Touch of Evil

by Whit Masterson

Book Overview

This powerful novel, on which Orson Welles based his famous 1958 film, is a sleek, dark indictment of the American justice system--an original American masterpiece. Masterson looks at corruption in society and shows how it taints all of us.--Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0881848867
• ISBN13: 9780881848861
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Book different than the movie

Having seen the Orson Welles directed movie, I recently bought a copy of this book. I was surprised at how different the original story is from the film. In the book, the main character is a district attorney in San Diego, not a narcotics officer from Mexico. And while Charlton Heston plays the Mexican officer in the film who's married to an American, in the book the DA is married to a Mexican woman. Also, the film takes place in a Texas town near the US-Mexico border while the book takes place (although not actually named) in San Diego. While the film is a masterpiece because of Wells' direction, the book remains a more believable story.