The Night She Disappeared

February 6, 2012
When 17-year-old Kayla Cutler, an employee at Pete’s Pizza, disappears while delivering an order, her fellow employees are shocked and disturbed. Unfolding over the two weeks after Kayla vanishes, Henry’s (Girl, Stolen) heart-pounding mystery alternates among the perspectives of numerous characters, including Kayla’s co-workers Gabie, who is traumatized by Kayla’s kidnapping (and believes that she was the intended target), and Drew, a “straight-C stoner” who is supporting his drug-addicted mother, as well as a diver searching the Willamette River, a psychic, Kayla herself—and the man who kidnapped her. As Kayla plots an escape from the room in which she’s being held, Gabie and Drew try to investigate what happened to her, holding out hope that she’s still alive. It’s a riveting story that many readers will finish in one sitting, full of suspects and augmented by police reports, interviews, and newspaper articles that, along with the variety of voices, make the events feel all the more real. Each chapter is a surprise, and the tension builds steadily until the inevitable climactic face-off. Ages 12–up. Agent: Wendy Schmalz, Wendy Schmalz Agency.

February 15, 2012
When a popular high-school girl disappears while delivering pizza at her part-time job, her two fellow employees and classmates try to figure out what happened. Drew Lyle takes the call, Kayla Cutler delivers the pizza, but the man ordering it wants to know if the girl who drives the Mini Cooper--that's Gabie Klug--will be the delivery girl. When Kayla doesn't return, Drew calls the police and the mystery kicks in. Who was the man; what happened to Kayla; why did he ask about Gabie; and, as time begins to pass, is Kayla still alive? Neither Drew nor Gabie, who go to the same high school as Kayla but are work rather than social friends, knows anything, but they are determined to find out. The thriller is narrated using a collage technique. Interspersed with the kids' and perpetrator's first-person accounts are police reports, 911 transcripts, webpages, interviews, etc., which add interest and texture to what otherwise would be a straight genre tale. The police seem amazingly obtuse, Gabie's belief that Kayla is alive is given no realistic, clue-based hook and the third quarter has some pacing problems. Still, Gabie and Drew's budding relationship is believable, and it has a strong wingding climax followed by a feel-good ending. Unexceptional but solid. (Mystery. 12 & up)

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April 1, 2012

Gr 8 Up-Gabie has a seemingly normal and boring life. She works at Pete's Pizza part-time, she drives a Mini Cooper, and both of her parents are doctors who obsess over her most of their waking hours. Then Kayla Cutler disappears after making a delivery, and Gabie's life is changed forever. At first, she thinks about how it was such a coincidence that Kayla disappeared on the night that the teens had agreed to switch shifts. Then, when Drew, a coworker, tells her that the caller who ordered three monster pizzas asked for the girl who drives the Mini Cooper, Gabie soon realizes that she was the intended victim, and she'll stop at nothing to find Kayla. This fast-paced, gripping thriller incorporates many different devices to keep the story moving along. Medical reports, 9-1-1 transcripts, and chapters told by a variety of characters will keep readers involved. Although the ending comes a little too fast and is too neatly tied up, Gabie is an intriguing protagonist. She's the one who has to keep the investigation going, even when most of the community is convinced that Kayla might be dead. Drew's home life and troubles are at the opposite spectrum of Gabie's, so he provides readers with a different perspective through which to see the case. He adds a hint of a romance to the mix. Fans of intense page-turners and those who liked Michele Jaffe's Rosebush (Penguin, 2010) or Lucy Christopher's Stolen (Scholastic, 2010) will love this one.-Traci Glass, Eugene Public Library, OR

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2012
Grades 7-10 The night Kayla disappeared while delivering a pizza, Gabie was supposed to be on delivery duty and Drew took the order. As the days go by and hope for Kayla's safe return fades, Drew and Gabie draw closer together as they grapple with what they know must have been a horrible crime. The police have a suspect and a theory, and they don't want to hear Gabie's suspicion that Kayla is still alive. But the reader, informed by evidence interspersed with multiple perspectivesincluding Kayla's and her kidnapper'sknows that Kayla is alive, that Gabie was the true target, and that the kidnapper isn't finished with either of them. This suspense story pulls all the right strings while nicely fleshing out what could have been stock characters. Gabie, the daughter of surgeons, and Drew, the son of a meth addict, find an unlikely connection not just in their preoccupation with the crime but also in their solitude and desire for understanding and companionship. Meanwhile, seemingly simple golden girl Kayla emerges as a fighter. A taut, emotionally vested thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)