The Monsters of Templeton is a dramatic novel written by Lauren Groff. Groff was born and raised in Cooperstown, New York. The name Templeton^[1] draws from the name devised for the town by James Fenimore Cooper, Cooperstown's most renowned author,^[2] known for The Leatherstocking Tales.^[3] Groff draws in many of the legends of Cooperstown, especially those crafted by Cooper himself,^[4] and ties them together over the expanses of time, then weaves them in with fictional modern-day events. The book was released to great critical acclaim.^[5][6]

Willie Upton returns home to Templeton for the summer from her graduate studies in archaeology with several dark secrets. Her life seemingly in shambles, she moves back in with her mother for the summer. She never knew the identity of her real father and her mother gives her the shocking revelation that her real father is alive and living in Templeton, but it is up to Willie to dig up the deep dark secrets of the small town and thus discover his identity. She excavates data from the local archives and from ancient books and letters. She gradually pieces together her family tree. While all of this is going on, Willie is concerned in the present about a possible pregnancy, about her sick friend she left back in California, about her mother's relationship with a local preacher, about her old acquaintance Zeke and of course about Glimmey, the kindly but now dead lake monster. In the end she discovers the true identity of her father and that she was closer to him than she ever could have thought.^[7]

• Bad Apples and Blue Eyes: Shaking Loose Secrets From the Family Tree by Janet Maslin, New York Times, February 18, 2008 ^[10]
• The town's changed, and it isn't just that thing in the lake by Laurel Maury, SFGate, Sunday, February 17, 2008 ^[11]
• In The Monsters of Templeton,' Cooperstown run amok by Yvonne Zipp, Christian Science Monitor, February 12, 2008 ^[12]