The Black Curtain by Cornell Woolrich

When Frank Townsend came to, he was laying on the street and people were brushing plaster off of him and trying to help him stand up. He had been hit on the head by a piece of falling plaster. Frank managed to stand up and staggered home. When he got to the house he remembered leaving in the morning, he was told that his wife had moved out. He got his wife's new address, and went to see her. She was amazed to see him since he had been gone for two and half years - from January 30, 1938 to May 10, 1941. He had lost 2 and a half years of his life.

 Frank then set about to resume his old life. Frank's old employer hired him again. Then one day, Frank saw a man on the street who seemed to be watching him. In the following days, Frank was sure that the man was following him.

Frank decided that the time had come to find out what he had been doing during the lost years of his life. He sent his wife to a safer place, and went back to the street where  he had come to after been hit by the falling plaster. He wandered this street until finally he made a connection to this time that he couldn't remember. He discovered that he was accused of a murder, and he found a young woman who was in love with him and would help him in clearing his name.

Cornell Woolrich who was born in 1903, dropped out of college, and started writing novels in 1926. These serious novels of the Jazz Age were failures. It was in the 1940's when he turned to writing detective novels and pulp fiction that his career took off. He is said to have written the story upon which the movie Rear Window was based, although there seems to be some disagreement about this. Although he was earning money from his writing, he lived most of his life with his mother in rather seedy hotels. His health declined after his mother's death in 1957, and he died in 1968. Many movies have been based on his books. Some of his books are being reissued in paper and e-book formats.