"I wonder where people find words for all the funny things inside their heads. I keep turning around in circles and finding how well things fit together, but nothing is ever complete. I think if I could tell someone everything, every single thing, inside my head, then I would be gone, and not existing anymore[...]"

A young single mother, Blanche Lake, goes to pick up her daughter from daycare. She's not there, and no one has any recollection of her. Within the next 24 hours, it seems as if Bunny has disappeared into thin air or that she never existed. Her quest to find her and convince people she's not mad is tense, noir-ish, and kind of bizarre (the doll hospital, the psychiatrist...). It's one of those melodramatic mid-20th-century paperbacks I love and definitely want to have more of in my bookshelf.

If you can't find the book, Otto Preminger's movie adaptation is fantastic. Set in London instead of New York, it's not faithful to a T, but it does have great performances and captures the story's mood.