The Intruder

The end is pretty good (although I don’t think it could ever happen but, this is fiction). The contractor Phil, has the family captive in his apartment and is going to kill them because the frame-up job he tried to pull on Jake didn’t work out. Now he is going to be charged with the murder of the homeless man Abe instead of Jake. The 3 of them literally beat Phil and drown him in the toilet.

Meanwhile the wife’s patient is recovering from his traumatic experiences. John Gates is his name & he’s had a hell of a life. Addicted to drugs most of the time he found a woman who could love him and for a while they have an idyllic life. Then their daughter is run down by a car in the street and John G falls apart and goes back to smoking show more crack. He ends up jobless and homeless and he can’t separate reality from fantasy very well, which is why he stalks Jake’s wife. He is under the delusion that she is his wife and he has come to get her back.

The law is no help to Jake when John G tries to assault his son with a boxcutter. Since he didn’t actually touch Alex, there’s nothing that can be done. So John G hangs around the house and harasses them. This is why he falls for the goofy ‘we’ll just intimidate him’ plan that Phil the contractor comes up with. He couldn’t stand being so powerless.

Jake falls for it and Phil and his cousin kill John G’s protector in the tunnels under the park. When Jake doesn’t help Phil get a school renovation contract, Phil rolls over on him to the attorney general instead of helping to trap his uncle who is a mob godfather type. In a way, I can’t believe that Jake can’t see what Phil is up to. I mean, what kind of a person offers to beat someone up for you and expects nothing in return? Naïve. And of course he tells nothing of this to Dana.

John G despite his crack habit cannot abet Phil in his frame-up of Jake. He tells the judge that he saw Jake get in between Phil and Abe in the tunnel and try to stop the fatal beating. Miraculously, he is believed and charges are dropped.

I wonder if other people who haven’t had an example like my parents, believed that Jake could still be so in love with Dana after all these years. I didn’t even question that it could be true because my parents still act like they’ve been married only a week.

I liked the portrayal of John G and his slow degradation. How someone becomes homeless is a matter of circumstance and self esteem. After his kid died, he blamed himself and the guilt drove him back to the drugs. The combination of mental instability and drugs caused him to hallucinate and almost crash the train he was supposed to be driving. The habit took all his money and he lost his apartment. He felt he deserved being homeless and a drug addict. He felt it was penance for his dead child. When he saw his ex-wife again and she too was an addict (HIV positive, too), it reinforces his own break down. show less

This book reminded me of a James Patterson novel. It was exciting and fast-paced.