In the January 19th Sunday Life section of the Journal News, seven local authors are profiled. Amazingly, because the JN lately pays very little attention to Rockland County, four out of the seven authors either live or are connected to Rockland County.
Maggie Barbieri, who currently lives in Croton-on-Hudson, but traces her roots to Blauvelt, has a new novel entitled “Once Upon a Lie.” Maeve Conlon is a divorced, suburban mom, who runs a local bakery in a small town very much like Croton. She becomes a “detective” when her cousin is found murdered in a local park. Previously, Barbieri was the author of the Murder 101 series. Set in Dobbs Ferry, her main character in the series’ seven books was Alison Bergeron, a divorced college professor who taught in a small, Catholic college. Barbieri, obviously, likes to draw upon local settings for her books.
JG Faherty of Garnerville is an author of adult and young adult horror, science fiction and fantasy stories. Among his works are “The Burning Time,” “Cemetery Club,” and “Ghost of Coronado Bay.” As a child his favorite playground was a 17th century cemetery, which “many people might say explains a lot about his perception of the world today.”
Pearl River’s Mary Beth Keane’s last book was “Fever” based on the life of Mary Mallon, otherwise known as Typhoid Mary. Keane spent nearly three years researching the life of Mary Mallon and blended fact and a fictionalized back story in her well-reviewed book.
For those interested in local history, Robert C. Maher of Valley Cottage has written “Rockland Lake, Hook Mountain and Nyack Beach.” Part of Arcadia Publishing’s series on local history, Maher used a great many resources provided by the Nyack Library, the Historical Society of Rockland County, as well as his own personal collection.
These four writers with home-county roots have written widely different but very interesting books.