June 16, 2014
Picoult’s (The Storyteller) novel explores grief, memory, and motherhood through the unlikely lens of elephant behavior. Jenna Metcalf was three years old when her mother, Alice, disappeared from the elephant sanctuary where she worked as a researcher. Ten years later, Jenna is ready to launch a search. After poring over her mother’s research journals, consulting the Internet, and visiting her father in the mental institution where he’s been since shortly after the disappearance, she enlists outside assistance from Serenity Jones, a once-famous psychic whose gift appears to have deserted her, and Virgil Stanhope, the gruff, alcoholic ex-police detective who was once assigned to Alice’s case. With their help, Jenna finds new evidence at the now-closed sanctuary and begins to piece together the events of the night her mother disappeared, leading her to a few uncomfortable truths about the past, but bringing much-needed closure to her and her dad. Longtime fans of Picoult will recognize some of her stock characters—the precocious, sassy teenager; the distant, philosophical mother; the curmudgeonly surrogate father figure—as well the her trademark twist ending, which may well be her strangest to date. When she diverges from her usual formula her storytelling skills are most evident. The pachyderms are as complex as the humans, making the journey memorable and poignant.

August 15, 2014
A decade after the disappearance of an elephant researcher, her 13-year-old daughter, a washed-up private detective and a has-been psychic team up to find answers.As in Lone Wolf, (2012) Picoult uses fiction to illustrate the plight of animals who are being decimated by humans, in this case elephants who are endangered by everything from poachers to circuses. Teenage Jenna, daughter of missing-scientist Alice, launches a search for her mother, who vanished from the hospital after being found unconscious on the grounds of a New Hampshire elephant refuge where a co-worker was fatally trampled. Jenna's father, Thomas, has been in a psychiatric hospital since the incident, and she lives with her grandmother, who refuses to discuss Alice's fate. Jenna shares narrative duties with three others: Virgil, a police detective-turned-drunken private eye whose law enforcement career crashed and burned as a result of the botched investigation into the trampling death; Serenity, a clairvoyant, who was a national celebrity until her spirit guides deserted her in the middle of the search for a senator's kidnapped child; and Alice herself, who details past events leading up to the pivotal crisis. As a young graduate student doing fieldwork at an African game preserve, Alice studied the grieving rituals of elephants, which include revering the bones of departed ancestors and burying deceased loved ones with leaves and grass. In Africa, Alice recognizes a kindred spirit in a visitor, Thomas, who runs a New Hampshire sanctuary for abused elephants rescued from circuses and zoos. She joins him there, marries him, gives birth to Jenna and begins to question her husband's sanity. Thus the seeds are sewn for a thriller that involves noble pachyderms, adultery and a breathless chase across several states. The pages turn apace, though Virgil labors under too many noir cliches, and wisecracking Serenity seems to be on loan from a Susan Isaacs novel. The ending borrows unforgivably from a source it would be equally unforgivable to reveal.

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July 1, 2014
On the night one of the caretakers at a New Hampshire elephant sanctuary was killed, Jenna's mother, Alice, was found unconscious nearby. Hours later, Alice checked herself out of the hospital and disappeared, leaving her 3-year-old daughter behind. Now, 10 years later, the precocious 13-year-old wants answers to the mysteries of her mother's whereabouts. Is she dead? Was she also the victim of an unknown assailant? Or was she an abused wife and heartless mother who did not care about her child's welfare? With her father, Thomas, incarcerated in a mental hospital since the tragedy that destroyed his family, Jenna has few people to turn to for help. Aided only by Virgil, the disgraced detective who bungled the initial investigation, and Serenity, a once-famous but now infamous TV psychic, Jenna seeks answers to the questions that have always plagued her. Best-selling, reliably entertaining, and thought-provoking Picoult's newest multifaceted novel is redolent 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.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Popular Picoult's latest hot-topic novel will be heavily promoted on all fronts as she appears in 20 cities and conducts a TV satellite tour.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2014

With seven consecutive no. 1 best sellers, Picoult's (The Storyteller; My Sister's Keeper) latest novel is full of the deep characters and multilayered story lines that have earned her a spot in many readers' hearts. Jenna, a 13-year-old misfit, has lived with her grandmother ever since her mother, Alice, a scientist devoted to studying elephant grieving patterns, disappeared ten years ago. Jenna cannot recall the details of that fateful night or the circumstances that resulted in one woman trampled to death on the elephant sanctuary where her family lived, and her mother missing. Jenna's father can't help her either; he has been in a psychiatric ward ever since and only rarely recognizes his daughter. Determined to find her mother, Jenna enlists the help of Serenity, a psychic who has begun to doubt her abilities, and Virgil, a private investigator who was originally in charge of Alice's case. VERDICT A truly engaging read that crosses through the genres of mystery and the supernatural. The interspersing of elephant behavior information and Alice's journal entries about her subjects provide just the right amount of parallelism. Perfect for Picoult fans and book clubs. [See "Books for the Masses," Editors' BEA Picks, LJ 7/14, p. 27.]--Chelsie Harris, San Diego Cty. Lib.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2014

Desperate to find out what happened to her mother, Alice, who left behind the family she loved and the elephants she had studied so devotedly when she mysteriously vanished, 13-year-old Jenna joins forces with shady psychic Serenity Jones and world-weary detective Virgil Stanhope. Two e-originals, Where There's Smoke (May 19) and Larger Than Life (August 5), introduce Serenity and Alice, respectively.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.