(Nov.) FYI: Layton's other brother, Thomas, wrote an earlier family history, In My Father's House (1981), with journalist Min S. Seductive Poison has been published in Italy, France, Australia, Germany, Thailand and United Kingdom. ''Never before published'' photos unseen by PW. Layton's lengthy account provides valuable insights into the inner workings of cults, and the details of her escape in the closing chapters generate strong suspense, hinting at film possibilities. Her fears were, of course, founded and not only did her mother die of cancer in Jonestown shortly before the mass suicide, but Larry was convicted for the conspiracy to kill Congressman Leo Ryan and is still in prison. Concerned for her mother, brother and friends still in Jonestown, she went to both the press and the State Department to warn of a possible mass suicide-murder but found few who believed her. By May 1978, Layton had engineered a complex escape plan and returned to the U.S. In the months that followed, she became aware of trouble in ''Paradise,'' realizing she had arrived in a work camp patrolled by armed guards and ruled by a deceitful ''Father'' (Jones), who practiced manipulative mind-control tactics, dictated grueling physical labor, staged suicide drills and devised bizarre punishments such as wrapping a boa constrictor around the neck of a ''sinner'' or hanging children upside-down in a well. For seven years, she was Jones's close confidante in California, and in 1977, she left with her mother for the ''Promised Land'' of Jonestown. A troubled teen from an affluent family in Berkeley, Calif., Layton and her mother were introduced to Jones by her brother, Larry. She gives a firsthand account of why she joined onein this case, Peoples Temple againand why she stayed as long as she did. Published on the 20th anniversary of the suicide-murder of more than 900 followers of Reverend Jim Jones in the Guyanese jungle, Layton's book is the first by a former high-level member of the People's Temple. Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple by Deborah Layton Layton’s memoir is the best resource I found for understanding how people wind up in cults.

Seductive Poison by Deborah Layton