I really enjoyed this book. It is part of a series and I read the whole series and can not wait for another one.

At 14 years old, Ellery Hathaway is kidnapped by the illustrious serial killer, Francis Coben. Following up on a hunch, Agent Reed Markham discovered Ellery on Coben’s property, and he saved her life. Trying to leave her past behind her, Ellery now goes by her middle name and she works as a cop in the small town of Woodbury, Massachusetts. All is not well and good; however, as a strange set of disappearances haunts Ellery. Each July a local person disappears, and while they seem to share no connection, Ellery is convinced they are connected. Out of options she calls in Reed Markham, the agent previously responsible for her own rescue. Hoping to keep her identity a secret, Ellery tries to pass off Reed’s presence as a consultant for the FBI. With no new clues and little to go on Reed and Ellery work studiously to figure out if these disappearances are connected, and if so, are they somehow related to Ellery’s past with Francis Coben? This is a relatively short novel, that gets an A for suspense. Joanna Schaffhausen has an innate knack for planting the seed of interest that keeps the story going. This is book one so I look forward to reading the follow up novels. Review posted on Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Amazon.

This was an intriguing, entertaining, fast-paced and suspenseful crime/police procedural novel. This is an excellent debut novel, well written with a solid plot and good character development. There was some odd pacing, especially near the end and perhaps a lack of true tension as the story unfolds. That being said, this was very well done.

Such an awesome read.! y’all will seriously love it. I mean the title alone just made me want to read it quickly. A must read! You won’t be disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this free readers edition. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

A small-town cop has a big-town secret and it seems someone has found it out.

Ellery Hathaway was abducted on her birthday years ago and is the only victim of serial killer Francis Michael Coben to have lived. But nobody in her small town, where she is a police officer, knows this. She changed her name and doesn't talk about her past. However, for the past three years, people are disappearing. One person a year right at the same time she was abducted. She can't help but feel someone is trying to send her a message and it's coming up on year four. Her captain won't entertain her theories on these disappearances so Ellery calls the agent that rescued her all those years ago and asks for help before someone else disappears.

Agent Reed Markham was the one who rescued Ellery from the clutches of serial killer Francis Michael Coben but he has fizzled out since then. He's currently on leave from the FBI and at a loss. When the phone call from Ellery comes he's only too ready and willing to hit the road and help out.

Chances are good that whoever knows Ellery's secret is coming for her next, can she and Reed expose the person in time to save not just her life again but whoever else might get in the way?

I really liked this title and start to a new series. I was a bit indifferent to the villain and didn't quite buy it but the rest of the story made up for it in my opinion. I like Schaffhausen's creation of a main character who has survived a serial killer and enters into law enforcement. Like a moth to light, I am drawn to this genre.

I could kick myself for waiting so long to read this book!
I actually started and finished this book in 2 days, I quickly was sucked into the story and I didn't want to put it down! Luckily I have the next book in this series loaded and ready to start tonight.

Ellery Hathaway is a survivor, and as a deputy in a small community when 3 people have disappeared, one every July for the past 3 years, she knows something is very wrong. She is unable to get her chief to listen to her concerns so she calls in Reed Markham, the FBI agent who saved her all those years ago. The story quickly builds and comes to a heart pounding end.

I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. This book was published in 2017.

Elly has a past she keeps hidden. But when three people disappear from her town, close to the birthday, she can't help but wonder if they are connected. She works tirelessly to get her supervisors on board to help work the case- problem is they don't think they is a case and keep dismissing her. Elly calls on someone from her past- Agent Reed- to get support. But what happens when you start digging up the past? Will her secret past be revealed to every one? A great mystery with suspense that holds your attention. I thought the characters were developed well and I really enjoyed Elly and her determination and courage. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this mystery/suspense thriller/police procedure book. From the beginning to end it held my attention... a real page turner as the story heats up. The story was well written and original. Great buildup of characters!
Here is a description from the publisher:
Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers, but not through her police training. She's an officer in sleepy Woodbury, MA, where a bicycle theft still makes the newspapers. No one there knows she was once victim number seventeen in the grisly story of serial killer Francis Michael Coben. The only one who lived.

When three people disappear from her town in three years—all around her birthday—Ellery fears someone knows her secret. Someone very dangerous. Her superiors dismiss her concerns, but Ellery knows the vanishing season is coming and anyone could be next. She contacts the one man she knows will believe her: the FBI agent who saved her from a killer all those years ago.

Agent Reed Markham made his name and fame on the back of the Coben case, but his fortunes have since turned. His marriage is in shambles, his bosses think he's washed up, and worst of all, he blew a major investigation. When Ellery calls him, he can’t help but wonder: sure, he rescued her, but was she ever truly saved? His greatest triumph is Ellery’s waking nightmare, and now both of them are about to be sucked into the past, back to the case that made them...with a killer who can't let go.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery/suspense/police procedural genre. This is the first novel I’ve read by Joanna Schaffhausen and I really look forward to reading more of her books.
A very special thank you to St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley for granting me my wish for this book! I really enjoyed it!

This is my first Joanna Schaffhausen book and I've already started the next book in the Ellery Hathaway series and then still get to read the third book in the series. Happy days for me when I find a new author I want to follow. The Vanishing Season is book #1, followed by No Mercy and All the Best Lies and then the fourth book in the series, Every Waking Hour, will come out next year. 

Ellery Hathaway was the only survivor of a serial killer who had raped, tortured and killed sixteen girls before he grabbed Ellery. She was held for three days before a young FBI agent rescued her. The agent, Reed Markham, earned fame and recognition for saving Ellery and catching the serial killer, Francis Michael Coben, and even wrote a best selling book about the case. Now though, fourteen years later, Reed has fallen from grace after an error in judgement on his last case and he's been put on "stress leave" from his job and his marriage has fallen apart. 

Ellery has been working as a cop in a small town, a town that has had three unsolved missing persons cases, that Ellery thinks are the work of a serial killer. But no one will listen to Ellery so she contacts Reed for help in solving the cases. Ellery and Reed make a good but cantankerous team, skirting rules, authority, and sometimes each other, as they try to stop another person missing, as the  disappearance anniversary of the first three people approaches.  To round out this team is Speed Bump, Ellery's slobbering Basset Hound rescue. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

Scrappymags 3-word review: Serial killer returns!?

Genre: Mystery

Shortest summary ever: Officer Ellery Hathaway craves a LIFE away from the horrid past of her childhood when she was the one who famously escaped a notorious serial killer. But has she? Despite moving away, Every year she receives a birthday card from an unwanted, unknown sender and every year someone goes missing in their small town. Now the missing cases are piling up and it’s time for Ellery to learn the truth.


My thoughts: oooooooh…… This was a fast serial killer mystery read – one of my fave genres (which makes me wonder why, but that’s a question for therapy). The story moves quickly and it’s a page-turner, hitting all the right notes for those like me who love the spine-tingles. I did figure this one out using the ever popular “Dwight Schrute” approach. Fans of The Office holla! But despite this, it was fun to find out I was right. (Back pats). Great characters and a nice perspective of “the girl who got away” and what that means to the victim as well as the FBI agent who rescued her.

Recommend to: All the serial killer/mystery fans

Not recommended to: cozy mystery folks

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press and Joanna Schaffhausen for gifting me this! What a nice surprise!! Happy to provide my honest review.

Fourteen-year-old Abigail Hathaway was abducted by serial killer Francis Michael Coben the night of her birthday, and after a frantic four day search, FBI Agent Reed Markham discovered her in a closet in Coben’s home. She had been raped and had wounds on her body that indicated Coben was planning to dissect her as he had his other victims. Abby did her best to put the memories of the days of torture behind her, going on to complete college and become a police officer in a small, quiet town.

Ellery Hathaway, no longer Abigail, is exceptionally nervous around the date of her birthday, as there has been someone in town going missing for the past three years, although there seems to be no connection between the victims. The police chief and the other officers at the station – all male – don’t believe her theories, so she calls the agent who saved her from the closet all those years ago and asks him to get involved in the case. As events unfold, both Ellery and Reed are stunned at what they discover as they end up in the fight of their lives.
Ellery tries to hide her past, but of course, everything is revealed during the investigation.

I was impressed with her courage and determination, and her desire to protect others from having to suffer as she did. The storyline was definitely interesting, and kept me engaged throughout. I did suspect the offender’s identity towards the end of the book, but was surprised at the extent of the hero worship. You’ll understand when you read the book.

My thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher and author for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wasn't sure what to expect from this book but I got hooked right away. Ellery is hiding, hiding from a past that won't seem to let her go. Now a police officer in a small town she is sure that there is a serial killer taking people. Every July someone goes missing, but the people don't seem connected and they don't fit a standard serial killer profile so Ellery can't get anyone to listen to her. Believing that this is all connected leads Ellery to find a business card she hasn't looked at since she was 14 and lying in a hospital bed as the only surviving victim of a serial killer.

Agent Reed Markham saved Ellery (then going by Abigail) but not until after she had been tortured and brutalized for days, now Ellery is calling on him to help her save others. Except Reed Markham is in a dark place, he seems to be doubting his talents as a profiler and has taken a leave of absence from the FBI, however a call from Ellery has him on a plane to do anything he can to help. Their lives are connected and he just can't seem to stop himself from wanting to save her again.

When evidence starts pointing to the case that Ellery and Reed were involved in 14 years ago, Reed isn't sure if Ellery is a target or if she could possibly be the perpetrator they are looking to find. As Ellery's past starts to surface and the news vans roll into town things get even more difficult for them.

This is a really well written mystery. I was hooked from the beginning and really appreciated how Ellery although alive still is very effected by what happened to her as a child. Even Reed who has seen so much in his years with the FBI can't seem to shake his connection with her. I love the connection these two share and their interactions. I appreciate characters that are a bit broken and there is a lot of that going on in this book. I was so hooked on these characters that I immediately picked up book 2 No Mercy.

It was ok. Knew who the main bad guy was pretty much right away. There were things to me that just didn't connect but felt like they were thrown in so it could make a point as abstract as it was. I know that Ellery went through hell and back and so did Reed but it was shoved down your throat so hard that it was telling you and not really letting you feel the emotions and seeing it yourself. I can see where the author was trying to go with it and it wasn't a bad book by any means just felt a little lacking in some areas. There are parts that weren't really cleared up for me, might have missed it, especially about the envelopes. I received this book as an ARC and I am voluntarily reviewing it.

I received a free electronic copy of this police procedural/FBI novel from Netgalley, Joanna Schaffhausen, and St. Martin's Press - Minotaur Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am happy to recommend Joanna Schaffhausen to friends and family, She writes an excellent mystery with interesting protagonists and prose that flows. She has several serial mysteries going, and I need to read them all...

Ellery Hathaway is the newest and only female police officer in the small town of Woodbury, Massachusetts, her employer for the last four years. Her basset hound Speed Bump is the only real man she will allow in her home or her life. Woodbury boasted 8 police officers, three patrol cars and very little crime - most of the time. No one but Ellie wants to consider the persons missing - three over the last three years, one disappearing each July - as anything more than dissatisfied people looking for a new life. Even without a corpse, Ellery knows in her heart they are dead but can't get her Chief and occasional lover, Sam Parker, to re-open the cold cases which they and the state police had already investigated. It is a week before July 4th, and she knows they will be looking at another disappearance before the month is out. In desperation, she calls her FBI connection, Agent Reed Markham, the profiler who saved her 14 years ago from another serial killer, Francis Coben. That killer is safely still in prison, but these crimes in Woodbury have the same quirks and patterns of Francis Coben kills. Ellery would have to expose her past, kept secret for all these years, to perhaps convince Sam to take another look at these crimes. But Reed knows all about her past and is willing to come to Massachusettsthough he appears reluctant to get involved - until he and Ellery unlock the pattern of the serial killer's choice of new victims - if they are right, Ellery is next. Again.

Ellie was the only person to survive being abducted by a serial killer. She’s changed her name and now fourteen years later has become a police officer in a small town. There has been a missing person case every year around her birthday for the past three years. She’s the only one on the police force who believes that they are all somehow connected. She reaches out to the FBI agent who rescued her fourteen years before and they begin trying to connect the pieces of of the puzzle to stop the serial killer before someone else disappears.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author. The book holds your interest until the very end. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

New characters to love! Ellery and Reed are an awesome powerhouse of problem solving law enforcement members.

Ellery, having been terrorized, has become a remarkable, intuitive woman and police officer.

Reed is an FBI agent with a great history with only one black mark against him.

Put the two together and you know things will be interesting. Definitely a must read! I’m diving into the next book now!

Number 1 of a trilogy and I can’t wait to read number 2! This classic thriller kept me enthralled and I read it in one day. A young girl is abducted by a serial killer but is rescued. She becomes a police officer and encounters what seems to be a copycat in the small Massachusetts town where she lives. The twists Ms Schaffhausen devises after that completely kept me engrossed in the story and reading g as quickly as I could. Thanks to #netgalley for #thevanishingseason to read. On to book 2!

I really liked this book it held my interest through the whole book ....this was a first for me from this author and it won't be my last.

The Vanishing Season (Ellery Hathaway #1) by Joanna Schaffhausen

Someone witnessed a kidnapping that occurred 14 years ago but remained silent. Abigail Hathaway’s life story was no longer private following her survival from abuse and captivity. Francis Michael Coben took pleasure in abducting and torturing young girls in Chicago until he was successfully put behind bars. Abigail Hathaway was the girl who was found and survived. There were books and movies made about her life and experience.

To escape the attention of her past, Abigail “Ellery” Hathaway becomes a patrol officer in the quiet town of Woodbury in MA. Her brother Daniel who was sick with leukemia died 6 months after she returned home. Her father had abandoned the family and left her feeling abandoned when she needed support the most.

She was saved by now FBI agent, Reed Markham, who was only a newbie when he determined where the abducted girl might be. He received a lot praise and notoriety after the girls safe return.
Reed was adopted by a politician when he was a child after the murder of his biological mother. His ex-wife Sarit Ranupam is a reporter who assisted him with writing a book about the Abby Hathaway abduction. Reed was on a “stress leave” trying to make sense of his divorce and custody of 6 yo Tula.

Sam Parker is Chief of Police and although married to Julia, finds himself in a motel bed with Ellery Hathaway. The dynamics of this small town and police force yield Ellery the control in her life she feels she lost many years ago. Aside from Sam, her only other friend is Brady, a fellow insomniac who works in an animal shelter.

Ellery becomes obsessed with recent cases of missing women between Woodbury and Boston. She struggles to prove there’s a connection between these crimes. She calls up Reed Markham to provide advice on the case from an FBI perspective.

The two set out on a mission to solve these crimes. There are so many suspects with hazy pasts which lead them in many directions.

It seems the past comes back to haunt Ellery as she begins to question whether the answers she seek were right in front of her the whole time.

When I saw the blurb for The Vanishing Season, I was intrigued. The victim of a serial killer becomes a cop who then sees a coincidence when people go missing each year around her birthday. The book had me at that. Forget that a famous profiler got involved, I wanted to read about how Ellery was dealing with the aftermath of her trauma. And the author more than delivered!!

The Vanishing Season takes place in the town of Woodbury, Massachusetts. Ellery Hathaway, the only living victim of a sadistic serial killer, is a police officer there. Over the past three years, Ellery has noticed that a person has gone missing on her birthday. Suspecting a serial killer, she tries to get the chief to investigate and is written off. With days left until another person disappears, Ellery reaches out to the FBI agent who rescued her. Reed Markham. Can he help Ellery find the killer before he/she strikes again?

The plotline for The Vanishing Season was lightning fast, and it kept up that pace throughout the book. There was no lag, which was surprising considering how fast this book went. The author was able to keep my focus on the book for the entire book. Put it this way; I picked this book up at 9 am and finished it at 11 am.

I loved how the author portrayed Ellery’s character. It was Ellery that drew me to the book. I wanted to know, “How could someone live after being tortured like she was?”. I got my answer back tenfold. She had severe PTSD and couldn’t form attachments. But she managed to live a normal (if you could call that normal) life. I did want to smack her mother upside the head at points in the book. Your kid was kidnapped, sexually assaulted over and over, and tortured, yet you didn’t get her into therapy? That was a massive WTF from me.

I liked Reed. He was a washed-up version of the person he was when he rescued Ellery. I liked that he acknowledged that. I wasn’t too sure what to make of his dropping everything to help Ellery when she called. But I understood why he did it. He wanted to see how she turned out. He also understood the implications of the people missing on her birthday, and he believed her when she told him what was going on. The small sub storyline with his family did catch my interest.

The main storyline was well written. The author did a fantastic job of keeping how the killer was and why he/she was doing it under wraps. She had me thinking that it was several different people until the big reveal. I was surprised at who it was. I was also shocked at the twist in the plotline. I was not expecting it to go the way it did or what happened.

The end of The Vanishing Season wrapped up beautifully. There was enough left where I did wonder what the next book will be about. I can’t wait to read it!!