While the beginning of this novel started off as a thriller, I think this would be better described as a crime story. The author maintained a good pace and I quite enjoyed the writing style, which switched between the perspectives of Ellery and Reed. This was a short book compared to most other crime fiction/thrillers that I read, which meant that things moved along quite quickly. This may have been why I hesitate to call this novel a thriller; there really wasn't the time to allow the tension and questions to build up. I thought that the story was interesting and it definitely had my attention from the start. It was a little too detailed at times, with side information that was not really important or necessary for character development or the story. I would have preferred if there had been more of an emphasis on profiling criminals and more red herrings in place. The ending was also easy to predict but enjoyable nevertheless. Overall, this was a nice mystery and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of crime fiction and is looking for a short read. Solid 3/5 stars from me!

For a debut novel this is an excellent police procedural / mystery.

At the age of 14, on her birthday, Ellery Hathaway is kidnapped by a serial killer. After three harrowing days she is rescued by FBI agent Reed Markham.

Fast forward several years into the future we find Ellery is now a police officer in the small town of Woodbury, Massachusetts. For the last 3 years around her birthday someone in this small town goes missing. Not only that but she receives ominous birthday cards in the mail from someone who seems to know her and who she is even though she's done everything in her power to hide her identity. Not even her closest friends know who she really is. When she approaches the chief of police with suspicions that the three missing people are some how connected to one another the chief scoffs at her idea because no bodies have been found.

Since she now hit a dead end she makes a phone call to the one person that might actually believe her, Reed Markham. He immediately grabs the first flight and is on his way to help her look into the mysterious disappearances. From here we follow Ellery and Reed through out their investigation.

I don't want to spoil anything but let's just say that who I thought the killer was turned out to be wrong. Really wrong. Well done, Joanna Schaffhausen for a genuine surprise.

Oh, and one last thing, I am in love with (and you will be too) Speed Bump her adorable bassett hound.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

For the past 3 years, Ellery Hathaway has received the same card on her birthday. From a relative? Perhaps a friend. Uh, no. The cards may be unsigned but she knows exactly what their arrival means.

Ellie is a cop in the rural town of Woodbury. It’s a sleepy place where crimes range from petty to domestic. The cop shop is small & the only outstanding mysteries are 3 missing persons. One each July when Ellie turns another year older. She’s desperate to reopen the cases but until she comes up with some new info, her boss doesn’t want to hear it. As far as he’s concerned there’s nothing to connect the 3 & he’s satisfied with what they found.

But Ellie has more insight than most & with good reason. Turns out she has a secret & it’s a whopper. When she was 14, she became famous as the final victim of a prolific & sadistic kidnapper. She only survived because of a brilliant FBI agent named Reed Markham. But survival can take many forms. The time she spent with a mad man & ensuing media crush left Ellie with obvious & hidden scars. In an effort to escape her past, she changed her name & broke all ties. No one in Woodbury knows who she is or at least that’s what she thought. As another July approaches, Ellie fears someone else will disappear & there’s only one person who can help. Because she just got another card.

Got your attention? I hope so because this taut, atmospheric read deserves a space on your TBR pile. It succeeds on several levels but I’ll just speak to a few. First, the setting. A small town is the perfect backdrop for setting the tone. Everyone knows everyone…or thinks they do. There is a closed culture that desperately wants to believe in “stranger danger” because horrific crimes couldn’t possibly be committed by someone they know, right? The sense of security borne of familiar faces & routines can be the first casualty when a killer strikes. But that familiarity also means that someone must know something.

Then we have the 2 MC’s. Their personalities are very different but both are dealing with fallout from the case that brought them together all those years ago. There’s a plethora of crime protagonists out there that come saddled with PTSD/tortured/hidden pasts & how much I enjoy their story often depends on how they’re portrayed. When it comes to Ellie, this author struck a perfect balance (IMHO). Her public persona is cool & collected, designed to discourage anyone from getting too close. But we are privy to private moments where her thoughts & habits reveal how she copes with the permanent psychological damage from her ordeal. Especially effective are the descriptions of her home which provide a telling mirror reflection of its owner. Reed is also well developed, a likeable flawed man whose career peaked when he rescued teenage Ellie. A subsequent screw-up erased his status as golden boy of the FBI’s Behavioral Unit. When Ellie calls it’s a chance to revisit his greatest success & perhaps find a little personal redemption in the process.

There’s a subtle underlying unease that gradually builds as we, like Ellie & Reed, wait for the killer to make their next move. Questionable behavior from several characters means you may change your mind more than once as you try to identify the bad guy. And just so you know, details from Ellie’s past are sparing & kept to a minimum. The author chose to reveal a few choice tidbits instead of full on graphic descriptions which allows your imagination to run amok & fill in the blanks.

Ellery Hathaway is a deputy in the small town of Woodbury, Massachusetts, but she has a dark secret. As a teen-anger, she was kidnapped and tortured by serial murderer Francis Coben and she survived, She was the only survivor because of FBI agent Reed Markham who doggedly followed the clues and found her before Coben could kill her. Now, each year on her birthday, Ellie is getting a strange birthday card and someone else is missing from her small town. She is convinced that someone like Coben is taking these people, so she contacts Reed and he comes to town to help follow the clues again. Ellie risks her job and her life to save the lives of others, but is she actually the one who is perpetrating these crimes? Reed is on leave from the FBI because of the stress of the job, and this is not a restful vacation for him. The macabre acts of Coben, cutting off the hands of his victims, is being repeated. Why? Coben is still on death row in an Indiana prison so it can’t be him. The twists in this thriller will have you reading late into the night and checking to make sure the doors and windows are locked.

The Vanishing Season is an impressive first novel from author Joanna Schaffhausen. The cover and title initially grabbed my attention, so I was very pleased that St. Martin's Press granted my wish to read this book on Net Galley.

No one around Ellery Hathaway really knows her. They know she's a good police officer with a caring heart... but they don't know her story. She never celebrates her birthday, because it serves as an unwelcome reminder of the birthday long ago when she was kidnapped. Ellery was kept by an infamous serial killer, and remains his only survivor while he rots in prison. She's worked hard to keep her past a secret, but it seems someone knows her better than she thinks... she's been receiving a card on the anniversary of her birth for the last three years, postmarked from the same sleepy little town she's made her home. It also happens to coincide with one disappearance each year.

The victims seem unconnected, being of different sexes and ages. They don't seem to have much at all in common, and Ellery has had a difficult time convincing her superiors these cases are likely by the same perpetrator. She contacts the one man she thinks she can rely on: Agent Reed Markham, the man who saved her life long ago and told her to get in touch if she ever needed anything again. She's convinced that someone else will disappear, now that it's "vanishing season" once more. They last saw each other when Reed was a young, determined detective and Ellery (then Abby) was a traumatized teenager. Can he live up to her expectations... and will she live up to his?

I'm giving this one a 3.5 rounded up to a four. The characters are incredibly well-developed and the story is intriguing. There are moments that made me shudder, and moments that made me laugh. Bump, Ellery's rescue dog, was a bright spot. I loved whenever he featured. The strongest points of this book are the beginning and the last quarter or so. I did get lost with different names, leads, and side stories in the middle a bit, and I did predict a bit of the ending but not exactly how it would come to be. Still overall a great story and a really promising debut.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and St. Martin's Press, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen.
This is a debut novel and I would catagorize it in the police procedural genre.
A young woman, a survivor of a serial preditor when she was a teenager, is tramatized but determined to overcome this terrible event in her life. Years later she is a police officer in Massachusetts with a new identity. She hides in plain sight - no one knows her past....
Things change when there are three victims that closely relate to her past are murdered. She teams up with a Special Agent to find out if in fact she is the center of these recent crimes. And if she is, why is that...and who is doing it...
Good Debut - crime mixed with a little romance.

This is a wonderfully thrilling story. Ellery Hathaway is a survivor of a serial killer. No one knows this, and now she is a police officer. Then there are girls starting to disappear around her birthday. Could someone know her secret? Who could it be and why are they doing this? She turns to the only person who she can trust and who believes her....the person who saved her all those years ago. Can they catch the killer together? You will need to read the book to find out. I would like to thank Net Galley for a copy of this book so I could voluntarily review it. The review is my own opinion.

How exciting it is to read an author's debut book and straight away add her name to my list of favourite writers.
A thrilling original story with lots of what certainly seemed well researched police procedure. Good characters and plenty of unexpected twists.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a read where you get completely caught up with what will happen next. It's a bit of an over used saying but it's a real page turner!

A small-town police officer has strong suspicions regarding a series of disappearances that have occurred three years in a row, all around the same time of year, but no one in town believes her concerns are valid. She’s a young, newbie officer and there is nothing tying the disappearances together, no real evidence of a crime even. What they don’t know is that Ellery knows firsthand how a serial killer works, having been the final – and only living – victim of one of the most infamous serial killers in history. To help her investigate on her own, Ellery brings in the agent who saved her all those years ago, Agent Reed Markham of the FBI. But he brings baggage of his own that may skew his perspective. Working around the local department, while working through their past experience, they focus on figuring out the cause of these disappearances. Is there a tie between the serial killer who tortured her all those years ago? Is there a connection between the missing that they haven’t figured out? And will they figure it out before another person goes missing?

What a great book! I was hooked from the very first chapter and I finished it in two reading sessions (would have been one if I could have kept my eyes open the first night!). This is my favorite kind of reading experience, the kind where you fall so deeply into the book that time ceases to exist until your body (very annoyingly) reminds you. Entrancing.

Ellery’s perspective as a previous victim turned cop was a huge hook for me. And her character felt genuine, human, believable. She isn’t a victim who turned into some genius serial killer hunter. She isn’t some super strong survivor who came out of her previous experience without issues. And the last thing she wants is notoriety. Her trauma is something she carries with her everywhere, and she tries to work around it, building as much of a life as she can, while trying to quietly battle the scars left behind. It all felt realistic. She felt realistic.

And having Agent Reed Markham come back into her life was ingenious. His character offered a whole other perspective on the events of her kidnapping and the aftermath. How those events changed his life vs. hers. How those events changed the lives of everyone directly involved, and the lives of those they loved or would eventually love. And having him come into the story also helped provide a lot of closure for the both of them, and I really love closure.

As for the whodunit part of it? So well done! From the onset, I had two potential perpetrators in mind, and that remained the case throughout. But. Just when I thought I had it figured out, a seed of doubt would be planted, and my theories would be turned upside down. So. Much. Fun!

What else can I say? This is her debut novel. Debut! It was fantastic. She is on my authors to be watched list. I recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries, thrillers, etc. Actually, I recommend it if you like great books. Period.

Good stuff, my friends. Good. Stuff.

The Vanishing Seasons is a fabulous book! This is the kind of book that I breezed through, and that I felt from the very start that I would love and I was not wrong. The story is engrossing. Officer Ellery Hathaway is a young woman, the only surviving victim of a serial killer, and she is the only one that sees the signs out there that there is a serial killer loose. She tries desperately to get her boss who is also her secret lover to see that and when she fails to do so will she turn to the man who saved her as a child FBI Agent Reed Markham. But, is there really a serial killer out there, or has she imagined that?

This is just my kind of book, intense, intriguing and utterly spellbinding. I loved every second of it and I was both disappointed and amazed that this is a debut book. Disappointed that Joanna Schaffhausen hasn't written more books for me to read and amazed that this debut book is so amazingly good! Honestly, I can't wait to read the next book by Schaffhausen!

Ellery Hathaway is an interesting character, and I loved that she ended up being an officer and that her dog is the only male creature that she allows into her home. She has her demons which one will find out as the story progress. Agent Reed Markham as well has his share of problem, both in his personal life and at work and I quite enjoyed their reunion and hunt for a serial killer.

This is if I haven't been clear enough a pretty awesome book and I recommend it warmly!

3.5 Stars

The Vanishing Season was a good debut novel that started strong, but lost momentum as the book progressed. A fairly solid police procedural, although there were a few things that were on the unbelievable side. All in all an enjoyable read with a great plot and characters I would like to see more of in future books.

I liked it. It wasn't that gory . I recommend it for those who like a good mystery

3.5/5 Overall a good read, but there were a lot of strange coincidences that just felt too manufactured and kept me from getting completely engaged with the story. The basic premise is that a girl who was captured and tortured by a serial killer is now all grown up and a police officer looking into a possible serial killer case. To the average person, these disappearances don't look related at all, but to our protagonist they must be because it's always around her birthday and she survived so it's her punishment. Oh, of course. That makes total sense. Then when the killer is caught and tells their motivation, it's just really weird- especially with the prologue. I thought it was really reaching for something, but never really got a solid hold on anything that made logical sense.

A debut story that leaves me excited to see what else this author comes up with.

Loved the premise and the writing style is good and shows lots of promise for more suspense stories in the future.

While the story starts off strong it quickly gets a little too drawn out. lots of unnecessary details that just had me jumping pages to find dialogue to advance the story. The characters were good and well developed, it just lacked a little spark.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, and Joanna Schaffhausen for the opportunity to read and review her debut novel - it's a good one. Well, if a book about a creepy serial killer can be good!

Ellie is the sole survivor of a serial killer's rampage when she was just 14 years old. She was saved by an FBI agent who saw something no one else did. Ellie bears the scars, both physically and mentally, of the torture she endured at the hands of his killer.

Ten years later finds Ellie working as a police officer in a small town. She's changed her name and has strict rules about who she lets into her life. Which is really no one expect her rescue dog, Speed Bump (arguably the star of this book!). However, there has been a string of missing people in her small town - one every year for the last 3 years, always in the beginning of July, which happens to coincide with Ellie's birthday. Ellie is convinced these incidents are related, though no one else believes her. She finally calls upon Reed, the FBI agent who rescued her who is dealing with his own demons, to help her investigate.

While I may have seen the ending coming, it in no way took away from my enjoyment of this book. A great read!

This was not my usual type of read. I love a good murder mystery, but am not so much into the cop drama. That being said I did enjoy this story. I had the kidnapper figured out right when they were introduced into the story. The ending felt rushed. This was a quick read for me.

The Vanishing Season kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading it. It’s a highly entertaining read with a sympathetic, likeable protagonist and a clever mystery with a satisfying and realistic resolution. As the story careens towards its ultimate thrilling conclusion, Schaffhausen includes lots of twists and turns and several red-herrings which add to the building tension. It wasn’t too hard to figure out who the murderer was but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book. The book is pretty creepy which I would have preferred to know going in, but it wasn’t so creepy that I had to stop reading it.

My favorite thing about the book is that it is a page-turner. I didn’t want to set it down to do anything else. The two small things that did not appeal to me as much were the amount of graphic detail included (it is fairly gruesome at times and the bizarre cover – the girl looks pregnant. I had to look at it for a long time to finally make sense of the picture. I am a firm believer that a good cover is invaluable to a book, and this one just doesn’t hit the mark.

The Vanishing Season is an entertaining and thrilling debut, and I look forward to Schaffhausen’s next book. Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

Joanna Schaffhausen is a gifted writer, every time I thought that I had this puzzle put together, a new piece was added sending me down a new path with a new suspect in mind. I love it when an author does not intentionally mislead a reader but rather lets little parts slip in that opens up new directions to explore.

As a child, Abby Hathaway was abducted and held captive by a brutal man that liked to keep souvenirs. FBI Agent Reed Markham was determined to find this psychopath before he could claim another victim. A bond was forged between these two in a harrowing rescue. Now twenty years later with Markham mirroring John Grisham and Abby, going by her middle name of Ellery, a member of the Massachusetts’ Woodbury Police Department, their world’s collide again when Ellery calls on him when people start disappearing every July around Ellery’s birthday and cards appear that let her know that her secret is no longer safe.

Though a twisty tail, the plot does not follow the unreliable narrative that so often befuddles this genre. The reader is given the bits and pieces that move the intrigue along, without insulting your intelligence and at the same time, making your brain work sorting out the details and at the end you realize a giant clue was given to you in the beginning that you had brushed away as unimportant fluff.

Fourteen years ago Francis Coben terrorized the nation as girl after girl went missing. When the bodies began turning up, it was clear Francis was more than your run-of-the-mill twisted killer. The man was sick: after torturing the girls he would cut off their hands as keepsakes – and what he did with those hands was too disturbing for even the media to disclose. So when 14-year-old Abby Hathaway was taken one night, it was a race against the clock to find her. But find her one young agent did and overnight the pair became famous: Reed for being the rescuer (and later went on the write a runaway bestseller detailing the crime) and Abby, the sole survivor.

A decade and a half later, Abby – now Ellery – has taken on a new life away from the place she called home. Now a police officer, Ellie avoids any talk of her past, playing off her scars as the result of a childhood bike accident and disregarding her birthday altogether. However, with three new girls now missing, Ellie believes there may be a copycat killer at work, though she can’t get anyone to believe her – until she pays a call to an old FBI agent from her past. Reed is the only one who knows Ellie’s true identity, he’s the only one who believes her suspicions, especially after she shows him a secret stash of birthday cards she’s been receiving: Ellery was kidnapped on her birthday and has made a point of never divulging the date to anyone in her new town. Whoever has been sending the cards not only knows who she is, but also knows where she lives. It isn’t until Ellery receives a gift-wrapped present – a severed hand – that the Woodbury PD finally realize Ellie’s theories may actually hold some truth.

Although The Vanishing Season is less than 300 pages, it packs a HUGE punch and I was glued to the page. Ellery’s determination to run from her past, her insistence that the missing person cases are linked – and frustration at not being believed, the vulnerability that’s revealed once the new (??) killer makes their presence known and every inch of her home is inspected, I simply couldn’t flip the pages fast enough. On the surface Ellie seems cold and closed-off, not interested in forging relationships or getting to know her fellow officers. She has a dog and has a friendly relationship with the guy who runs the shelter, but that’s as far as buddy goes. It isn’t until Reed enters her home that he discovers the nailed-shut closets. Every single one. For days Ellie was held in a pitch black closet, only let out for another of Francis’s unspeakable acts. Fourteen years later she’s still carrying that with her.

Reed didn’t fare that well either and, though not physical like Ellie’s, he’s still baring scars from the past. Once the star rookie agent with a book deal, Reed soon gave more of himself to his work than to his family and, while technically still married, he and his wife have separated. He adores his little girl, but he’s struggling to make good on his visitations with her and counseling sessions with his wife. Even worse is that he’s currently on mandatory leave after dropping the ball on a major case. He realized all too late that they had their guy; once he was released he went out and killed a little boy.

Ellery is no longer the terrified teenager, Reed has fallen from grace and a good chunk of The Vanishing Season is watching these two navigate their ideas of who the other was with who they are now. I will say, though, that I am THRILLED the book didn’t stray into romance when it so easily could have. There’s a 13 year age difference, so it’s not like it would have been unthinkable, especially given their past, but the book is all the better for avoiding even a hint of romance.

Clearly this is a book I seriously enjoyed, seeing as how I can’t stop rambling about it, so I’ll try to wrap this up. I avoid spoiler talk in my reviews unless it deals with an animal, specifically dogs. At 93%, during the final showdown, Bump is shot off-screen so to speak, and is assumed dead. I’m happy to say he survives and is well on his way to a full recovery the next time he appears.

The mystery in The Vanishing Season was SO fun (or as fun as severed hands can be) and I truly didn’t want to set the book aside for anything. This was one of those novels where, if I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it and counting down the time until I could return to it (thanks to pesky things like work and sleep – who needs ’em). Looking back, I should have easily pegged the killer since there are so few characters, but I’m glad I didn’t and that I got to sit back and enjoy watching it all play out. I’m both excited and heartbroken that this is Joanna’s debut: I’m thrilled to see what she does next but oh how I would love to be able to read more of her work now!