My Rating: 5 Stars
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Narrator: Susan Bennett
Media: Audiobook
Length: 13 Hours Unabridged
Genre: Fiction Literature Mystery
North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher’s life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women’s Correctional Center. Her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to leave prison, 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 desperate for 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? (Goodreads)
This book caught my attention not just because I am from a small town in NC but also being from the south, I know people have secrets, Southern secrets. I will not elaborate.
Anyway, I give this book 5 stars because it was crazy and believable. I enjoyed the characters although I didn’t care what happened to Anna. I know that sounds bad, but first of all, she’s a makebelieve character…. but also she was so nieve to think nothing could happen to her. It was like something HAD to happen to her for her to realize that there are bad people in this world who don’t care about you and will stomp on you for any reason. Maybe she grew up a bit sheltered, but the people in the town tried to tell her she shouldn’t be out at 3 o’clock in the morning, that it was dangerous. I know she didn’t deserve what happened to her, I wish she had been robbed at gunpoint instead of what really happened to her, anything would’ve been better than that, but something good came from it. Sad to say.
I really enjoyed how Chamberlain tied up all the loose ends. It was really beautiful how things turned out. The side story with little Nathan and his father was a nice touch. I think Jesse knew what he was doing when he sent his daughter to the prison with a proposition.
This book was great and covered topics I am very uncomfortable talking about, but due to the setting when part of this book took place, it was true to the time.
Have you read this book? I think I will read more Diane Chamberlain, let me know what you thought of this review in the comments below.
The Reviewer's View 