The Glass Looker

In an atmospheric blend of folk magic, Mormon mythology, real history, and Joseph Smith’s time in Upstate New York at the close of the Second Great Awakening, the bestselling author of The Fourth Wife reexamines the origins of Mormonism through an unapologetically feminist lens.

1827, Western New York: Sally Chase is the most successful glass looker in Palmyra, using her seer stone to find missing items and buried treasure for clients. Some view her talent as witchcraft. Her late Aunt Hester insisted that seership is a birthright, gifted only to women. For Sally herself, struggling to keep her family’s farm from failing, it’s not only the means to keep those she loves from starving, but the most essential part of herself. And as long as she protects her magic, it will not fail her.

While Sally can’t risk jeopardizing her abilities with marriage and motherhood, she has other reasons to set herself apart from men. Her former student, Joseph Smith, sought out her wisdom only to ultimately betray her—and now his accomplice has returned to Palmyra insisting that Sally locate a hidden treasure.

When she refuses, he turns to blackmail, and Sally strikes a deal with the town’s charming new Methodist minister to help in her quest. But that arrangement brings new risks and revelations, tempting her away from the defenses she’s built up to protect her secrets and her independence.

Distilled from real-life figures and the magical worldview and religious fervor that swept through the United States in its early decades, this intriguing novel explores one woman’s journey to claim her place and retain her power in a man’s world.