The Moment She Was Gone by Evan Hunter

Evan Hunter is better known by his pseudonym Ed McBain, author of The 87th Precinct series of police procedurals, staples of crime fiction. Besides the 55 in that series, Hunter wrote over 40 novels under the Hunter name and various others.

This is neither mystery nor crime, as a family deals with the fallout of mental illness.

Annie disappears at two in the morning. Her twin brother, Andrew, and their older sibling, Aaron, gather at their mother's apartment on New York's Upper West Side. It's not the first time; she has always been the central concern in their lives, usually in touch when she runs out of money. Drama swirls around her; the latest 'incident' being in Sicily where she was attacked by thugs, raped, with the police placing her in a mental institution. The story changes with each telling, it's hard to know if there is any truth in it. Or, what she believes to be real. Claiming to have been molested at eleven, persecuted at school for being too blonde and pretty, and fleeing after graduation to New Delhi with her brother's wedding money - she returned a tantric devotee with odd piercings and tattoos. When Andrew rescued her from Sicily, she agreed to see a psychiatrist as long as they were holistic, but rejected the corrupt medical system imposing anti-psychotic medication. Neurotic and delusional at 36, her mother nevertheless defends her and funds her adventures. The voices she hears are getting louder and she thinks the FBI have finally tracked her down. Well, that's another story.

Other reviewers found this moving, but it seemed comical to me. She came across as a ditzy mess, but as it developed into schizophrenia, why did the family not act sooner? I was watching a trainwreck, but so was Andrew. A continual drain their whole lives, she needed intervention instead of coddling. Well written but ultimately unaffecting, and I found it just mildly entertaining.

Evan Hunter wrote the novel The Blackboard Jungle, made into a classic film in 1954, and the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds in 1963. In 1986, he was awarded Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and was the first American recipient of the British Crime Writers' Assn. Diamond Dagger award.

2002 / Hardcover / 224 pages