'You look exactly like him! You can take the dead boy's place and no one will ever know the difference. You'll be rich for life!'

And so the plan was born. At first Brat Farrar fought against the idea; it was criminal, it was dangerous. But in the end he was persuaded, and a few weeks later Patrick Ashby came back from the dead and went home to inherit the family house and fortune. The Ashby family seemed happy to welcome Patrick home, but Brat soon realized that somewhere there was a time-bomb ticking away, waiting to explode . . .

Level: Oxford Bookworms Stage 5 (1800 headwords)
Retold by: Ralph Mowat