Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain ~ Book Review

Morgan's schooling and career in art have been put on hold while she went to jail for taking the blame in a drunk driving accident.  When a stranger and her lawyer come to the jail to offer Morgan a chance at early release in exchange for her restoring an old post office mural Morgan is all over it, anything to get out of jail.  But her hope is soon crashing into skepticism.  Why would a total stranger choose her, especially when she has no skills or knowledge of restoration work?  And when tensions are high between her and the person who hired her she begins to doubt her decision.  But as she learns about restoration and starts to work on the piece Morgan finds all sorts of odd and disturbing things the artist has placed in there seeming to collaborate the rumors that the artist descended into madness which pushes Morgan to keep going.  Anna Dale had been a young artist from New York in the 1940's when she won a contest put on by the federal government hiring artists to paint small towns post office murals.  Her assignment lands her in Edenton, North Carolina where she finds things she didn't expect.  Things like anger that she won when there was a local artist who also submitted work into the contest and deep prejudices and secrets that the town is hiding.  When she hires a young black teenager with great artistic talent Anna has no idea of the hate that will rise in some people. What small town secrets was Anna Dale trying to tell when she painted the odd office mural, it certainly seems like the madness rumors might be true,  and why was Morgan the one chosen to reveal them?

This was a great story.   Once it got going it was hard to put down.  The two timelines flowed smoothly and the author did a great job in revealing just enough at each step to keep me turning to find out what happened.  I loved Morgan's growth through the story.  The story was both heart breaking and heart warming.  It took the whole story to reveal why Morgan was chosen and kudos to the author for being able to hold out to the end the full reveal of the story.   I will just put a trigger warning here that there is content that might be difficult for some.  I don't want to put spoilers so if you need to know exactly what it is email me.  And there is occasional use of foul language if that is something you do not like.

I gave this a 9.5/10

Read Your Shelve Challenge Goal Met:  November's A book with a night scene on the cover

Reading Goal 2021 Met:  Read a book each month from my 2019-2021 purchases