A Picturesque Town is the Setting for the Latest Book by Area Author, Photographer and Visual Artist
By Eileen Moon
Sometimes, a peaceful setting can be deceiving. Like one of those British mysteries set in a seemingly picture-perfect village across the pond, murder and mayhem may lurk in the most serene-appearing places.
Sit for a minute on a park bench overlooking the placid Navesink River as a sailboat glides by in a gentle wind – such a pretty scene, and yet so easily capsized. A rough wind, an undertow, a whispered piece of gossip – or a dead body – can suddenly roil the calmest waters.
That idea was the inspiration for “Fair Haven” (Spectrum Books 2025), a summertime who-done-it written by author, photographer, visual artist and Two River native Laury A. Egan.
Egan, whose childhood landscape led from the verdant hills of Atlantic Highlands to the green lawns of Rumson, used the geography she knows well to weave a fictional tale of love, lust, longing, envy, ambition, betrayal and, yes, murder that ultimately impacts just about everyone in this seemingly idyllic town.
Who did it? “Nobody can figure it out ‘til the very end,” Egan said.
In this imaginary community, set like its real-life counterpart along the river, everybody pretty much knows everybody, and there’s plenty of gossip and intrigue to go around.
So, when a flirty teacher at the tennis club turns up dead in her hot tub, the flying monkeys of suspicion descend on the community, darkening the blue-sky day with the heaviness of a passing cloud.
Suddenly, it appears that everyone has something to hide, from the local priest to the chief of police.
While the names of local landmarks in the book may differ, they have a lot in common with their real-life inspirations.
“The places are fictional, but people who know the area can figure it out,” Egan said.
In writing the book, Egan sought out the expertise of several local folks with backgrounds in law enforcement who helped add authenticity to the tale. One former Fair Haven police officer “helped me a lot,” Egan said. Additional help came from a law enforcement friend with a specialty in financial crimes.
As she plotted the story, she used calendars to keep it all on track as she introduced a variety of characters whose stories appear “as the plot tumbles out,” Egan said. “I try to create characters who could have done it.”
“I had so much fun with the idea of Fair Haven as full of intrigues,” she continued, adding, “It’s a ‘Peyton Place’ kind of story,” referencing the scandalous 1960s soap opera.
“I made that poor town into a bed of intrigue, fraud and theft and murder,” Egan said. “Fair Haven is unrecognizable.”
Despite that sleight of hand, in real life, Egan’s love for the Two River area is what brought her back here after years of living where her work as a book designer and fine arts photographer took her. She now lives in Highlands, just a few miles from the towns she grew up in.
She began working on “Fair Haven” in 1985, when she acquired her first computer and printer and decided it was time to get serious about writing.
It was to be her first full-length novel, but for many years, the book took a backseat to Egan’s other commitments.
“I kept putting it under the mattress and getting involved with other things,” she said.
It took Egan another 25 years to find the time to focus fully on her writing. “Once I began in 2009, the work has been steadily ongoing.”
Her first work to see print was a volume of poetry titled “Snow, Shadows, a Stranger,” published in 2009 by Foothills Publishing. Three more volumes of poetry followed: “Beneath the Lion’s Paw,” “The Sea & Beyond” and “Presence and Absence.”
Her poetry and short stories have been featured in approximately 90 literary journals.
Her first novel to see print was “Jenny Kidd,” a tale of sexual intrigue, risk and romance set in Venice that was published in 2012. A revised version of the book will debut this October.
Her previous works, which include poetry and plays, novels and short fiction, have all been traditionally published in the United States and in England, where six of her novels were acquired by Spectrum Books, a publisher of LGBTQ fiction.
The personalities and the predicaments encountered in Egan’s novels include a troubled Korean War veteran (a bittersweet tale), a coming-of-age tale of love and a search for identity (“Turnabout”), an aspiring opera singer who moonlights as a drag queen (“Fabulous! An opera buffa”), an adolescent outcast in a family of grifters (“The Outcast Oracle”), a same-sex attraction with an unsettling aura of danger (“Doublecrossed”) and murder and intrigue on a Greek island (“The Ungodly Hour”).
While each book is very different, Egan’s characters reflect some of her own passions: her love of Venice, tennis, opera, psychology and photography.
Though her degree was in graphic design and photography, Egan also took several psychology courses, and the twists and turns of the human mind play a role in the actions of many of her characters.
One of her novels, “The Psychologist’s Shadow,” brings the mystery and suspense into the treatment room as a relationship between a doctor and a mysterious patient takes a turn.
A whiz kid from her earliest years, Egan is the daughter of fine artist Agnes Ricks Egan and Richard Egan, a building contractor. When not absorbing the artsy atmosphere at home, Laury was a child of the woods and the water, in search of the enchanting discoveries known only to children. Roaming the hills of Atlantic Highlands, she once discovered what she believes to be a Native American trail leading down to the water. It was one of many observations she made as an only child who learned early on how to notice and remember.
She carried that inspiration on to the page, drafting poetry and fiction throughout her childhood. “I was a loner kid. I didn’t have much in common with my schoolmates. As a result, I entertained myself by writing,” she said.
She remembers calling to her mother to bring her a pen and paper when the muse struck her as she was soaking in the bathtub as a small child.
Though words captivated her, she was also drawn to art and design.
“My mother was a charter member of the Guild of Creative Art,” Laury said. “She was a very accomplished artist. I grew up with that drip, drip, drip in my ear” of art and artists, color theory and perspective. “I had a lot of exposure.”
The family moved to Rumson when Egan reached her teens; she graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School in 1968. She has fond memories of her years at RFH, where she learned to punctuate properly from a woman teacher she describes as “a tough taskmaster.”
“I would really credit some of my teachers there. They really made a difference.”
While she dreamed of enrolling in Bennington College to prepare for a writing career, something got in her way. “I think I chickened out,” Egan says now. “I didn’t want to take the risk.”
Instead, she enrolled in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1972. Working as a book designer for Princeton University Press, she earned the respect of the old-time typesetters when she proved she knew her way around an ampersand in the typesetters’ tray.
As her graphic design skills expanded, Egan continued to follow her other passions, writing poems and short fiction while also building a second career in fine arts photography.
Her interest in theater and live opera took her in other rewarding directions – as a professional photographer, she was able to connect with some of her musical heroes, including Placido Domingo, whom she photographed at the Metropolitan Opera and the Kennedy Center, and composer Philip Glass, who purchased several of her images for his own archives.
She continues to teach fine arts photography privately and the work of several of her students has been honored by the prestigious Salmagundi Club in New York City.
As she learned in childhood, the key to creativity is to notice and remember.
“I tell them to make a photograph, not take one,” she noted.
Like her mother before her, Laury Egan is a member of the Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury, where she is a Lifetime Exhibiting Member.
Unabashedly industrious, Egan is comfortable working seven days a week, and the door of her imagination is always open should a fresh character decide to stop by and introduce themselves.
But at 75, she acknowledges that “Fair Haven” may be her last book. “The reviews have been good and I’m very happy with it,” she said.
“I really don’t have any regrets. I’ve had really good opportunities – and I’ve made some opportunities.”
A few signed copies of “Fair Haven” are available at River Road Books in Fair Haven. Books can also be ordered from the author’s website at Lauryegan.com, and Egan is happy to arrange to sign them.
The article originally appeared in the July 24 – 30, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
