Jenna Metcalf, 13, has lived with her grandmother since she was three, when her mother disappeared from the elephant sanctuary that her parents ran after a dead body was found. Her father had a breakdown and has been living in a mental facility all these years. Jenna has never fit in anywhere, and spends her life reading her mother's journals, while keeping her eye on missing persons reports online, hoping that her mother is still alive and will be found someday.
After earning enough money babysitting, she reaches out to a detective (Vic Stanhope) whose name strongly resembles the name of the police investigator who came to the elephant sanctuary the night of the murder/disappearance. He spends most of his time drinking now. Not one to hedge her bets, Jenna also finds the name of a psychic (Serenity Jones) who used to be famous for finding missing people until she provided dramatically bad information for a senator and his wife, whose baby had been kidnapped. Serenity now makes a living giving ten-dollar readings. The three of them begin to work together, after several fits and starts. The pieces begin to come together in chapters delineated by the various characters' points of view. The results were not at all what I was expecting. Tremendously good read. And fascinating facts about elephants provide a superb framework for the story.
