Book excerpt: When Peter comes to stay with his dead mother's twin sister and her husband while his stepfather is away on business, he is immediately plunged into a chain of frightening and bizarre events that can't possibly have anything to do with him-an ordinary, somewhat solitary boy. But then, is he really so ordinary? Is his uncle-a complete stranger-as ordinary as he at first appears? As for the retired scientist, what ordinary man has the type of power he seems to wield?