There are authors who inspire unbreakable loyalty or unmistakable aversion from readers due to what they bring to reading experience. Jodi Picoult is a perfect example of this. Her followers adore her page-turning, twist-at-the-ending, ripped-from-the-headlines dramas; others think her work is manipulative, gimmicky and formulaic. What can’t be doubted is her best-selling status, with more than 20 books published and millions of copies in print; she even has a hit feature film adapted from her work, 2004’s “My Sister’s Keeper.”

All that comes into play with her newest—and most ambitious novel yet—“Leaving Time” (Ballantine Books, New York, 2014, 398 pages). It’s about motherhood, memory and elephants; it’s also about other things, altogether. “Leaving Time” begins with 13-year-old Jenna Metcalf’s search for her mother. Ten years ago, the elephant researcher Dr. Alice Metcalf was allegedly trampled by an elephant at an American elephant sanctuary; alive, she was brought to the hospital. She then vanished completely and has not been seen since.

Jenna believes her mother is still alive. “And my hunch is this: She would never have left me behind, not willingly,” Jenna says. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to prove it.” To find Alice, Jenna recruits a down-on-his-luck former police investigator named Virgil Stanhope, and a pink-haired, down-on-her-luck celebrity psychic named Serenity Jones. There may be serendipity or destiny involved here.

Search

“I knew, in that moment, that she was meant to find me,” Serenity thinks. “And that I am going to find her mother.”

The search for Alice takes the unusual trio all over the place; to Africa, where Alice had worked prior to coming back to America, to a mental institution, where Jenna’s troubled father Thomas is being treated, among others. “Leaving Time” goes back in time by interspersing the current narratives (Jenna, Virgil and Serenity) with the past one (Alice).

Picoult, who now and then likes to take a really unusual subject and shake a story out of it, has chosen elephants for “Leaving Time.” “There was something I could put my finger on—not just a complexity, or a connection, but an equality, as if we both knew we were on the same side here,” Alice says. “An elephant seems to understand that if you lose a baby, you suffer.”

The first half of “Leaving Time” is pretty much a straightforward mystery as the protagonists take over a decade-old cold case and try to find out if Alice is still alive, and if so, where she’s been hiding all this time. Virgil wants to close the case he never did; Serenity wants to help Jenna; Jenna wants to know why her mother never came back for her. You will also wind up knowing more about the nature and plight of elephants that you ever thought possible.

Unexpected territory

But the second half of “Leaving Time” jumps into decidedly more unexpected territory. There are deaths, explained and otherwise; there are affairs. Most of all, there are so many secrets.

And at the very end of “Leaving Time” is a whopper of a secret that Picoult followers will love and others will absolutely hate. It’s one heck of a trick, but still a trick nonetheless. It literally changes everything. Picoult writes “Leaving Time” with a confidence and purpose that’s somehow new; she never gets hysterical and her characters are textured and engaging. Serenity is a particularly winning creation.

The twist she has prepared is her most audacious yet, making “Leaving Time” either the best Picoult book you’ve read, or the worst. You’d feel either rewarded or betrayed. There’s no middle ground at all. “Leaving Time” will no doubt make a great movie in the future if kept spoiler-free. In the end, Jodi Picoult achieves a new level of intrigue with the killer twist at the end of “Leaving Time.” It’s like an extreme writing exercise. You will either love it or hate with all your fictional heart; the only way to know is to read it yourself.

Available in paperback from National Book Store.