A writer makes a cranky reader

I've just read another bestselling book, by a bestselling author (who has the cutest author photo in the back!) I can name this book--Keeping Faith, by Jodi Picoult--because I enjoyed it immensely and can recommend it as a compelling read. Here's the sticker, though: I'm a writer, and there are two big flaws in this otherwise delightful novel.

My problems with this novel are 1) there's a dramatic scene, an injury at a circus, that seems to have no bearing on the rest of the plot; and 2) after four hundred pages dealing with a fascinating situation, the situation just evaporates. Done. Over. No explanation, not even, really, a speculation about what it all meant. It's just--gone.

I haven't read Picoult before, although now I will. She writes smoothly, and her plot kicks along at an amazing pace. It was a relief to find a book from the bestseller lists which I really enjoyed. But I don't think our genre audience would ever settle for this story as told. They might not care about the circus scene that seems to mean nothing, but they would sure as heck care about an unresolved plot point, especially one on which the entire book hinges. I know my editors would never let me get away with such an evasion.

I want to meet the charming Jodi (it really is a darling photograph) and ask her just what SHE thought it all meant?