Television shows like American Pickers and Antiques Roadshow
tease viewers with a tantalizing question—could you have a treasure
hidden in your attic? This universal dream of finding out that your
dusty old painting is worth millions inspired
Diane Saxton to write PEREGRINE ISLAND (She Writes Press; August 2, 2016; $16.95.)
In her novel, Saxton tells the story of three generations of women who
have inherited a painting that they believe was painted by famed artist
Simon Crandor. Winter Peregrine, who lives on a private island on the
Long Island Sound with her fickle daughter,
Elsie, and her tenderhearted granddaughter, Peda, have their quite
lives turned upside down when two art “experts” show up to appraise
their beloved family heirloom.
The painting is one of the few privately held Crandors, and the two
experts – along with Crandor’s debonair grandson, Hamlet – want to
determine the piece’s authenticity. But when they pull the painting
from its frame, they find more than they bargained for—hidden
documents and additional paintings. Who put them there and why? And who
stands to gain and lose from the discovery of these stunning
treasures? In this engrossing novel that brings the Sound to vibrant
life, not even a painting can be taken at face value:
“For what you see, or think you see on Peregrine Island, is seldom what
it seems.”
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DIANE SAXTON was a journalist with Vanity Fair UK, Holiday Magazine, and
Greenwich Review, and covered everything from torture victims to
psychics, animal rights activists, exotic travel, and movie producers. A
new chapter opened up for her after interviewing Amnesty International
US founder Hannah Grunwald. Alarmed that
the stories of incredible and influential lives such as Grunwald’s
could be lost as the Greatest Generation passes, Saxton began capturing
their histories and compiled them into a 1,000-page biographical
collection, which became the inspiration for her next
novel. She brings the same gift for storytelling with illuminating
subtext to her debut novel,
PEREGRINE ISLAND. For more information, please visit:
http://dianebsaxton.com/