Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A professor's quiet life is changed forever when he takes in his charming, manipulative teenage nephew, whose wealthy parents have just died under mysterious circumstances, in this propulsive debut psychological thriller. Gil is living a simple life as a creative writing professor in a bucolic Vermont town when he receives some shocking news: His sister and her husband have been killed in a car accident in Manhattan, and their only son is coming to live with him and his family.
Gil and his wife are apprehensive about taking in seventeen-year-old Matthew. Yes, he has just lost both his parents, but they haven't seen him in seven years--and the last time the families were together, Matthew lured their young daughter into a terrifying, life-threatening situation. Since that incident, Gil has been estranged from his sister and her flashy, vastly wealthy banker husband. Now Matthew is their charge, living under their roof.
The boy seems charming, smart, and urbane, if surprisingly unaffected by his parents' deaths. Gil hopes that they can put the past behind them, though he's surprised when Matthew signs up for his creative writing class. Then Matthew begins turning in chilling stories about the imagined deaths of Gil's family and his own parents. Bewildered and panicked, Gil ultimately decides he must take matters into his own hands--before life imitates art.
Told in limber, mesmerizing prose, A Flaw in the Design is a twisting novel of suspense that brilliantly explores the tensions surrounding class, family, and the drive to control one's own story.