Second Glance

infobox Book |
name = Second Glance


image_caption = First edition
author = Jodi Picoult
country = United States
language = English
genre = Novel
publisher = Atria
release_date = April 8, 2003
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 432 pp
ISBN = ISBN 978-0743454506

"Second Glance" is a fiction novel written by American author Jodi Picoult.

Plot summary

"Second Glance" follows several characters throughout the book, in Jodi Picoult's typical fashion, flashing back and forth many decades to piece together the story. It is set in Comtosook, VT.

The main plot is an Abenaki land space that is planned to be turned into a shopping mall. However, if the Abenaki can prove that an ancestor was buried on the land, they may keep it.

Ross Wakeman comes to town to stay with his sister for some down time. He is the survivor of many varied suicide attempts, which began after his fiancee Aimee was killed in a car accident years ago. He became a ghost hunter hoping to someday encounter her spirit.

Comtosook begins to experience many strange phenomena as the result of the threat of development on the sacred land, including water that refuses to boil.

With the help of a local detective, Ross uncovers a decades-old murder mystery that helps to prove that the land in question truly is an Indian burial ground, and in turn is able to save the land from development.

Characters

* Ross Wakeman, male protagonist. He is a ghost hunter who moves around constantly, now living with his sister. He is the survivor of many suicide attempts.
* Shelby Wakeman, Ross's sister, is the divorced mother of Ethan. She is a librarian with a passion for unusual, complicated words. It is revealed in the second half of the book that she uses them in order to maintain distance between herself and others.
* Ethan Wakeman, Ross's nine-year-old nephew and Shelby's son. He suffers from XP, a condition that makes him allergic to sunlight.
* Cecelia (Cissy) Pike/Lia Beaumont, a suicidal woman featured in both the present-day and past plot lines. She is pregnant in the past plot lines. Ross falls in love with her.
*Az, a 102-year-old Abenaki man, the last surviving member of his tribe.
* Eli Rochert, a half-Abenaki police officer whose wife left him. After seeing Shelby in his dreams for weeks, he finds her and falls in love with her. He is working with Ross to solve the murder mystery.
*Meredith Oliver, a woman who works doing preimplantation genetic diagnosis. She is divorced and has no luck with men. Being a working parent, she relies on her grandmother, Ruby, to take care of her daughter.
*Lucy Oliver, the eight-year-old daughter of Meredith. She is intelligent for her age, but she sees various things that nobody else can, like a hanging woman.
*Spencer Pike, Cecelia's husband, works as a eugenist in the past plot lines. In the present-day, he lives at the Comtosook nursing home. He very much loved his wife.
*Gray Wolf (John Delacour), an Abenaki man, suspected to be Cecelia Pike's murderer.

References

*Dooley, Susan [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/337837881.html?dids=337837881:337837881&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&fmac=&date=May+18%2C+2003&author=Reviewed+by+Susan+Dooley&desc=Ghost+World "Ghost World] , Review, Washington Post, May 18, 2003 T.13
*Vidmos, Robin, [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DP&p_theme=dp&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=picoult%20AND%20date(01/01/2003%20to%2012/31/2003)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=01/01/2003%20to%2012/31/2003)&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(%22picoult%22)&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no Eugenics plot enlivens "Second Glance"] Review, The Denver Post, April 20, 2003; Page EE-02
*Kayle, Hillary S., [http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA425665.html?q=picoult "Interview with Jodi Picoult Tackling Big Issues"] , Publishers Weekly, June 11, 2004
*Gershenbaum, Barbara Lipkien [http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0743454510.asp "SECOND GLANCE"] Review, Bookreporter.com,