The Eagle's Nest

The Night I Disappeared

by Julie Reece Deaver

Published by Simon Pulse
242 pages

What would hap­pen if every­thing real to you sud­denly be­came a day­dream? In The Night I Dis­ap­peared , by Julie Re­ece Deaver, young Jamie Tess­man copes with this se­vere psy­cho­log­i­cal condition.

A Cal­i­for­nia de­fense attorney’s daugh­ter, Jamie is a loner, ex­cept for her un­der­stand­ing “boyfriend” Webb. When her mother is called to de­fend a high-​​society mur­der sus­pect in Chicago, she is forced to part from Webb for the summer.

Jamie be­gins to find her­self day­dream­ing about him amid the Chicago scenery. Af­ter be­ing caught up in a vivid day­dream about Webb, she crashes her bike and winds up in a lo­cal hos­pi­tal, where she meets Mor­gan. The niece of a pres­ti­gious Chicago psy­chi­a­trist, Mor­gan has ex­pe­ri­enced her fair share of heart­break, cop­ing with the death of her boyfriend.

The two be­come best friends, the only friend of Jamie’s be­sides Webb, that is. As Jamie talks about her con­di­tion, Mor­gan be­lieves that her aunt may be of some as­sis­tance. Es­pe­cially when she has a hor­rific episode while eat­ing lunch one afternoon.

What the psy­chi­a­trist dis­cov­ers turns Jamie’s world up­side down. The truth about Webb and the mys­te­ri­ous oc­cur­rence on a Cal­i­for­nia base­ball field will for­ever change her life.

I strongly rec­om­mend this novel to all who ap­pre­ci­ate a well writ­ten, psy­cho­log­i­cal thriller. Deaver knows how to keep an au­di­ence on the edge of their seats…throughout the en­tire work. An in­trigu­ing plot and re­al­is­tic char­ac­ters make this book a fan­tas­tic read.