The Protege

WHAT WAS A RESPECTABLE OLD WIDOW LIKE MRS. MOFFAT DOING WITH THAT BEARDED YOUNG STRANGER IN HER HOUSE? He told her he was Simon Warren, that he had lived next door when he was a child and had been friends with her grandson--who had vanished mysteriously seven years before. So she invited him for lunch. He stayed for months. Mrs. Moffat asked few questions, although she suspected that he was not "Simon Warren" at all. But she was still convinced that her protégé was just a troubled young boy when her granddaughter Zan arrived. Then both women watched with dawning horror as a bizarre scheme unfolded--a scheme to revive the past terror they thought they could never forget...

Customer Reviews:

The Last of a Great Line

By Kevin Killian - January 30, 2007

Mrs. Moffat lives a secluded life in her charming huge house with a devoted servant, Polly. She is a widow whose only son has died and whose grandson, Tommy, a bad hat if ever I saw one, disappeared seven years ago leaving behind a child bride, Alexandra Terry. "Zan" as Mrs Moffat calls her, has grown from being a pregnant teen with a grudge against society, into a charming and sophisticated businesswoman during the past seven years, with a deep fondness for her ex-husband's grandmother who guided her out of a miscarriage and low self-esteem, nursing her for months and encouraging her to begin a business career. Zan now lives in New York but is thinking of relocating to the Pasadena area both to be nesrby aging Mrs. Moffat and to be closer to her new love interest, researcher Nicky Pomerance.

A bearded redhead, Simon Warren, introduces himself to Mrs. Moffat at church one day, claiming to be the grownup little boy who had once lived next door to the Moffats twenty years... read more