SOLVED. Science fiction novel about a mysterious island wherein youth is sucked away to benefit the aged [s]

[Marsha]

I've going to get very specific here. I hope it helps.

In the beginning of the novel, a plane opens its doors and two bodies drop out of it into the sea. One is of an old man (could be a woman). The other is a beautiful young woman. Both are dead.

A few couples go to an island. One woman keeps falling asleep and waking up with her legs strangely weak as if she hasn't used them for days. Her husband keeps giving her jewelry after these episodes. But she realizes they're not love tokens but pacifying gifts meant to mollify her and divert her attention from the fact that he's gradually leeching away her youth.

She notices horrible wrinkles are appearing on her skin. She looks old even though she is a young woman.

The novel ends with this young woman, now looking like a much older one, hitting on a young boytoy and casually mentioning to him a lovely vacation spot...on this very same island. She's using this place the same way her husband did...to regain her lost youth by sucking it from this unknowing victim.

This is an old novel, maybe something I read in the 1970s or 1980s. That's as close as I can get to a publishing date. I hope this all helps.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

It is mandatory to include plot details in your topic header, as per the Group Rules.

We will close threads that don't adhere to this requirement.

Please add more plot details to your topic header from what you've already written.

[Marsha]

Lobstergirl wrote: "It is mandatory to include plot details in your topic header, as per the Group Rules.

We will close threads that don't adhere to this requirement.

Please add more plot details to your topic heade..."

My apologies. I hope the correction helps.

[Denis]

There wasn't an island, and I don't remember anything about bodies and a plane, but several elements here sound like The Methuselah Enzyme by Fred Mustard Stewart

[Marsha]

Denis wrote: "There wasn't an island, and I don't remember anything about bodies and a plane, but several elements here sound like The Methuselah Enzyme by Fred Mustard Stewart"

This looks like it might be right. I don't recall the author at all and a quick scan on the internet indicates the book may be out of print. But a few descriptions make it seem the right book in question. I think we can mark this as solved.

[Denis]

I hope so, Marsha. Don't know whether it's been reissued or not; my copy is a first printing from 1970.