|
Oh My Goodness! Murder and Mayhem in Mendham!
|
In 2005, famous mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark released
a book that takes place in Mendham! The book is called No Place Like Home,
and this book is available nationwide (not just New Jersey), as the author is quite well known!
The book is available at all the big online book stores like
amazon.com. And I'm sure many libraries would carry a copy as well.
And don't worry, the book is a work of fiction! (Or so they say!)
Basic Plot:
Ok, here goes! The book is about a lady named Celia. In 2004/2005ish,
she is 34 years old, and happily married with a four year old son.
They live in New York City but the husband wants to move. So he finds
a pretty restored mansion in Mendham and buys it as a surprise for his
wife. When Celia sees the house, well she is shocked! It turns out that
Celia lived in this exact same house when she was a kid, and was accused
of murdering her mother there. She never committed the murder, but
people were very willingly to believe she did. Thankfully,
Celia was aquitted of the murder, but the whole ordeal
ruined her childhood and reputation. As an adult, she had to assume a new
identity and name, and fortunately no one knows knows the truth
that she was this infamous child accused of the horrible murder.
But obviously, she does
not want to live in a house where such terrible memories are held!
And she doesn't want to tell her husband WHY she doesn't want this
beautiful restored mansion in the pretty town of Mendham, so
they move in.
Things Get Worse!
Right after Celia and family move into that house, the real estate
agent who sold it to them is murdered!! And from there, a few more citizens
of Mendham are found murdered as well! And unfortunately, everything points to Celia.
The police would love to pin all the murders on her, but the
evidence isn't conclusive.
Maybe she's being framed, but by who, and why? The plot can get
pretty thick trying to figure out what's going on! And who
in Mendham would benefit from committing all these murders, anyways?
Mendham Places Mentioned:
In the book, what's very cool is that the author Higgins uses real places all over Mendham where the action
takes place! The characters eat at the Black Horse Inn or the Coffee Shop
by Kings (formally Foodtown), and buy things at Robinson's Drug Store.
Celia's son attends St. Joe's Church, and
other characters attend Hilltop Presbyterian Church. Certain Roads are
mentioned - the real estate agent Georgette Grove lives on Hardscrabble
Road (and the house's description matches a house there that just happen to be originally
built by my great-great grandfather James Quimby! Very cool!). Other
roads mentioned include Sheep Hill and Holland Road in Peapack; and Mountain
Avenue (where Celia's Mom lived as a kid in Mendham); and many houses on
Main Street.
So What Happens? Who Did it?
I'm not telling!! Read the book! (Well, I can tell you one thing -
it wasn't me!!  )
Mendham High School:
Since this website is linked to
a Mendham High Alumni site, I guess I better mention that even
Mendham High does not escape the action in this book!
Higgins briefly mentions Mendham High,
but in complete factual error!
Basically, two of the characters (Georgette Grove and Henry Paley)
are revealed to have
attended Mendham High (on page 130 hardcover). If the book is suppose to take place around
2004/2005, and the two characters are now 62 years old, then they would
have been born around 1942, and graduated high school in 1960. Mendham
High did not open until 1970, so oops!!! Students living in
Mendham in 1960 would have just started attending West Morris Central,
as 1960 would have been one of their first graduating classes. (Before
1960, kids from Mendham who were high school age went to Morristown High.)
So if Georgette and Henry were going to Mendham High in 1960, they
would have been standing in the middle of a cow and sheep farm! And
they couldn't go to the nearby Grace Lutheran Church to pray about the fact
they have no school to attend, since it wasn't there then, either!!
So Go Read the Book!
So check out this book all about people getting murdered all over
Mendham! Isn't that great!! It's very
amusing to imagine the plot happening in our own town!
|
|
