Book Review: The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple

by Lorraine Walker, Librarian, Five Points West Regional Branch Library

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple
Jeff Guinn

“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid” is a phrase that usually means don’t believe everything that you’re told. However, in the case of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, its meaning is literal.

On November 18, 1978, Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones instructed all members living in the Jonestown, Guyana, compound to commit an act of "revolutionary suicide" by drinking poisoned punch. In all, 918 people died that day, nearly a third were children.

The Jonestown Massacre was the most deadly single non-natural disaster in U.S. history until the September 11 attack.

The Jonestown Massacre also remains the only time in history in which a U.S. congressman (Leo Ryan) was killed in the line of duty.

Author Jeff Guinn, author of the bestseller Mansion, has delivered the ultimate resource of the subject. It reads like the best fiction thriller you have ever known. You will not want to stop until you finish. Reserve your copy today.

For the record, it was cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid.

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