CHILDREN OF LUCIFER

Dana Faralla can be counted on as one of those interesting authors who refuse to be typed. Each of her previous novels jumps the rut. The Magnificent and The Black Renegade dealt with boys and horses. In Circles of Trees and the Madstone she switched to children and society. She has turned her hand to juvenile fiction with more than the usual success enjoyed by primarily adult authors. In Children of Lucifer she brings two adolescents into conflict with a world of adult decadence and disenchantment. Imelde and Luciano, brother and sister, are transient American orphans in the care of a restless and tight fisted ""aunt"". succession of pension hotels in off-the-beaten-track cities of the Near East and Europe, guided by perverse to delicate tutors have produced two undisciplined intelligences, two unformed and misinformed characters. ""Aunt's"" latest retrenchment brings them to Corfu and under the observation of Eleanor Martini, an artist who atches, in a state of horrified fascination that rejects personal involvement, a tragedy of corruption played out against the splendid ruins of a place and the revolting ruins of a society. Comparison with the Turn of the Screw for mood and tone is inevitable.