RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE (256 pp.)Grace MetaliousMessner ($3.95).
Whatever the inspiration that sent a flat-wheeled caboose clattering after Author Metalious' steam-powered first novel, Peyton Place, the sequel bears all the marks of a book whacked together on a long weekend. The original novel required readers interested only in literary privy-peeping to wear out their forefingers spelling through long passages devoted, with some success, to such matters as scene-setting and characterization. Return has little more scene-setting than a limerick, and the characterization is negligible. The meat of the book is as strong-flavored as bear steak"Jennifer lay awake in the dark, smiling. She touched...
