Barbara Delinsky Looking For Peyton Place

Looking For Peyton Place

Barbara Delinsky

Scribner, June 2005, $24.95, 365 pp

ISBN 0743246446

Middle River is the New England town that Grace Metalious' novel Peyton Place was based on. Middle River looks quaint and wholesome, but people have secrets that would ruin them if they get out. It is a company town and Sandy Meade owns the Northwood Paper Mill that employs most of the townsfolk so people are very reluctant to talk about the wrongdoing of Sandy and his son Aidan.

When Annie Barnes, a famous writer, thinks about her mother's death, she isn't sure that the official verdict tells the whole story. She returns to Middle River where she sees Phoebe have the same symptoms that her mother had. After doing some research, she thinks that they and other villagers suffer from mercury poison. The only place in town that uses mercury is the paper plant. The Meades try to turn the townsfolk against her and run her out of town before she learns what they are trying so desperately to hide. Making matters worse is that Annie falls for James Meade who refuses to tell her what he knows about his family and the possibility of mercury poisoning afflicting the people of Middle River.

The best part of reading a Barbara Delinsky book is that she never tells the same story twice and she imbues her storyline with a relevant social issue. LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE is a fabulous mainstream women's fiction book focusing on a spunky protagonist. Annie is determined to find out what is wrong in her town because she doesn't want to lose her sister or have other innocent people fall ill or die. Ms. Delinsky puts her heart into her work.

Harriet Klausner