Yorktown Author Releases ‘Peachwood Lake’
In her follow up effort to the popular novel “Dust,” author Susan Berliner has released the thriller “Peachwood Lake.”
Berliner, who lives in Yorktown Heights, summarizes the book as “a ferocious fish terrorizes a small Connecticut town while a 13-year-old girl struggles with her own terrifying problems of growing up.”
She said that she was inspired back in July 2007.
“I read a cover story in the New York Times and the story was called ‘Summer Time Fish Jumping Back Trouble,’” Berliner said. “Each summer in the Swami River down in Florida these large belugas jump out of the water and sometimes hit boaters. They break their arms and longs and are sometimes knocked unconscious. Scientists say these fish are not intentionally mean, they do not mean to hurt people, but they have no idea why they jump.”
Berliner wondered what would happen if there were fish that were intentionally trying to kill people.
In the book, Kady Gonzalez sees an armored silver fish leap high in Peachwood Lake and attack a neighbor in his rowboat.
“That’s the start of the malevolent fish’s war on the pristine Connecticut lake,” said Berliner. She expects the book to appeal to women, men, and older teens. It does contain some sexual content.
Before becoming a novelist, Berliner was a non-fiction writer for nearly her entire career. She even served a 20-year stint as promotion manager for the Yorktown PennySaver, a large Hudson Valley chain of shopping guides.
She began her life as a newspaper reporter for Fairchild Publications. Berliner then switched to freelance writing—mainly in education—but also as a reporter for the North County News.
Berliner enjoys keeping active. She is in the middle of writing her fifth novel, which she describes as a world-end thriller and blogs at least twice a week on her website, www.susanberliner.com.
“Dust” and “Peachwood Lake” can be ordered through any retail bookstore or through her website.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.