Crying Wolf [Mass Market Paperback]

Although parts of this book are predictable it is still an extremely enjoyable read. I will definitely look for more books by Abrahams in the future. The characters are very likable and interesting although Nat could have been given a male's name to avoid confusion at times. Buy this!

Nat, male even though has a girl's name, is the pride of his small town, raised by his financially battling mother he obtains a partial scholarship to Inverness College but will have to work every spare minute of his time to be able to stay there. Not being able to afford to return home for Christmas, on route to campus security to report his dorm mate's stolen TV he witnesses two hot girls drop a fish tank. Lorenzo the Great's life is about to be cut short but Nat saves the day at the expense of some science lab brown fish. The two beautiful girls Izzie and Grace invite him to New York where he learns they are not only attractive but extremely wealthy as well.

Meanwhile Freedy with the IQ of a rock is cleaning pools in California and thinks every woman he meets wants to sleep with him. He narrowly escapes a rape charge by fleeing back to his home town Inverness.

Nat and the girls discover tunnels under the university with a hidden ballroom type place with a bed. There they plot a plan to make Nat's money problems go away but someone is watching who wants to start a pool company in Florida and sleep with Izzie and Grace.

I'd purchased "Crying Wolf" for a friend at work. Because he was out of the office and I'd run out of books, I borrowed this from his stack. I actually went to work half an hour early the day after I started reading it, so that I could finish the book before he came in to claim his prize.

I was looking for the suspense since, on the cover, Stephen King is quoted as having said that Peter Abrahams is his "favorite American suspense novelist." I really didn't find suspense. However, I found a good plot with likeable characters. While this book takes place in college - a boarding school, if you will - I kept thinking that Inverness was NOT Hogwarts...

Nat is a young man who wins a scholarship that takes him from his working-class town to Inverness College. Freedy is a young bodybuilder thug. Their paths parallel but never quite meet until...

Nat happens upon Grace and Izzie, very rich twin sisters who attend Inverness (and very different from Patti, his hometown sweetheart). The three students hatch a kidnapping scheme to try to obtain some much-needed money from the girls' father. However, as we learned as children, if you Cry Wolf often enough, when a crisis emerges no one will believe you.

While seldom actually "suspenseful," "Crying Wolf" was nonetheless a good book and a good purchase. I do recommend it; and I will be looking for more books by Peter Abrahams

Raised by a struggling but supportive single mother, Nat finds himself the hero of his small town when he wins an essay contest that provides a meager scholarship. Nat says goodbye to his high school sweetheart, kisses his mom, and heads off to Inverness, a small college packed with the pampered offspring of the privileged. A chance encounter involving a fish aptly named Lorenzo the Magnificent throws Nat together with Izzie and Grace Zorn who are incredibly wealthy, incredibly beautiful twin sisters. Izzie and Grace are daring and captivating, and they do not suffer from the ordinary worries that plague Nat (like how to meet the next tuition payment without his mom losing her house). The three become close friends, and together they find some secret underground passages which become integral in their scheme to help Nat stay in school.

Then along comes Freedy--Friedrich--Knight. Freedy isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he considers himself a dashing, irresistable, and super intelligent sort of guy. Unfortunately, one of his more serious blunders nearly gets him shot and forces him to flee back east to hide out with his mom. Of course, Freedy and the trio cross paths, which places all of them in jeopardy.

Perhaps it is a bit misleading for this book to be labeled a suspense novel. Sure, there is some suspense, but the beauty of this book lies in the coming-of-age story of Nat. Freedy is an intriguing character, and the twins are funny, saucy, and more complicated than they first appear. Nat's observations of his surroundings are both touching and humorous, and it is interesting to see how this small town poor boy carves his niche in the world of the rich. Combine this all with the annoying Professor Leo Uzig, and the story can stand on its characters alone. Peppered throughout the novel are references to Nietzsche who would most likely get quite a chuckle out of the quest for meaning that each of these characters goes through.

Don't pick this one up expecting to lose sleep to figure out "who dunnit." This isn't a hair raising thriller. I liked it for the character development. The "action" of the novel doesn't seem to be the focal point but rather the result of all these characters coming together. I also liked that Abrahams does not go for the Hollywood ending so typical of "suspense" novels these days. I thought the book was worth the price even though it turned out to be more of a dramatic character study rather than a nail-biting thriller. This is my first book by Abrahams, and it most certainly won't be my last.