House Rules
Jodi Picoult
 The plot is conveyed from the points of view of the main characters in the novel. Jacob Hunt is eighteen years old and has Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of high-functioning autism. He lives with his mother and brother, Emma and Theo Hunt, and lives by a structured schedule, feeling comfortable only when all of his daily activities are planned. Any lack of structure or unexpected events cause him to feel anxious. He is obsessed with forensic analysis; the hobby consumes his life. The novel opens with Jacob setting up a crime scene (in which he is the victim) for his mother to solve. Jacob's need to engage in such activities, as well as his obsession with detail, often frustrates his mother and infuriates his brother Theo. When Jess Ogilvy, Jacob's social skills counselor, is killed, Jacob soon becomes a suspect. After arresting and releasing the first suspect, Mark Maguire, Detective Rich Matson asks Emma if he may talk to Jacob. After Jacob admits that he moved Jess's dead body, Jacob is arrested and charged with murder. The case goes to trial. In court, the prosecutor, Helen Sharp, raises the issues that all of Jacob's symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome are almost identical to the characteristics of those who are guilty. Also, the prosecution argues that most of the evidence proves that Jacob is the murderer (e.g. Jacob's fingerprints on the scene of the crime, an unlabeled crime scene evaluation identical to Jess's found in his notebook, and her backpack he retrieved from her home). At the end of the trial, Jacob testifies that he found Jess, dead in her bathroom and lying in a pool of her own blood. He admits to cleaning her, dressing her and placing her outside, then cleaning the original scene up and creating a new one that will lead investigators in a different direction. This is because he realized that, while an accident, Jess's death was the fault of his brother, Theo, after he was in the house and saw Jess naked. Jess slipped while getting out of the shower, and Theo fled the scene. In the end, Jess's death was in fact an accident.