Peter Abrahams

Thirteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes aficionado Ingrid Levin-Hill tries to clear her grandfather's name when he is accused of murdering an environmental activist found dead on his farm.

Julian Sawyer, hired by the Gardners to tutor their troubled teenage son, Brandon, quickly becomes a favorite with the family, providing business advice to mom and stock tips to dad, all the while setting them up for his own purposes, but in his plans, Julian makes the mistake of overlooking eleven-year-old Ruby, the only member of the family to realize Julian is not what he seems.

Ivy Seidel's dream of becoming a great American novelist seem to be fading as she runs low on money and takes a job teaching creative writing to prisoners, but she soon finds herself falling for one of the inmates and regaining her creative passion.