The Peyton Place Murder

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 the 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.

This true crime history examines the surprising connection between an infamous small-town murder and the bestselling novel it inspired. Born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, Grace Metalious shocked the nation in 1956 with Peyton Place, her sexually charged debut novel about murder in a small town. It spawned a series of novels, two Hollywood movies, and a long-running television series on ABC. It also made Metalious a pariah in her hometown, where she became tabloid fodder until her untimely death at the age of thirty-nine. Unknown to most readers, the fictional story was inspired by a real crime known as “The Sheep Pen Murder,” which took place in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, in the late 1940s. Now historian Renee Mallett skillfully weaves together the lives of Metalious and Barbara Roberts, the confessed killer behind The Sheep Pen Murder. In The “Peyton Place” Murder, Mallett explores what happens when true crime and literature meet.

Switch off those TVs, kill your mobiles and settle down with the most controversial book ever written. Once denounced as 'wicked', 'sordid', 'cheap' 'moral filth', PEYTON PLACE was the top read of its time and sold millions of copies worldwide. Way before TWIN PEAKS, SURVIVOR or BIG BROTHER, the curtains were twitching in the mythical New England town of Peyton Place, and this soapy story exposed the dirty secrets of 1950s small-town America: incest, abortion, adultery, repression and lust. Take a peek ...

Get the Summary of Renee Mallett's The 'Peyton Place' Murder in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "The 'Peyton Place' Murder" by Renee Mallett delves into the life of novelist Grace Metalious and the real-life murder that may have inspired her famous novel "Peyton Place." Born Marie Grace De Repentigny, Metalious grew up in a French-Canadian immigrant community in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she developed a passion for storytelling. Despite her mother's aspirations for a better life, the family faced financial struggles, which Grace escaped through her writing...

In this lively account of the writing, publication, and legacy of the 1956 bestselling novel, "Peyton Place," Ardis Cameron tells how the story of a patricide in a small New England village became a cultural phenomenon.

"'I am trapped,' she screamed silently, no one in the room hearing her inner pleas. 'I am trapped in a cage of poverty and mediocrity and If I don't get out I will die.' Only the sound of her typewriter could be heard that night echoing throughout the shack that she had called home. Grace Metalious wrote the stories that no one dared to write before that time. A midcentury tale of small-town life in New England to the hustle and bustle of New York City and to the unforgiving film studios of Hollywood, her story unfolds. Her infamous novel Peyton Place catapulted her from obscurity to the top of the literary world. This is a classic scenario where art imitates life and so does this novel. The young author coping with literary and financial success, without realizing it creates her own Peyton Place where she herself had to reside. The seasons of Grace is a fictional account based on the author's life; sometimes dark, sometimes shocking, but always authentic"--Back cover.

"Grace refused to be confined by the fifties' notion of a woman's place. In her struggle to find herself, she lifted the lid off sex and violence, power and powerlessness, truth and hypocrisy, and became known as the Pandora in Blue Jeans.".