Ballantine Books 3rd printing October 1969 paperback (copyright 1965.) Cover by Robert Foster, 158 pages, 75 cent cover price. Condition is VG+ to near-Fine: tight and square with flat spine, age tanning is mild and uniform (some tanning on insides of covers), very light overall wear. Back cover shows some wear at right half towards spine (see 2nd scan.) No stamps, marks, or writing - a clean copy.

A novel by Frederik Pohl: A Plague of Pythons. A shorter version was serialized in Galaxy October, December 1962.

What if there were people who could jump from mind to mind, "possessing" people to do any whim or evil the invader wanted - who then leapt ahead, leaving the host to take the consequences. The world would be plunged into chaos. And so it was. 2 years after heads of state went crazy and missiles flew, the world is reduced to small enclaves, living in fear of possession by "imps." Chandler is accused of being a hoaxter - commiting rape and other crimes while in a location known to be safe from "imps." But his accusers are wrong, and after Chandler escapes death, he vows to spend his life finding out where the possessers came from. In the community of Orpahese, he finds a group who have learned a way to resist possession...

In 1984, Pohl revised this as Demon in the Skull. The plot is essentially the same; politics and history were updated. I liked this earlier version just fine. For an example of how SF authors conduct a "dialogue" or run with a concept - Emma Bull took on the idea of mind-jumping "possessors" with Bone Dance (1990.)