Rating: 
Summary: A Man's Perspective
Review: While sipping too-strong coffee in the bookstore cafe, I stumbled across the name Jodi Picoult in a Writer's Digest article on writing page-turners. I was in the mood for reading someone new, so I headed for the P's in the fiction section.Ugh! What a disappointment when I began reading the cover blurbs! Then I picked up Salem Falls. Witches! That was all I needed, so I headed for the checkout. Yes, I also bought the Writer's Digest. I must be honest and say that I needed a year to finish this book. However not because I found it unreadable, but because Ms. Picoult strikes a bit too close to home in her descriptions of how modern men must interact with teenage females. One of my male friends was falsely accused by his ex-wife of raping his step-daughter, and the next six months of his life were absolute hell. Reading the first half of this book was very discomforting. For her accurate portrayal of Jack's paranoia after his first conviction, I give Ms. Picoult five stars. However, Salem Falls is far from being a perfect book and the reader cannot analyze the investigative and courtroom procedures too deeply. Conversely, Ms. Picoult makes suspending belief easy, offering the reader a surprise or a new angle every ten paragraphs or so. Looking through descriptions of her other books, I do not find anything that particularly interests me, but for readers of this genre, you are in good hands.
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