Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

     For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident.  Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice's old journals. Alice was a scientist who studied grief among elephants, she wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother's whereabouts.
     Jenna lists two unlikely allies in her quest: Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons, only to later doubt her gifts, and Virgil Stanhope, the jaded private detective who'd originally investigated  Alice's case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues.  The three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they'll have to face even harder answers.
     Jodi Picoult has written a new novel with elephant lore that explores the animals’ behavior when faced with death and grief, and combines a poignant tale of human loss with a perplexing crime story that delivers a powerhouse ending.
     With plenty of twists and a surprising ending, a book unlike anything the author has ever written before.