She weaves these two women’s stories seamlessly throughout this book connecting them in many ways. She surrounds them with well-thought-out supporting characters, some of which you will love and others you will despise. Chamberlain writes both of these women in such a way that you feel like you know their innermost thoughts and feelings. “Standing next to him, I pointed out the iris in the sea of daisies, then watched his face as he took in…” I came away with a greater appreciation of art and art restoration after reading this book.

Chamberlain has put a great deal of time and effort into researching this book. More than once, I didn’t see multiple twists that were revealed.

Chamberlain drops the proverbial bombshell. Morgan becomes obsessed with trying to figure out why this promising artist disappeared never to be heard from again.īig Lies in a Small Town is a well-constructed story that builds suspense slowly while at the same time, the reader becomes consumed with the lives of the two main characters. But what does she have to lose? What she never expects to happen is that as she restores this bizarrely painted mural, she becomes wholly immersed in Anna’s life. Morgan finds herself in the small town of Edenton, NC, totally alone and out of her element.

With her future art career derailed, a stranger makes her an offer that is difficult to turn down get out of jail by restoring a mural painted by the obscure 1940’s artist Anna Dale. She is in the North Carolina Women’s Correctional Center presently paying for someone else’s crime. Morgan has made some terrible mistakes in her life, but the biggest was not of her own doing.

Big lies in a small town review