I listened to this book on Audio CD. I really liked this story. The ending was sudden and lacked all of the interesting detail the rest of the book had. I would recommend. ( )

An average American family hires a tutor to help with the second son's poor SAT scores. The tutor is smart, intriguing, and psychotic, and begins systematically destroying their lives. This is only the second Peter Abrahams book I've read and they have both been the best thrillers I've ever read. They never let up. ( )

Wow--what a great read this was! I am seldom drawn to read fiction at all, but this book called to me as a possible fun diversion from my usual reading. It is psychological suspense for the intelligent. A gifted writer indeed. ( )

Mostly this was very good. Nice characterizations. Nothing laid on too thick. The girl was the best though. She was imaginative and older beyond her years but not outrageously so. She asked when she didn’t understand something and mused inwardly about the many other things she didn’t understand. None of the other characters were really likeable. I could empathize with Julian in some ways when he looked in on them.

Julian was not a raving psychotic so the ending with the snake and the house fire was a little weird. Apparently Julian was a special kid – educated privately, brought up in many cities around the globe. An almost preternaturally smart child, he became a bit twisted and now considers himself way above 95% of humanity. He is an auteur. And artiste. And he has writers block. So instead of writing a traditional novel, he decides to create a living one by manipulating the Gardner family.

He sets up Scott’s friend to think that a certain company stock is going to tank. The guy cleaned up the last time he made a sell short gamble, so he thinks it’s a piece of cake. This time, Scott won’t be on the sidelines. He sells his part of the business to get the cash and invests heavily. Of course he loses his shirt.

Brandon he decides will be arrested for crack dealing and sews a dozen vials of crack into the lining of Brandon’s letterman’s jacket. Then he anonymously calls into the school and Brandon’s locker is searched. The cop says the dog smelled drugs. Luckily the night before Ruby nosed in his jacket and found the vials sewn into the lining and threw them into the pond as revenge for Brandon failing to distribute flyers about their lost dog, Zippy.

Julian has killed Zippy. When Scott thought the stock was going to make them all rich, he decided to bring them all to an exotic island for a long weekend. Julian house sits. During that time he is booby-trapping the house and because he hates the dog, he tied him up and left him tortured in the garage. Interestingly, Ruby’s archery teacher comes by to drop off her bike and sees Zippy bound and gagged in the garage. She sets him free and accuses Julian of the crime. Julian says it was the evil neighbor. She leaves. He continues with the booby-trapping. She comes back, catches him, they fight and he wins. He makes it look like she disappeared.

That was weird too. One day they meet Julian, they get drunk and spill too much info and Julian waxes philosophical and boom – he house-sits the very next week. Too fast. No family with any concern for a small girl would let him that close, that soon. Because after that, he’s basically living there in the dead son’s old room. No way.

And Ruby isn’t as bright as we think she is. She’s off trying to solve mysteries but she doesn’t cotton on to Julian until the very end. And at the end she’s a little too clever. She’s alone with Julian when she sneaks off to investigate his apartment. He finds out and goes after her. But oh no, mom shows up at home and delays things. Finally he convinces her that he should use the car to go look for her and while she’s in his apartment she hears him coming. She calls her mother and convinces her to call Julian on the carphone and tell him she’s home. Mom does. Julian still comes upstairs and she hides until he leaves.

When Julian gets back to home base, Linda asks him why Ruby would be afraid. Why did she ask about the stock? At that point Scott comes home and they have a little confrontation. Of course super Julian gets the drop on both of them despite being slammed on the head by a jar of jam. Ruby comes home to find no one and when Brandon comes home they call the cops. During the night Julian creeps down from the attic with a gas can and tries setting the place on fire. He is subdued.

From a previous look into the almost frozen pond for Zippy, Ruby remembers the ski pole and informs the cops that Jeanette the archery instructor is probably there. Again, a bit too adroit for an 11 year old.

Julian never seemed to be a nutter. Just a manipulator with a sick need for amusement. Only at the end do we find out that he torched the parents in the boyhood home.

An enjoyable supsense novel that pits the main bad guy against a precocious 11-year old girl. Lots of suspense without lots of violence. ( )