Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult

Jack St. Bride was once a beloved teacher at a private girls’ school – until a student’s crush sparked a powder keg of accusation and robbed him of his career and reputation. 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 in the quiet New England village of Salem Falls and slowly starts to form a relationship with her.

But a quartet of teenage girls harbours dark secrets – and they maliciously target Jack with a shattering allegation. Now, at the centre of a modern-day witch hunt, Jack is forced once again to proclaim his innocence: to a town searching for answers, to a justice system where truth becomes a slippery concept written in shades of grey, and to the woman who has come to love him.