Angela M is taking a break.'s Reviews > Big Lies in a Small Town

I’ve read several of the over two dozen novels that Diane Chamberlain has written. I can’t say I loved them all as much as Necessary Lies, but in my view, it’s unquestionable after reading them, that Chamberlain knows how to tell a story.

Almost eighty years separates the alternating narratives of two women artists. Anna Dale’s is told in the third person and her story takes place in 1939 in the small town of Edenton, NC, where she travels to from New Jersey. Anna has won a national contest to paint a mural representing the town to be hung in the post office. Morgan Christopher’s chapters are told in the first person and it’s 2018. She has been released from the prison term she is serving for a crime that she did not commit. Her release is made possible by a famous African American artist, Jessie Jameson Williams who designates in his will, that she should be the one to restore the mural painted by Anna Dale years ago. Each one is facing a challenge, each one is carrying a burden.

It’s a mystery of sorts and I’m not much of a fan of mysteries. However, I was taken with wanting to know the secrets that the mural held and with the story of Anna Dale, just as Morgan was. How will the women be connected ? Why did Jessie Williams choose Anna Dale’s painting to be hung in the gallery he charges his daughter to open? How did he get Anna’s mural? Why was Morgan Christopher chosen to restore the painting? The story is more than a story of a mysterious painting, it is a reflection of racism in the south in 1939, a reflection of small town life, and how the lies of the past come full circle to the truth in the present.

I’m usually more drawn to the historical part of the story in these dual narratives, but I found myself pulled in by both of the stories, by both of the artists. The short alternating chapters kept the story moving and held my interest throughout. In spite of a neat ending and that I guessed what the connection between the two women could be, it didn’t diminish my interest in the least. This novel is another example of Diane Chamberlain’s story telling capabilities.

I received an advanced copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley.