Rachel Hartley

 David Yaffe is accused of killing his long term girlfriend, Emily.  He is forced to move to Cambridge, Massachusetts with his aunt, uncle and younger cousin Lily.  Lily is a sad, angry, withdrawn child that loves to torture David with immature, mean tricks.  Lily’s older sister Kathy, killed herself after she dropped out of college, and David is living in her old bedroom.

 David is a second year senior at a Catholic high school, that was accused of killing his girlfriend back in his hometown of Baltimore.  He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his Aunt Julia, Uncle Vic, and cousin Lilly.  When he moves into his new home, he moves into the bedroom of Vic and Julia’s deceased daughter named Kathy.  David lives to spend most of his time watching crime shows, listening to music, and long distance running. picture: Leonardo DiCaprio

 Lily is David’s preteen cousin that he has moved in with.  Lily is a pale, angry, withdrawn young girl. She hides her anger and aggression from her parents, so in their eyes she is their sweet little angel.  When David moves in, she tortures him with immature tricks like scratching all his CDS, putting a rubber band on his sink faucet, and running a magnet over his computer.  Lily has been a messenger for her parents since their marriage started failing soon after her sister’s death. This is the only attention Lily gets from her parents and enjoys it whole heartedly. Picture: Hayden Panettiere

 There are many conflicts between Lily and David throughout the novel. First, Lily plays pranks on David while he out of his room. Secondly, David thinks Lily is a demented, sick child that needs help, although Lily’s parents do not agree.  The main conflict in the story is the relationship between David and Lily. Lily sneaks into the downstairs apartment of her house and spies on David and a girl named Raina.  Although David was never convicted for the murder of Emily back in Baltimore, Lily asks David how it felt when he killed her, and if he “felt powerful”.

 Raina is a young art student that lives on the bottom floor of the Shaughnessy home, while David lives on the top.  Raina recognized David from the media and immediately asks him if she can paint a picture of him.  Raina and David become friends, and eventually their relationship furthers despite David’s guilty feelings about Emily.  Lily sneaks into Raina’s apartment and spies on David and Raina kissing, which angers Julia and Vic to the point of almost evicting Raina.

 Frank Delgado is a skin-head (neo- Nazi) at David’s school that shares a history class with him.  At first, David is scared of Frank and soon realizes that Frank is just as scared of him. The two outcast become friends on a very shallow level.  David decides to open up to Frank and tell him things that he had never told anyone other than his father (an attorney), however Frank ignores David and takes the situation lightly.  Frank and David maintain a shallow friendship, throughout out the novel. This does not diminish Frank’s importance to the novel, because he remains the only person that David tells his secrets to.

 Julia and Vic are David’s aunt and uncle that generously open up their home to David despite his situation.  At the beginning of the novel, Vic and Julia are experiencing marital troubles that David helps them out of.  They think Lily is a perfect angel and David is a bad influence on her. They threaten to evict Raina and David if they continue to “whore around”.  Julia is a devout Catholic, while David and his family are Jewish.  Vic and David bond throughout the novel; much more than David and Julia. Picture: Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra

“I have become quite a fan of Nancy Werlin, and I found The Killer's Cousin to be another interesting book from this author. The main character's struggle with his past and his strange and difficult present lead to an interesting story with strong character development.” 8.The_Killer_s_Cousin#other_reviews

“This book is very well written. Nancy Werlin does a very good job of making you scared of Lily this hostile threatening child. The way she writes actually makes it scary to turn the page and find out what Lily will do next. At the same time though the reader is curious about why David, the main character, had to even move into his cousins house. The title gives some hints but at the same time its hard to believe that David could kill anyone.” ller_s_Cousin#other_reviews

 I thought this book was an easy read, however, not very suspenseful or mysterious.  The author gives away too much of the central conflict and resolution throughout the novel.  Other than the lack of mystery, I thought this book was very good. It was well written and easy to follow.  The author did a very good job of portraying each character and their personality, including David Yaffe’s dynamic characterzation.