Luxuriating in his new freedom, Jack St. Bride wants nothing of the past, but the past haunts us all, doesn't it, in multiple ways? While trying to numb out anything before today, he meets a young woman mourning her daughter's death and working fiercely to avoid the necessary, painful healing process. Jack saves Addie Peabody's business during an unplanned appearance and gets the reward of a dishwashing job at minimum wage. Slowly and cautiously, they fall in love and the future begins to loom brighter than ever dreamed.

Reminiscent of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, this novel also includes three girls who are learning Wiccan spells. They also, like every resident of a solitary, clean, and predictable New England small town, are attracted to their newest, attractive employee. In the heat of their teenage hormones, they decide to perform a ritual in which they ask the goddess for the gift of a man. From this point mild amusement turns to malicious obsession. Jack becomes their object and unfortunately their paths clash. Deeply troubled by evolving accusations, Addie is determined to find information about Jack's past, one of the girls accuses Jack of a hideous crime and for Jack, the past seems about the bury the present and certainly all positive future possibilities.

When is it okay not to tell and even to lie? Does the history of any one person truly predict his or her future? Does a past conviction automatically condemn a real or an imagined crime in the present? Shakespeare aptly wrote, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," but why should an innocent male be judged and damned by that scorn because a wounded woman needs an outlet for her rage?

Though one can predict the outcome of this moral tale, Picoult is truly a master at setting up the scene for a tense, close criminal trial and the ensuing prosecutor vs. defense's intricate trial examinations. That she manages to create doubt in the reader's mind, in spite of knowing it will all turn out okay, is a tribute to her writing skills. That a woman can learn to trust and love again after experiencing one of the deepest possible wounds adds to the depth of complexity that Picoult has again created in this vivacious presentation of prevailing goodness in the face of the worst imaginable evils.

You've done it again. Here's to another great one, Jodi Picoult!