Note from a reader:
"A winner!  “The Disappearance” captures your attention with mystery, suspense and mystical creatures from the beginning to the end—and wanting more. Gale Leach is a brilliant writer with a creative imagination. Lots of surprises appear in the mysterious wizardry world of Thera.

The illustrated cover with Jessie and Tom helps one to picture their faces throughout the story in their fascinating magical adventures.

My teen grandchildren are going to love this book."

The Disappearance:
Book One of The Rift Chronicles
A Young-Adult Cross-Worlds Epic Fantasy


​They had no idea they would be heroes.
Neither did the wizards who brought them to Thera.

Tom is sixteen when his younger sister, Jessie, vanishes before his eyes. Her loss, coming after a mysterious accident that left him in a wheelchair, causes his family to disintegrate.

But Tom learns Jessie’s disappearance was not an isolated event. Long ago, wizards created a rift that shifted Earth’s once-abundant magic to a separate world called Thera. Now, a terrible war rages there: some wizards strive to reunite the worlds, while others believe doing so would destroy both spheres. Both sides are stealing children with magical talent, like Jessie and Tom, to aid their cause.
​
Desperate to bring Jessie back, Tom allows himself to be changed into a centaur so he can cross to Thera. Once there, he learns that he and his sister are pawns in the wizards’ ongoing war. Rather than be manipulated, Tom and Jessie wage their own battles to save both worlds and return home.

Praise for The Disappearance
“An imaginative and thought-provoking leap into a parallel world where mystical creatures are not what they seem and magic isn’t the only way out. A mesmerizing journey for all ages!”
                                                   —Ann I. Goldfarb, author of the Time Travel Mysteries

“The Disappearance is an immersive and exciting ride through a fantasy world that’s as fresh and new as it is convincing and real. Leach’s epic tale will keep you turning pages well past your bedtime.” 
                                                                   ​—Shanan Winters, author of The Adept Cycle

“The Disappearance is an immersive and exciting ride through a fantasy world that’s as fresh and new as it is convincing and real. Leach’s epic tale will keep you turning pages well past your bedtime.” 
                                                                   ​—Shanan Winters, author of The Adept Cycle

Review by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite:
Jessie and Tom share a special bond. It’s more than just family. But the depth of that bond doesn’t reveal itself until after Jessie disappears while riding a merry-go-round and Tom follows her to the other side, the world of wizards, dragons, fairies and magic. Evil abounds in Thera, the world that parallels Earth, where magic escaped and hid from Earth generations ago. And if the evil power of certain wizards takes control, then it could affect Earth as well. Tom is set on rescuing his sister from Thera. But he’s handicapped. Stuck in a wheelchair since a near fatal accident, Tom is paralyzed from the waist down. The only solution presented is for Tom to merge with a centaur and, in effect, be permanently changed into a centaur. Little do either siblings know, or understand, the depths of their own magic which is the root cause of Jessie’s disappearance. And as the two, thrust into a strange world full of unusual creatures and inexplicable powers, discover on their diverse journeys to reconnect with each other, true magic comes in the strength and power of love and family.

Gale Leach’s novel, The Disappearance: Book One of the Rift Chronicles, is a spelling-binding tale that parallels the power and meaningful depths of C.S. Lewis’s tales of Narnia. What reader, young or old, wouldn’t be attracted to a story about a parallel world full of magic and wizards and so much more. And yet, in its page-turning drama, this plot offers more than the superficial story line. As the author leads the reader on two journeys, Jessie’s and Tom’s, she gives insight into history, spirituality, magical spells and their sources, and a whole realm of possibilities where anything that can be imagined is also potentially believable. A wonderful tale. Can’t wait for book 2.