Book Review
Looking for Peyton Place By BARBARA DELINSKY
Americans were glued to their black-and-white television screens in the 1950s as they watched "Peyton Place," the show based on Grace Metalious' revolutionary novel about secrets in a small town.

In 2005, New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky reimagines the town that inspired Peyton Place, creating her own version of the idyllic village that under the surface festers with lies and dangerous corruption.

When the publication of Peyton Place rocked the small New Hampshire town of Middle River, no one was more affected than Annie Barnes. Two of the scandalous novel's major characters resembled her mother and grandmother.

Annie fledher hometown, the assumed setting for Peyton Place, and became a writer herself. Returning home after 15 years, she discovers a new scandal that's even more stirring.

Annie returns to Middle River for the funeral of her mother, who unexpectedly died, and discovers that her sister is afflicted with the same mysterious symptoms as their mother. Annie is determined to findout why, and several weeks after the funeral, she returns for an extended visit.

She suspects that chemicals from Northwood Mill made her mother and sister sick, and that there are many more residents of Middle River who have been adversely affected by the mill. Townspeople think that Annie has returned to write a book about their town and will not cooperate with her investigation. Even her sisters don't believe what she tells them.

There is another problem. The most powerful family in town runs the mill, and they will do everything it takes to run her out of town. Still another problem arises. As Annie digs deep into the picture-perfect facade of Middle River, she falls hard for James Meade, the mill owner's son, who secretly supports her investigation.

Determined to leave no stone unturned, Annie comes face-to-face with decades of the town's lies and liaisons.

An excerpt from Looking for Peyton Place reads: "Something was going on in Middle River . . . Granted, I was a novelist; if I hadn't been born with a vivid imagination, I would have developed one in the course of my work, which meant that I could dream up scenarios with ease. But wouldn't you think something was fishy if people in a small town of fivethousand, max, were increasingly, chronically ill?"

(Information gathered from the Literary Guild magazine, Insider.)

Looking for Peyton Place is available in the Mary Willis Library.

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