Money from poaching fuels instability in Democratic African Republic, and there are rumors that Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army was funded with the proceeds of illegal ivory from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I began to do a little digging on elephants, and when I discovered that they actually grieve and experience and process loss, I was completely hooked, and knew I would be writing about what it meant to be left behind…and also that I had my profession for the character of Alice. Regardless … a very good story; unexpected and unanticipated twists and turns; some intense emotional reactions! Then my boyfriend Mark Deakins came on the scene and gave his voice to Virgil, the detective who was one of the last to see Alice before she became a missing person.

When his wife, Grace (another employee at the elephant sanctuary) discovered this, she killed herself. The point of zoos was to develop breeding programs and more importantly to encourage conservation of animals that might not be indigenous to a country.And as for Virgil, can he stay sober long enough to be of help to Jenna and, if he does, what if the answers he finds point to Alice being a murderer? Together with the help from Serenity Jones who was a psychic and Virgil Stanhope a former detective, Jenna does all that she can to find the answers that she has desperately been trying to find in relation to her mother's disappearance.

As others have mentioned, there is a twist, and I was on the bus when my jaw literally crashed off the floor. They refuse to leave sick or injured elephants behind, even if the sick animal is not related to them. When he failed to solve Alice's disappearance the first time, he tried to kill himself, but didn't realize that it worked.

I don't know if I loved this book because I didn't see the end coming or I hated it because the end is something that has been done, over and over.

What you may NOT know about elephants is that they have an incredibly complex brain, capable of communicating, learning, remembering, and experiencing fear, pain and loss. the writing and storytelling compelled the suspension of disbelief and acceptance of the unimaginable. I literally had to spend the first few minutes before starting my shift at work, sitting in a stunned silence after finishing this book. Loved this book and learnt a lot about elephants along the way, i would highly recommend this as an awesome read with a brilliant ending I didn't see coming. The moral of this story is that sometimes, you can attempt to make all the difference in the world, and it still is like trying to stem the tide with a sieve.

We began our relationship when I read Salem Falls and was happy with the characterization and the twisty plot. In Africa, there are iridescent blues on the wings of birds that you do not see anywhere else in nature. The main trio - Jenna, Virgil, and Serenity - all come from different places in life yet complement each other so well, due to their humorous bickering and shared desire to find Alice. The ending, in my own opinion, was atrocious and manipulative and like so many have already said, a complete rip-off of The Sixth Sense.

Legend said the spot was in Saudi Arabia; that it was the source of a supernatural force; that it contained a book of spells to bring about world peace. On the night of July 16, 2004 tragedy strikes the sanctuary and Alice is taken by ambulance unconscious to Mercy United Hospital in Boone Heights. I recognise Jodi Piccoult is a fantastic and prolific author, and have enjoyed a couple of her books before now. A pretty hefty amount of disbelief suspending got me through to the ending (count me among the population who is skeptical about psychics), and while I did anticipate some of the twists, the biggest one I did not.Jenna is on a mission to find her mother, Serenity is looking to make sense of her past and rekindle her special talents and Virgil is looking for release from the burdens of guilt and failure.