A Flaw in the Design

Following his Spokane Prize–winning short story collection The Empty House, Oates’s debut novel follows Gil, a creative-writing professor at a small college in Vermont. He and his wife are getting by, but he is jealous of his sister and her investment-banker husband, who have plenty. When his sister and brother-in-law die in a suspicious accident, Gil takes their only son, Matthew, into his home. Gil is deeply distrustful of Matthew, who almost allowed Gil’s daughter to drown when they were children. Now he wonders if Matthew may have been involved in his parents’ deaths. Gil’s misgivings about Matthew are complicated by self-doubt, as he questions whether he is jealous of Matthew because of his inherited wealth and charisma. Narrator David Pittu smoothly ramps up the suspense and doubt in this twisty story, providing well-rounded characters that listeners will love to hate.