Second Glance

SECOND GLANCE by Jodi Picoult

Reading Jodi Picoult's new novel SECOND GLANCE is akin to being a sculptor. If you chip away enough of the extraneous material you will find a perfect picture of a ghost story beneath. But it is tiring work getting all the outer shell chipped away.

In reading previous works by Picoult there was no clue that perhaps she is a second cousin to Stephen King. Maybe it is because they both live and work in New England that they manage to create moody, mysterious, wordy books about the supernatural and how it can affect our lives and our loves. You may not be a believer of these happenings going into Ms Picoult's story but by book's end you will be or will want to be.

The book opens with several stories going at one time. One involves a searcher of the supernatural. Ross Wakeman is a man who desperately wants to believe that the dead can return. Then there is Shelby, a woman with a nine-year-old son who has a disease that renders him incapable of being exposed to sunlight. It can virtually kill him.

Another character is Eli, a police officer. He is trying to keep the peace in his small town in Vermont where builders are trying to gain access to a plot of land that the Indians claim is a burial ground. The owner of this land is Spencer Pike, a man who has lived up most of his life but can't seem to make the final exit. He is haunted by the sounds of a baby crying in the night.

All of these stories and more come together eventually to form a cohesive plot, and most of it revolves around a decades old murder mystery. And this is where the book really stumbles. Just as the reader is getting all the characters and stories together, Picoult takes us back in time to explain why the murder occurred and why it has affected so many people. This trip back in time brings the story to a jarring halt.

Jodi Picoult is a superb writer. She can create characters that breathe and live fully on her pages. She can also formulate intricate plots, which spellbind the readers. But in SECOND GLANCE the trip through the pages is too long and too complex. Weariness sets in before the mystery is solved.

You might want to take a second chance and read SECOND GLANCE but get out your chisel before you do. There is a lot of extra material to chip away in order to get to the heart of the story.

SECOND GLANCE is published by Atria Books. It contains 415 pages and sells for $25.00.