Exquisite Corpse

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Scribner, 1997. Trade Paperback. Fine. First Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. "She is the only writer I know who could write a guide-book to hell that would make me want to go there." Peter Straub. To serial slaye r Andrew Compton, murder is an art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the U.S. with the ambition of bringing his art to new heights. Tortured by his own per v erse desires, drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his art to limits even Compton hadn't previously imagine d . Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese-American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim. Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London's Pic ca di lly Circus to the decadence of New Orlean's French Quarter, Poppy Z. Brite dissects the landscape of torture and invites us into the mind of a killer. This is a novel for those who dare trespass wh ere the sacred and profane become one. "Rice, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz are cringing wusses next to Poppy Z. Brite, whose perverse, scathingly intelligent, often terrifying homoerotic novels h ave mad e the young writer one of the rising stars of her literary generation." - New York Native. 240 pages..