Jack St. Bride was once a beloved teacher and soccer coach at a girls' prep 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. He takes a job washing dishes at Addie Peabody's diner and slowly starts to form a relationship with her in the quiet New England village of Salem Falls. But just when Jack thinks he has outrun his past, a quartet of teenage girls with a secret turn his world upside down once again, triggering a modern-day witch hunt in a town haunted by its own history…

Given to me as a Christmas gift from the Price family.

I read this over the Christmas/New Year break. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The character development and their relationships, the legal aspect, contemporary issues and twist at the ending are all typical Picoult traits and all present in this fantastic story. I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the journey through the book, not just the ending.