"The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot
corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass." So begins The
Monsters of Templeton, a novel spanning two centuries: part a
contemporary story of a girl's search for her father, part historical
novel, and part ghost story. In the wake of a disastrous love affair
with her older, married archaeology professor at Stanford, brilliant
Wilhelmina Cooper arrives back at the doorstep of her hippie
mother-turned-born-again-Christian's house in Templeton, NY, a storybook
town her ancestors founded that sits on the shores of Lake Glimmerglass.
Upon her arrival, a prehistoric monster surfaces in the lake bringing a
feeding frenzy to the quiet town, and Willie learns she has a mystery
father her mother kept secret Willie's entire life. The beautiful,
broody Willie is told that the key to her biological father's identity
lies somewhere in her family's history, so she buries herself in the
research of her twisted family tree and finds more than she bargained
for as a chorus of voices from the town's past -- some sinister, all
fascinating -- rise up around her to tell their side of the story. In
the end, dark secrets come to light, past and present day are blurred,
and old mysteries are finally put to rest. The Monsters of Templeton
is a fresh, virtuoso performance that has placed Lauren Groff among the
best writers of today.
