Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple (1998)

Children of the '70s get to claim Jonestown as one of their decade's defining events, epitomized by footage of 913 cyanide-poisoned bodies found in the Guyanese jungle. Deborah Layton, financial secretary to the Peoples Temple and a victim of sexual abuse by the Rev. Jim Jones, reminds us in the candid memoir, Seductive Poison that Jones' followers were not social misfits but vulnerable Americans searching for answers. Her cautionary tale of life with the manipulative, powerful ''Father'' also recalls the privileged California environment that made the author, her mother, and her brother susceptible to Jones. Layton's defection six months prior to the mass suicide dilutes the horrific climax of her story, but this is nonetheless a fascinating account of a debacle that continues to resonate. B+