Lake News

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Published by: Pocket
Release Date: May 1, 2000

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Synopsis

Lily Blake is just getting by as a songstress in Boston when her friendship with a newly-appointed Cardinal mistakenly – perhaps purposefully – becomes front page news.

Hounded by the press, fired from her job, and robbed of all freedom of movement, she has no choice but to flee to the small town of Lake Henry, New Hampshire, where she grew up.

There she deals with the hostility of her mother, with a driving need to exact justice against the media that forever changed her life, and with John Kipling, also born and raised in Lake Henry.

After a disastrous stint with the big-city press, John is now back publishing the local newspaper, and fighting his own battles in his quest for his father’s approval and his dreams of writing a book. Lily and John form an uneasy alliance as they give reporters a taste of their own medicine.


 

Reviews

"[An] engaging tale.”
—People

“[Her characters]…become more like old friends than works of fiction.”
—Flint Journal (MI)

“Delinsky fans won’t be disappointed.”
—San Antonio Express-News

“Delightful….Readers will be sorry to reach the end of Lake News and yearn for more about its cast and characters.”
—The Pilots (NC)

“Delinsky plots this satisfying, gentle romance with the sure hand of an expert.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Recommended….Lily Blake [is] a remarkable heroine.
—Abilene Reporter-News (TX)


Excerpt

Lake Henry, New Hampshire

Like everything else at the lake, dawn arrived in its own good time. The flat black of night slowly deepened to a midnight blue that lightened in lazy steps, gradually giving form to the spike of a tree, the eave of a cottage, the tongue of a weathered wood dock - and that was on a clear day. On this day, fog slowed the process of delineation, reducing the lake to a pool of milky glass and the shoreline to a hazy wash of orange, gold, and green where, normally, vibrant fall colors would be. A glimpse of cranberry or navy marked a lakefront home, but details were lost in the mist. Likewise the separation of reflection and shore. The effect, with the air quiet and still, was that of a protective cocoon.
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Backstory

Is Lake News another Clinton/Lewinsky rehash? Not by a long shot. Privacy has been a growing concern of mine. I’ve been appalled by how much personal information is available to complete strangers. One only has to combine that fact with the increasingly abusive power of the press, to start imagining the possibilities.

‘That’s what I did in dreaming up Lake News. I imagined a woman being falsely accused of involvement in an illicit sexual affair. I imagined what might happen to her life, one domino after another falling. I added layers of family frustration to her situation, and a man who represents everything she has come to distrust. I imagined the various ways in which she might rectify the situation.

‘Since I wrote Lake News, any number of politicians and religious leaders have been outed for having extramarital affairs. Sadly, the topic remains current.

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