The Inner Circle was published by Viking in 2004. The novel is narrated by John Milk, a fictional assistant to the real Alfred Kinsey — the Indiana University sex researcher whose landmark studies (Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, 1948; Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, 1953) transformed American attitudes toward sexuality. Milk describes his recruitment into Kinsey’s inner circle, where the boundaries between professional research and personal sexual experimentation dissolve: Kinsey encourages (demands, eventually) that his staff and their spouses participate in sexual activities as both subjects and researchers.
Boyle’s Kinsey is a compelling figure — brilliant, driven, genuinely idealistic about sexual liberation — who gradually reveals the tyranny within his liberationism. His insistence that his staff share everything, including their bodies, becomes a form of control as absolute as the Puritanism he claims to oppose.
The Kinsey Legacy
Kinsey remains one of the most contested figures in American science. His supporters credit him with liberating American sexuality from Puritan repression; his critics accuse him of normalising deviance and using deeply flawed methodology. Boyle’s novel occupies the difficult ground between admiration and critique, refusing to resolve the contradiction.
Collecting The Inner Circle
First edition (Viking, New York, 2004): Boards with dust jacket.
Approximate market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $25–$50
- Very good: $10–$25
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Kinsey really as controlling as the novel depicts? Contemporary accounts from Kinsey’s assistants and biographers suggest that Boyle’s portrayal is broadly accurate. Kinsey did encourage and eventually expect sexual participation from his inner circle, and the boundary between research and coercion was genuinely unclear.