The killer's cousin is not who we think, and the climax comes when David saves Lily's life and punishes her by doing so. The reason for her behaviour is the crux of the novel.

With a hatred and cunning beyond her years she turns David's life into a daily nightmare (Anita 2006). Lily meanwhile is one very disturbed girl. David senses her ghostly presence on many occasions, with her urgent message to 'help Lily'. So much of the book's enjoyment is that of a bright thriller, in fact, that the guarantee of expect and salvation for Lily at the end appear a bit anticlimactic regardless of its thematically practical closure-Lily's just more enjoyable to read about when she's evil. David boards with her family while repeating his final school year away from his old home and the bad memories (Patricia 2010). The circumstances reveal themselves in small flashes throughout his narrative, but the main story is about his eleven-year-old cousin Lily (Bernard Alger 2002). David Yaffe has accidentally killed his beloved girlfriend during his final year of high-school. The novel doesn't stretch on the anxiety, however: Lily may have her emotional grounds, but her compulsion to control and her exploitation of her relatives are typical awful stone substance. The suspense builds gradually and the reader asks questions like, Did David murder his girlfriend Emily? What is Lily's involvement in her older sister Kathy's death? What is the meaning of Lily's apparent hatred and sabotage of David? This is also a school story that deals with David's arrival at a new school (Jane 1999). For instance, this is also a mystery (Anita 2006). His personality is further developed through aspects of the narrative that draw upon the other genres. David is an attractive character who refuses to be paralyzed by his images, and has actual recourse to action, both physical and mental.

The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin