Genre: Non-Fiction/True Crime
Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781952225628
WildBlue Press
188 Pages
June 10, 2021
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Grace Metalious, born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, came from humble beginnings. A former mill worker, mother of three, and school principal's wife, she would shock the nation in 1956 with the publication of Peyton Place, her first novel about a murder in a small town.
Quickly becoming the best-selling book of its time, the sexually-charged book spawned sequels, two Hollywood movies, and a long-running television series on ABC starring Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal. It also made Metalious a pariah in the town where she lived, and tabloid fodder for years, ultimately leading to her untimely death at the age of 39.
Unknown to most readers, behind the fictional story about the lives and scandals of residents of a small New England town Metalious called Peyton Place, lay a dark secret based on fact. The story was, in part, inspired by a true life crime known in the press as "The Sheep Pen Murder," which took place in Gilmanton, New Hampshire in the late 1940s.
In The Peyton Place Murder: The True Crime Story Behind the Novel That Shocked the Nation historian Renee Mallett skillfully weaves together the lives of Metalious and Barbara Roberts, the confessed killer behind The Sheep Pen Murder. In her book, Mallett shines a new light on the inspiration behind the shocking best-selling novel and explores what happens when true crime and literature meet.
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First off, I have to say that the title rather got me, as it did many readers. Perhaps the book should have been named: The True Crime Story Behind the Novel Peyton Place. In that instance, people would know immediately what the book contained. Saying that, I did know that there was a true crime that somewhat inspired the novel, just as I knew that Grace Metalious died at 39 years of age. Sad it is, but she made her choices, even if they weren't good ones.
And indeed they weren't. This book paints Metalious as a selfish, self-centered woman who wanted only what she wanted, and anyone and anything else just got in her way. It paints her as a slovenly woman who didn't keep house, cook, or care for her children, really. All she wanted to do was write. I have great respect for authors, as I love to read and practically devour books; but not to the detriment of leaving things around home undone or not caring about my home and children. I would also like to believe authors today manage to combine their writing with the rest of their lives. Obviously Metalious had no such qualms about anything.
When she heard of the murder, which was a sensation in its time, she managed to incorporate it in her book, which lead to the people of her town thinking they were being incorporated also (which may well have been the case); but in so doing, it doesn't make them come off well at all. They seem to be a small-minded township of people who vilify anyone who might even go against them. This does not seem to be a town I would want to live in, much less visit. They come off as a nasty group indeed. I can't say whether I would like to be in a book or not, since it has never come up, but I would like to think that I would have more generosity in my heart. Ah, such is life.
To the murder: a young woman -- same as in the book -- killed her father for the same reasons. The town rallied for her, her family rallied for her, and it became national headlines, mainly for the fact that she was well-liked, poised, and beautiful. To find the outcome of this, you will have to read the book because I have no intention of saying any more about it.
But the book shows this impact on Grace, and when she began making money from the book, she squandered all of it as soon as it came in. There were lawsuits and problems in her marriage and home life, but nothing mattered except what she wanted, and this is what ruined her. It is difficult to maintain any sympathy for such a woman, but one can agree that the book was indeed a sensation...but at what cost?
More Books by Renee Mallett: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4206297337
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