The Peyton Place Murder

The True Crime Story Behind the Novel That Shocked the Nation

By: Renee Mallett

Narrated by: Mia Gaskin

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 listeners, 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.

©2021 Renee Mallett (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Interesting review of the background

This was an interesting back story of the crime Grace used to write Peyton Place, the costs to the author in her personal life and the difficulties women faced in the 1950’s. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it.

loved!

very interesting and well told story. i enjoyed it just as much as the many other books I've read by this author.

Meh

Given the source material, I expected it to be much more compelling. It was okay but not what I expected.

Great story!

As a child, I learned about Peyton Place when my Aunt would watch the TV show. I would want to watch with her, but she said this show is not for children. Today I get to watch on YouTube. I am enjoying the show. I really enjoyed this book. Thanks!

in my home state

loved every moment! read it over and over just to be sure I heard all the history of new Hampshire loved the story everything more and more each time. highly recommended for those who enjoy this kind of reading

Great story

Loved it. Easy to binge and very layered. So glad I stumbled upon it. At times very sad, yet uplifting.

What a story

I like the history behind the story.
Was a interesting book I would read again.

Not as described

I’m really glad I didn’t waste a credit on this book. I bought it for less than two dollars in the recent site-wide sale. The title is really a misnomer. Only about 1/4 to 1/3 of the book is about “the Peyton Place murder.” Most of the book is about Grace Metalious, who authored the book, and how the book and movie were received. If you want a bio of Ms Metalious, there are much better books out there than this one. Mallett seems to have “cobbled together” other bios and added minimal info about the real-life murder. The “conclusion” is not about the subject at all, but rather compares Metalious with Shirley Jackson and Sylvia Plath, like a high school English paper. I do not recommend this at all. Additionally, the reader mispronounces words and names and has a very dry delivery.

Disappointing

Not far in, but I’m sad to say I’m throwing in the towel. The reader’s childlike, chirpey chipper voice is doing my head in, and I found that I could get the gist of the sad true crime story behind the novel via Google.