Books & Java

Leaving Time

by Jodi Picoult

Synopsis: 

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 that she would be abandoned as a young child, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts.

Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest. The first is Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons—only to later doubt her gifts. The second is Virgil Stanhope, a jaded private detective who originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As 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.

As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish.

My Review:

This book was AMAZING!!! Emotionally packed yet it was the last line of the book that brought me to tears. Love is such a strong emotion and how intensifies at the death of someone you love even more so. The things you wish you would have said and done and the things you wish you could tell that person long after they are gone. All very real emotions that Jodi Picoult nails with the story of Jenna, Alice, Thomas, Gideon, Grace, Nevvie, Virgil and Serenity. 

Alice is a researcher of elephant behavior. Her research, however, is unorthodox as it focuses on cognitive behaviors that are scientifically are difficult if at all possible to quantify. She is fascinated by the mother/baby relationship in herds as well as elephant's behaviors as related to memory, grieving, love, and motherhood. The story of Alice parallels her own research and Jenna's desire to solve the mystery of her missing mother and the incidents that resulted in a death at the elephant sanctuary where they all live in Boone, NH. 

It was so hard for me to put this book down but I paced myself to really absorb all aspects of the story and the development of the plot. Each character is so unique and so important to the outcome of the story and Jodi Picoult beautifully brings everyone to such an unexpected but appropriate ending. 

I can't recommend this one enough. You will not be disappointed.