Salem Falls
(2001)
A novel by


Jodi Picoult



From the national bestselling author of PLAIN TRUTH comes an acclaimed, richly atmospheric novel about a teacher undone by a disturbing modern-day witch hunt. Tall, blonde and handsome, Jack McBride was once a beloved teacher and football coach at a girl's school, until a student's crush sparked a powder-keg of accusation and robbed him of his career and reputation. Now after a devastatingly public ordeal that left him with an eight-month jail sentence and no job, Jack resolves to pick up the pieces of his life; taking a job washing dishes at Addie Peabody's diner, and slowly forming a relationship with her. But just when it seems like his life is back on track, Jack finds himself the object of fresh accusations of rape brought on by a coven of bewitching teenage girls from Salem Falls, and history repeats itself as Jack's hidden past catches up with him. In a sleepy hamlet haunted by enduring love and wicked deceit, Picoult masterfully leads readers toward a truly shocking finale.

Perfect Match
(2002)
A novel by


Jodi Picoult



A searing novel of the terrifying power of love from one of America's leading novelists. Nina has a perfect, well, close to perfect life. She's a successful district attorney with a handsome husband named Caleb, who has a thriving contracting business of his own. They live in a picturesque little town in Maine, and they have an adorable little 5-year-old boy named Nathaniel. They both work too hard and sometimes Nina wonders if she's juggling too many balls, but Nathaniel makes it all worthwhile. Then one day he simply stops talking. It's obvious that he's been traumatised, but in what way and by whom? When Nina finds out that the abuse has been sexual (her speciality as a district attorney is in rape and sex abuse cases) she won't rest until they find out who did it. When the police finally come through, she naturally attends the arraignment of the accused. Then, in front of all assembled, she shoots him dead. This is a novel about the unbreakable bond between mother and child, about a woman who takes justice into her own hands only to discover how very dangerous playing God can be and about the destructive, redemptive, terrifying power of love.

Second Glance
(2003)
A novel by

Jodi Picoult



In a small Vermont town, an old man puts a piece of land up for sale, igniting a firestorm of protest from the local Abenaki Indians, who insist it is an ancient burial ground. To appease them the developer looking to buy the property hires a ghost hunter, Ross Wakeman. Ross is a suicidal drifter desperate to cross paths again with his fiancee, who died in a car crash eight years earlier. But after several late nights all Ross can lay claim to discovering is Lia Beaumont, a skittish, mysterious woman who, like Ross, is on a search for something beyond the boundary separating life and death. Thus begins Picoult's enthralling and ultimately astonishing story of love, fate and a crime of passion. SECOND GLANCE, her eeriest and most engrossing work yet, delves into a virtually unknown chapter of American history, Vermont's eugenics project of the 1920s and 30s, to provide a compelling study of the things that come back to haunt us - literally and figuratively. Do we love across time, or in spite of it?

Vanishing Acts
(2005)
A novel by


Jodi Picoult



New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her ability to tap into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she explores what happens when a young woman's past -- a past she didn't even know she had -- catches up to her just in time to threaten her future.

Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her widowed father, Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiancé, and her own search-and-rescue bloodhound, which she uses to find missing persons. But as Delia plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can't recall. And then a policeman knocks on her door, revealing a secret that changes the world as she knows it.

In shock and confusion, Delia must sift through the truth -- even when it jeopardizes her life and the lives of those she loves. What happens when you learn you are not who you thought you were? When the people you've loved and trusted suddenly change before your eyes? When getting your deepest wish means giving up what you've always taken for granted? Vanishing Acts explores how life -- as we know it -- might not turn out the way we imagined; how doing the right thing could mean doing the wrong thing; how the memory we thought had vanished could return as a threat. Once again, Jodi Picoult handles a difficult and timely topic with understanding, insight, and compassion.

Mercy
(1996)
A novel by

Jodi Picoult



Cameron McDonald has spent his life guided by duty. As the police chief of a small Massachusetts town that has been home to generations of his Scottish clan, he is bound to the town's residents by blood and honor. Yet when his cousin Jamie arrives at the police station with the body of his wife and the bald confession that he has killed her, Cam immediately places him under arrest. The situation isn't as clear to Cam's wife, Allie. While she is devoted to her husband, she finds herself siding against Cam, seduced by the picture Jamie paints of a man so in love with a woman that he'd grant all her wishes - even the one that meant taking her life. Into this charged atmosphere drifts Mia, a new assistant at Allie's florist shop, for whom Cam feels an instant and inexplicable attraction. While he aids the prosecution in preparing the case against Jamie, who killed his terminally ill wife out of mercy, Cam finds himself betraying his own wife.