Francis Dipietro

The Piltdown Latitudes Francis Dipietro

Prudholm Bay-a sleepy seaside community with a bad attitude. It may be the salty air, it may be the industrial plants, but Prudholm has nurtured quite an odd batch of townsfolk. When Ariel, the local party girl, is found floating in the waters near Prudholm's Nine Points lighthouse, it seemed like her story was over. With diligence and fervor, however, someone has been digging up her corpse and copulating with it. And the audacity of the necrophilia escalates while a relatively fruitless search ensues for her killer/defiler. Seeing his chance to capitalize on his town's misfortune, Anslo Creevington, the local millionaire, constructs a theme park dedicated to (and depicting) Ariel's various unearthings. Morals and scruples fly to the wind as the once-quiet Prudholm Bay plunges into a mudpile of argument and exploitation. From the book: "Was our action really so monstrous in a world where sirens have replaced birds in the night? A world where wars are conducted to sharpen the act of conducting "Only one man can save Prudholm from its vapid course, and he's one of the prime suspects.