The Corrupters

by Dariel Telfer

Mesa City could be any town, anywhere. Its inhabitants follow an organised, unremarkable life. Then one day the body of a young girl is found placed on a pyre and reduced to charred bone and flesh; but not far enough to conceal the fact that she was pregnant. Who is responsible? Was it the talented seventeen-year-old Keith Newall, to whom this girl became sister and friend? Is it guilt which drives him into an illicit relationship with his own sex, or is he seeking a desperate revenge? Perhaps Milo Cable is guilty. He is wealthy, middle-aged, a connoisseur of youthful flesh, a virtuoso in the field of aberrant delights, a dilettante in Dionysian rites ... Or was it Arthur Benedict or Frank Cane, men of substance and responsibility, but whose wives call them corrupters?But there is more to it than that. To Claudia Newall and her husband John comes the inevitable revelation of the real corrupters; and to the reader the tendency to pity rather than wholly despise them. No one is unblemished, and corruption is not particular in its selection of compatriots ...

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964