Release: August 2016
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publisher: She Writes Press

Contradictory relationships within troubled families are nothing new, but the award-winning psychological novel written by well-known journalist Diane B. Saxton elevates these relationships and the mysterious heirloom painting that both exposes and unites them to an art form.

Peregrine Island interweaves the stories of three generations of women, one valuable painting, the artist who created it, and those who would do anything to possess it – including kill.

Lush with sensory details, this psychologically complex mystery novel is set on a private island in the middle of Long Island Sound. It begins when the family’s lives are turned upside-down one summer by so-called art experts, who appear on the doorstep of their isolated home to appraise a favorite heirloom painting. When incriminating papers along with two other paintings are discovered behind the painting in question, the appraisal turns into a full-fledged investigation and detectives are called into the case— but not by the family whose members grow increasingly antagonistic toward one another.

During the course of the inquiry and as the summer progresses, the family members discover new secrets about one another and new facts about their past. Above all, they learn that neither people nor paintings can be taken at face value.

Peregrine Island is the recipient of the following awards and honors:

  • Winner of National Indie Excellence Award for “Regional Fiction: Northeast”
  • “2017 Distinguished Favorite” in Literary Fiction category by Independent Press Awards
  • International Book Awards “Fiction: Literary” finalist
  • National Indie Excellence Award finalist for “Fiction—General”
  • 2017 Bronze Award for US Northeast Fiction from Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards

Buy Link


Meet the author
As a journalist for Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Holiday Magazine, and Greenwich Review, Diane B. Saxton 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. Saxton divides her time between New York City and the Berkshires, where she lives with her husband, dogs and horses.

All comments are welcomed.