when she honors a visitor’s request to restore a mural at the old post office, unearthing old secrets and violence from the 1940s.


FROM THE PUBLISHER

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 arts 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

Sharon Callaghan is a bookseller at our Vernon Hills bookstore whose specialty is children's books. “I love being in the children’s section because the children are so excited about reading—it’s especially great seeing a young child working out the letters and sounding out a word by themselves; that look of joy and accomplishment in their eyes,” says Sharon. In 2019, she was selected as a James Patterson Bookseller Bonus Program awardee—one of 500 booksellers selected from a pool of 2500 nominations.