The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir

Gr 9 Up—The lives of John Busby, a police officer, and his family were shattered on the evening of August 31, 1979 when he was shot in his car on the way to work on Cape Cod. While he survived the horrific encounter, he had to undergo years of reconstructive surgeries. John believed that the shooter was hired by a prominent individual in the community who was dissatisfied because two members of his family had been arrested. During the investigation, the Busby family was under 24-hour surveillance and, finally, they moved away and went into hiding. This memoir (Bloomsbury, 2008), written by Cylin and John Busby, chronicles this horrific event and its aftermath and is told in alternating chapters by David Baker and John's daughter, Cylin, who was nine-years-old at the time of the shooting. By experiencing the story through the eyes of the victim and his daughter, listeners get an accurate picture of their ordeal. This true-rime story will be a good supplement for high school and public library collections.—Elizabeth L. Kenyon, Merrillville High School, IN