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Exquisite Corpse

Poppy Z. Brite

1996240 pagesabout 4–6 hours
1996
first published
  • 1996Simon & Schuster · 240 pages · ENGISBN 9780684822549
  • 1996Millennium · 244 pages · ENGISBN 9780752802060
  • 1997Orion Publishing Group, Limited · ENGISBN 9780753800201
  • 1997Touchstone · ENGISBN 9781439136409
  • 1997Orion Publishing Group, Limited · ENGISBN 9780753800218
  • 1997Orion Publishing Group, Limited · 244 pages · ENGISBN 9781857994377
  • 2008Orion Publishing Group, Limited · 256 pages · ENGISBN 9780575084353
  • 1997Gallery Books · 240 pagesISBN 9780684836270

To serial slayer Andrew Compton, murder is an art, the most intimate art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the sole ambition of bringing his "art" to new heights. Tortured by his own perverse desires, and 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 imagined. 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 Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of the New Orleans French Quarter, and punctuated by rants from radio talk show host Lush Rimbaud, a.k.a. Luke Ransom, Tran's ex-lover, who is dying of AIDS and who intends to wreak ultimate havoc before leaving this world, Exquisite Corpse unfolds into a labyrinth of murder and love. Ultimately all four characters converge on a singular bloody night after which their lives will be irrevocably changed - or terminated.

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