House Rules by Jodi Picoult

A big THANK YOU to Chen Chzan for this early Christmas gift. She knew that I have been eyeing this book since it was first publish. Yup, am a die hard fan of Jodi Picoult book since reading her "My Sister's Keeper".

House Rules is about the family of a boy, Jacob, who have Asperger's syndrome. Asperger's syndrome makes it impossible for him to read social cues and expression himself well to others.

To him, a smirk is same as a smile. He can't differential between the two. If someone tell him to take a seat, he would go and pick up the chair. He takes everything literally.

His father left the family because he can't stand the attention that Jacob received from his mother. Hence, Emma(Jacob's mother) is left alone to raise up Jacob and his younger brother, Theo single handedly.

Emma have set up some House Rules for the family to follow. Among them is "Take care of your brother; he's the only one you have got"

Nevertheless Jacob is not a retard. In fact he is brilliant. He is very focus about forensic analysis. He had a Police Radio Scanner and he kept appearing in crime scene and "helped" the police to solve a crime.

This seems to be harmless until a girl was murdered. This girl was Jacob's tutor.

Suddenly hell break loose when Jacob was suspected for the murder. Even Emma and Theo thought Jacob murdered the girl. But the Emma subsequently able to accept that no matter Jacob did it or not, she would still love him.

In his trial he tried to tell the truth but nobody really listened to him. Things that he said in the Police Station and in Court sound so wrong. He can't get his message across. All evidences point to him.

This is really a good read. Jodi kept the suspense till the end of the story. Don't worry. This is not like My Sister's Keeper where you need a box of tissue. This one is more like gentle suspense story.