A Flaw in the Design by Nathan Oates

Published by Random House on March 21, 2023

Some of the most intriguing crime novels are built on ambiguity. Who is the criminal? Was there even a crime? Is a seemingly villainous character the innocent victim of a false accusation? Is the accuser mistaken or malicious? Ambiguity is a page-turning force in A Flaw in the Design.

Matthew Westfallen became an orphan at 17 when his wealthy parents died in a hit-and-run accident. Their will nominated Gil and Molly Duggan to be Matthew’s guardian. Matthew’s mother, Sharon, was Gil’s sister. Gil and Molly already have two kids, Ingrid and Chloe.

Sharon married into money and, in Gil’s view, became a “vacuous shell” of her former self. Gil does not understand why she would give up the mediocre income of academia to live a “life among unctuous braggarts.” Sharon always wanted money and Gil always looked down on people who had it.

Gil and Molly haven’t had contact with Matthew’s parents in many years. Gil is less than pleased to have Matthew move from his Manhattan residence to the Duggans’ Vermont home. Six years earlier, when Matthew was a troubled child, he threw Ingrid into a swimming pool, nearly causing her to drown. Or at least that’s what Gil believes. He told Ingrid to stay away from the pool, fell asleep on a lounge chair, and was awakened by the splash. Matthew’s parents refused to believe that Matthew did anything wrong. Ingrid had no reason to lie and Matthew admitted he threw her into the pool, but his confession was sufficiently sarcastic that its accuracy was ambiguous. In Gil’s view, Matthew is a force of evil, the kind of kid who is looked upon with suspicion when the cat disappears.

Gil is a one-book writer who earns a modest living as a professor at a small college. While Gil and Molly are worried about living with Matthew, they’re also happy to have the monthly $10,000 payment that Matthew’s parents provided as a gratuity for their efforts. Matthew has his own money in a trust that comes with a generous allowance, so Gil is free to use the money to pay down the family’s debt. Declining the guardianship would cause the family to lose a welcome windfall.

Gil’s reservations seem to be misplaced. When Matthew arrives, he’s polite, engaging, quite the opposite of the arrogant brat they expected, although Gil believes that snarky judgment accompanies Matthew’s “cool New York irony.” Chloe is about Gil’s age and views him as an exciting and generous companion. At the same time, Matthew doesn’t seem to be grieving the loss of his parents. Of course, “orphan goes to live with parents and turns out to be nice” wouldn’t be much of a story, so later events give the reader (and Gil) new reasons to question Matthew’s character.

Matthew gets an advanced placement at the college where Gil teaches. He takes Gil’s fiction writing class and writes a story that suggests ways that children might die, including death by drowning. Gil is convinced that Matthew is writing about Gil’s daughters. Gil understandably loses his mind, perhaps literally. Bad things are going to happen, but will they happen to Matthew, Gil, or one of Gil’s daughters?

A Flaw in the Design is a sneaky novel. For most of the story, Matthew seems to be a prototypical kid who was “born evil,” the kind of horror novel character who will burn down his parents’ house before graduating from high school. But no bad deeds are explicitly narrated, leaving room for doubt. Did he really throw Ingrid into the pool? Was he involved in his parents’ death? Did he get Chloe drunk at a party? Is he poisoning the minds of other students against Gil? Or are Gil’s suspicions the product of an increasingly addled mind?

Perhaps Matthew is taunting Gil, revealing truths about his actions in the stories he writes for Gil’s class. Or perhaps he’s just pulling Gil’s chain. Gil seems to be the only one who recognizes that Matthew is a monster, but Gil might not be entirely stable. He follows Gil for no apparent reason. He eavesdrops on Matthew’s telephone conversations. He bases accusations on skinny evidence. He frightens students by screaming at Matthew in class. In his mind, his irrational behavior is justified. Is Matthew the bad guy or are his evil deeds a product of Gil’s imagination, compounded by Gil’s resentment of wealth? The ambiguity grows as the novel progresses.

Gil is developed in more depth than the other characters. We learn about his MFA years and failed writing career, his reactions to 9/11 and his parents’ death, his ambiguous suicide attempt, his hatred of New York and of horses (because they belong to the world of “the dilettante rich”), his love of Vermont. That character development makes it possible for a reader who will instinctively dislike Matthew to wonder if faith in Gil’s judgment is misplaced.

The story builds to a surprising ending. It is dramatic, but the drama is not overplayed. Ambiguity is not entirely resolved with evidence, but firmly planted clues will allow the reader to form conclusions about Matthew and Gil. That the reader will never know whether those conclusions are correct is a reflection of life. Nathan Oates’ reliance on ambiguity and characterization to build a clever story makes A Flaw in the Design a good choice for fans of cerebral crime fiction.

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