Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, Vanishing Acts: A Novel, and many more fine novels) brings us House Rules, the story of Jacob Hunt and his family. Jacob is a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject--in his case, forensic analysis. He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do...and he's usually right. But when his town is rocked by a terrible murder, police come to Jacob with questions. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's--not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, flat affect--can look a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel. Suddenly, Jacob and his family, who only want to fit in, feel the spotlight shining directly on them. For his mother, Emma, it's a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it's another indication of why nothing is normal because of Jacob.

So the question looms over this family: "Did Jacob commit murder?"

Emotionally powerful from beginning to end, House Rules  takes a look at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way, and fails those who don't.