Crying Wolf: A Novel

By Peter Abrahams

For Nat and his new friends, Grace and Izzie Zorn, twin sisters as seductive as they are elusive, it was the perfect plan for some quick cash. A bold scheme with an admirable motive: to save the bright future of a deserving young man. And the victim, too, was deserving--an arrogant billionaire who would hardly notice a financial loss. All the plotters needed was a believable story, desperate and frightening, but false. Nothing bad was supposed to happen. They were only crying wolf. But what if the wolf were real? For someone in the shadows is listening, someone who thinks he deserves an even brighter future. Now a risky but basically innocent game will take a horrifying turn. . . .

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: May 5, 2000
• ISBN: 9780345442611

Peter Abrahams

Peter Abrahams is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five books, including the Edgar Award-winning Reality Check, Bullet Point, and the Echo Falls series for middle graders. Writing as Spencer Quinn, he is also the author of the Chet and Bernie series—Dog on It, Thereby Hangs a Tail, and To Fetch a Thief. He and his wife live in Massachusetts with their dog, Audrey.

Reviews for Crying Wolf

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having gathered all three books of the Talents trilogy (To Ride Pegasus, Pegasus in Flight and this one) I read them in 2018. Although the first book was not as strong as McCaffrey's Pern books the second and the third books were very well done. These books as a whole deal with how the human race uses psychic powers to launch our species into space. Maybe it will happen! In the second book Peter Reidinger was discovered to be a powerful teleporter as well as a telepath when he was paralyzed after a wall fell on him and he was desperate to get out of his hospital bed. In this book Peter reaches maturity and can be put to use transporting shipments to the Padrugoi space station and beyond. He has help and support from other teleporters but he is still paralyzed. Then Amariyah Bantam comes to the Eastern Parapsychic Centre and becomes Peter's foster sister. Amariyah was orphaned by the huge flood in Bangladesh with which the second book ended. Everyone feels she has pyschic powers but she is so young and no psychic can be expected to test their abilities until they are at least in puberty. She does love to garden and her plants do wonderfully under her care. She can also give a good massage which Peter appreciates after he sustains a number of broken bones in what might or might not have been an accident. Later when Peter starts to regain some feeling he suspects that Amariyah's massages may have covered her ability to make repairs to his spinal chord injury. First though Peter (and other pyschics) have to survive attempts made on their lives and find out who is behind it. There are some very tense moments in this book. McCaffrey, who wrote this book in 2000, dedicated it to Christopher Reeve who was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995. She says "This book is respectfully dedicated to Christopher Reeve with the devout hope that he realizes his ambition--to stand on his own two feet once again in 2002!" Although Reeve never regained the ability to stand on his own feet he did regain some motor function and was able to sense hot and cold. This is very similar to the path that Peter Reidinger took in achieving control of his body. Too bad psychics weren't available to help Reeve.

[conalo-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I decided to re-read this series in some down time this month and it has not lost it's appeal since the last time I read this twenty years ago. I have always enjoyed stories that dealt with higher mind powers and Anne McCaffrey does not disappoint in this area.

4 stars for a fun and entertaining re-read.

[atreic · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The worst of the Pegasus books. Peter is very nice, but very dull - surely every coming of age book should involve someone doing something wrong, or discovering their limits. The plot is thin - the bad guys are 2 dimensional and don't feel consistent with the previous book. And it's very long. And I like having a disabled protagonist, but the obsession with his stoma bag and the fact that learning to walk normally is his redemption (when he can already walk, and indeed teleport to the moon) is a little disappointing.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Peter Reddinger grows up, gets his wish of going to space and the novel bridges between the Pegaus Series and the Hive series.I did like it, sometimes the technobabble washed over me but mostly I enjoyed the story. I liked the story about Peter and his learning about himself. I also liked the sneaky musical reference.

[avoraciousreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Padrugoi Space Station is complete and now attention has been turned to building Moon Base and Mars Base. Little do Peter Reidinger and Johnny Greene know they will be instrumental in making that happen at a much faster pace than anticipated. In the meantime, an orphaned five-year-old girl named Amariyah, is found after the floods in Bangladesh. When it’s discovered she has a lot of as-yet-unknown Talent she is brought back to the Center and raised by Dorotea. There are sinister machinations going on and Peter is in danger when he turns 18 and takes up his official duties for the Center up on Padrugoi. After an accident involving Peter on his 19th birthday the true scope of Amariyah’s Talent becomes known and it’s a doozy. And when Johnny tricks Peter into teleporting a small package from Australia to Moon Base, after getting over his shock, Peter slowly begins to realize he truly can reach for the stars.Even though this is the 3rd book in the Talents series it was the last to be written after the Tower and Hive series was complete. In my opinion, it makes a better bridge between the two series than Pegasus in Flight and I’m glad it was added since Peter’s story is as fascinating as it is heartwarming.There is a lot going on in this book, but most of it revolves around Peter. Since Peter is the catalyst for all of the books that follow, it’s only right that we learn the history of how FT&T (Federated Telepath and Teleport) comes about. FT&T features heavily in the Tower and Hive series.Once again the story flows smoothly and the plot proceeds quickly. My favorite characters are back, some with much larger roles and we pick up Amariyah as well as a few more. The story still fascinates me and makes me wonder how much faster we would be exploring space if we had people with Talents such as these. The mind boggles at the wonder of it all.I’m looking forward to picking up The Rowan to continue with the series. As I’ve said before, it’s been a long time since I’ve read this series and I’m really enjoying my immersion back into the world of the Talents. *Book source ~ My home library.