Product Description
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?

Amazon.com Review
Ghosts and ghost hunters collide in this compelling tale of the paranormal set in Vermont's green mountains. When the patriarch of the Abenaki Indian tribe that was nearly eradicated by that state's eugenics project in the 1930s encounters Ross Wakeman, the miraculous survivor of several attempted suicides who wants nothing more than to be reunited with the woman he loved and lost, they set in motion a chain of events that will unravel an ancient murder and lead to a second chance at life and love for the victim's descendants. Picoult, author of Salem Falls, brings the past alive and peoples it with a cast of extraordinarily well-realized characters whose reach into the future touches the lives of a dying boy, a frightened girl, and their mothers--two women who've given up on love until the revenants stirred up by a plan to develop an ancient burial ground show them what they're missing. Second Glance is an intricate and suspenseful ghost story that enchants and illuminates all the way to its powerful conclusion. --Jane Adams

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 97 reviews)

Unputdownable

After reading Jodi Picoult's "19 Minutes", I wanted to see what else she wrote about. "Second Glance" is the second book I have read. I am not quite finished with it but I would recommend it highly. Her themes and plots are wide-ranging. "Second Glance" is part history, part romantic ghost story. If any of you have read "Madeline's Ghost" by Thomas Girard, you will like this too. I am very pleased to find an author who has written so many books I have not yet read.
October 28, 2008

How can you not like Jodi?

This is by far Jodi's most paranormal book, encouraging the reader to have an open mind. In short, it's a ghost story, one that involves a seventy-year old murder. Luckily, we have on hand a paranormal investigator whose experience is quite convenient, plus a cast of other characters who very willingly except their town haunting, rose petals snowing from the sky, and other unexplainable peculiarities. Upon beginning the book, I was a bit bogged down by the sheer number of characters. It's a pretty large cast that spans the two storylines, one in the 1930's and the other in the present. The first third of the book introduces us to the town, the characters and the plot, but is suddenly interrupted for another third of the book to tell the first person account of the dead woman who is responsible for the present haunting. Then back to the main plot again for the final third of the book.

This is a very multi-layered book that explores how lives are intertwined and how the past dictates the future. It is it about death and its impact on life, even decades later. It is written in the style I have come to love about Jodi and with the mystery she presents as she unfolds the plot. Unlike many of her other books, this one does not include lawyers or courtroom scenes, just the haunting story of love, life, death, and destiny.

October 06, 2008

Second Glance

Not quite as good as other Jodi Picoult novels, but I haven't put it down yet either.
October 01, 2008

Not Enough Hours in the Day

I truly enjoy Jodi Picoult novels but this IS the best. The characters are unique but very well defined; the action is absorbing; and the ending fascinating. I highly recommend this novel to all Picoult fans.
September 29, 2008

Several Glances Back

For anyone who has read a book by Jodi Picoult, it is no surprise that you are completely wowed by the ending of the book, Second Glance was no exception. Second Glance is a fantastic mixture of love, sorrow, history, and ghost stories. Every time I thought I figured out the ending, Picoult threw in a new twist. I felt like I got to know all of the characters and every time I read about a ghost, I felt like one was in the room with me. She made me believe that spirits live on and you never know when you might meet one. The description on that back of the book doesn't even begin to tell the story that Picoult embarks on. Second Glance brings the reader into another world and takes you into a dark spot of America's history. Once you pick up the book, you will not be able to put it down and if you do, you just might feel a chill in the air.
September 29, 2008

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Mercy
by Jodi Picoult

Harvesting the Heart: A Novel
by Jodi Picoult

Salem Falls
by Jodi Picoult

Keeping Faith
by Jodi Picoult

Picture Perfect
by Jodi Picoult