I really enjoyed this book, the characters were well developed.  It had an interesting plot. I would be interested in reading more

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

Ceelee Sunshine's review
Dec 21, 2019  ·  edit
 
really liked it
bookshelves: 2019-books, ebooks, my-kindle, suspense-mysteries, thrillers-and-horror
 
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a copy of THE VANISHING SEASON to read as preparation of reading the latest book by Joannaa Schaffhausen. I have never read anything by this author so I appreciate the chance to experience a "new to me" mystery writer.
 
I have to admit at first I couldn't get into the book and cast it aside for a little while.
The story seemed slow and dwelt too much in the past. I realize that was necessary since her abduction and torment was the basis of the rest of the novel. It also seemed a little too unbelievable that the FBI agent who saved her when she was 14 popped up all of a sudden when she was living in another town and working on a similar case there. From the beginning I kept thinking that Ellie didn't do very much to hide her identity by using only her middle name instead of her first and not changing her last name. Pretty easy to track her down! Even a tabloid reporter was able to figure it out!
 
As I went along in the story and the mystery got deeper and more complex I began to appreciate the novel more. The setting in summer when most of the abductions and murders took place, usually a easy, laid back time in our lives, became tense and dreadful and atmospheric with the cloying heat and humidity and the thunderstorm that erupted one day that opened the case wide open. I like it when an author can use the environment as part of the story as it helps drive the action, whether with intention or not, it still makes a great backdrop for a mystery novel. For the most part I liked the characters. Ellie is a little too tough sometimes. Why are the toughest women in stories are always the most vulnerable? For me, it doesn't really fit the profile. While I understood her history that shaped her character, I didn't find her very lovable but still an interesting character. Reed is your typical FBI character, working hard and doing anything he can to get the job done. His feelings for Ellie seemed to get in the way of his job but somehow I didn't find them much of a romantic couple which was refreshing He knew her when she was 14 because he saved her life and he also wrote about her since she was one of the victims of the serial killer who had kidnapped Ellie, at that time Abigail. Still, it seemed a little far-fetched to me that he would get that involved in the case. One of my favorite characters was Ellie's dog Bump but Brady didn't seem the type to have such a malignant force in him and no one seemed to notice especially Bump. Dogs and other animals have a keen sense of knowing the good people and the bad people but he never seemed to pick up on Brady's murderous nature except toward b the end wen he was needed for that part. I also don't get the death or Rosalie. It didn't seem to have any real place in the story than being a domestic violence case Ellie had worked on early in the story, it didn't seem to fit into the main story at all. .
 
My take-away is that I liked the book and think it was a good mystery but not great. I would give it 3.5 stars if the system were set up for halves. There were some things I liked but other things I had a hard time believing. Why didn't the police department do a thorough background check on her before she was hired to the force? Seems to me they would have easily found out who she really was. It might have made Parker a more sympathetic character. There just seemed ton be a lot of discord in the town aimed at her for no real reason. All the dots weren't connected for me except for the weird copy-cat killer mystery angle that solved the case which seemed to be a bit contrived in the end.

Ellery Hathaway has done what she can to put her past behind her, at least to outsiders: She was the only surviving victim of an infamous serial killer when she was only 14, and now she goes by her middle name and works as a police officer in a small Massachusetts town. 

But for two years, she’s been uneasy about some disappearances in Woodbury. Every year for three years, around the time of her birthday (and the date of her abduction by the killer), someone in town has disappeared. While her chief and others on their small force have easily brushed off the coincidence, she can’t shake the fear that someone else is about to disappear again. So she enlists the help of the FBI agent who found her locked in a closet, tortured and bleeding, years before. 

Reed Markham is well-known for being the agent who saved young Abby Hathaway. He even wrote a book about the whole story. But now he’s on leave, after having made a major mistake that led to the death of an abducted boy, and his marriage is over. He is skeptical about Ellery’s claims but goes up to Woodbury in part because he wants to know how she’s doing after the horrors she endured as a teenager. 

As days go by and Ellery reveals information only she has to Reed, a killer ramps up his game, pulling Reed and Ellery back into the terrors of the past and putting another innocent in the crosshairs. But they may not be able to convince anyone else of the danger awaiting in this “vanishing season” before it’s too late. 

The Vanishing Season is a well-plotted and nicely paced thriller that thoughtfully examines the repercussions of one man’s evil acts on the life of a victim. Author Joanna Schaffhausen keeps readers guessing and turning pages even as she shows compassion to her main characters, in particular Ellery, who lives every day with the impossibility of ever truly getting over what she experienced. I enjoyed the book and appreciated the restraint shown by the author in writing just enough about the details of what happened so readers have an idea of the facts without going into gory and upsetting detail.

The vanishing season is a great mystery with a fun twist. 

When three girls go missing in three years Ellery Holloway thinks it's her fault. She has horrible secrets she thought were hidden from everyone but now she thinks someone knows.

OMG, what a fantastic book this is. There are so many twists and turns. I can’t wait for her next book to be released because I have just found a new favorite author! Thanks for writing such great great book!

“ The Vanishing Season” was the first book I’ve read by Jodi Lynn Anderson. I hear a lot about her book “ Tiger Lily” so, I was definitely looking forward to reading this one. With that being said, the synopsis does not fit the actual book. I was looking for mystery, intrigue, creepiness. None of this occurred. In fact, very little of anything occurred. Don’t even get me started on the ending. Just don’t do it! The characters themselves were not very likeable. This book as a whole is more so a romance featuring a love triangle and quite frankly, I just did not sign up for this. 

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I do like a good mystery and this book lived up to that. It tells of Ellery Hathaway who is a cop, but who has a secret. She has managed to change her name and lives in a pretty isolated location. Then on her birthday she receives a card which brings back her worst fears and then a person goes missing. Ellery knows that this incident is closely related to what happened to her, but she cannot share her secret without releasing her true identity. An FBI agent gets on the case and he just happens to be the man who saved her life so many years ago. 
This story has you guessing and is well written to keep your interest to the end.

I didn't realize this was first published in 2017 when I requested it, but I am very happy that it resurfaced and I had the opportunity to read it. 

The characters were well described.  I thoroughly appreciated how the the author, Joanna Schaffhausen, had an uncanny knack for really digging into how someone who had been abducted as well as mentally and physically abused as a teen would think and behave as an adult. The addition of the FBI agent who saved her life was also a nice touch.

The identity of the  person who was copying some of the methods of the serial killer who abducted Ellery  was hidden until the end, although there were clues. There were a few people who I thought might be guilty including the actual person, but I never knew for sure until the pulse-pounding conclusion. 

This is definitely a five star book.

First book I have read by this author and I have to say it was really good. I love mysteries and this one covers all aspects from the victim’s perspective as well as the law enforcement perspective. Looking forward to the next book in this series.

This is  the first in the Ellery Hathaway series and I wanted to catch up on the one I was  missing before I started the latest.  Ellie, the anonymous survivor of a serial killer, has joined the police department and when she suspects a series of missing persons are related, who does she call?  The falling-apart police profiler who saved her as a teenager of course. Why, because the missing are girls around the age Ellie was when she was abducted, and they are disappearing each year on her birthday.  Off we go on a really creepy, uncomfortable search for the answers.  Loved Elllery and can see why she became a cult favorite.

What a fantastic find this series was! This is not a story for the faint of heart. Ellery is a survivor of a horrific abduction/rape/torture that occurred when she was fourteen. After years of dealing with what happened, she is living an anonymous life (or so she thinks) as a cop in a small town far from the site of her trauma. But the past has a way of catching up with all of us, and unfortunately for Ellery, she's no exception...

I loved this first book - Ellery is a dark, damaged protagonist but striding through the darkness with her is surprisingly enlightening...  The character development here was first-rate. As is typical in serial killer/cop thrillers, everyone is lying through their teeth and hiding something (if not many somethings). This layering of secrets is altogether common in the genre - what is not is the delicate way that Schaffhausen teases out truths as the novel progresses. She doesn't throw in red herrings or extraneous details; every detail is chosen carefully and revealed at just the right moment to heighten the tension and keep the reader engaged. 

This was a rough read at times, but Ellery's survival (past, present, and future) makes for a fascinating read and I definitely cannot wait to dive into book two!

I tried reading "No Mercy", got 1/3 of the way through and was still confused.  I kept feeling like I had missed something in the story.  So I went to the reviews to see what others thought and learned that there was one that came before it:  "The Vanishing Season".  Since "No Mercy" got good reviews, I started on this prequel to it.

All the difference in the world!  I love coming across good writers (and I mean much more than their stories), and Joanna Schaffhausen falls into that category.  The bad language was slight enough that I could get through the events without cringing much, and even though I figured out who the killer was, early on, it didn't impinge on my enjoyment of the book at all.  

Now I can go back to "No Mercy" and possibly read it in a whole new way, knowing the background.

I think mystery lovers will find much to enjoy in this debut book featuring a likable yet flawed female detective. Ellery is a survivor of a serial killer who hasn't let her own demons keep her from pursuing justice for others. She has a trusty, loyal dog named speed bump and lives a quiet life of anonymity by herself. Until she starts receiving birthday cards from someone who knows who she is- and then the murders begin. I really enjoyed the writing style and mystery of this well plotted debut. The interaction of Ellery and Reed worked, the pace was just fast enough and the setting well described. My biggest issue came at the end when several things played out too unrealistically for me to believe.. I will, however, keep reading the series as I'm invested in finding out more about Ellery's life

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Thriller

Ellie is a police officer in a small town. She is known to be a strong, independent woman who isn't afraid of anything. But Ellie's past is something that haunts her daily. It's also not something that she discusses. When she notices that people have gone missing and nobody is doing anything about it, Ellie does everything in her power to get her fellow officers to listen. She even goes as far as to use her sexuality at times.

With nobody listening to her, she reaches out to the one person who might. Agent Reed is on a downward slide. He is on thin ice with the FBI and his family. When Ellie contact him, he can't help but be intrigued with her request.

Ellie and Reed are on the hunt for a killer that nobody else sees. But when the facts start to line up and more people go missing, Ellie's department can't help but see what she's seen all along. This is a fast-paced thriller that is very entertaining.

It was fairly predictable and I figured out the killer quite early on in the story, but I didn't feel that hindered my ability to enjoy the story until the end.

Triggers: Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder


Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
Just a few chapters into this book, I knew that Ellery Hathaway was going to be my new favourite heroine. She’s fabulous. Damaged but resilient. Defiant, abrasive, and a complete loner. I warmed to Ellery as immediately as I did to Jessica Jones, Mercy Thompson, or Temperance Brennan.

But while I completely fell in love with Ellery, I didn’t completely love this first book. The plot moves slowly. At one point I realised I was 75% through the book and Ellery and Reed didn’t have any real suspects. The end is exciting but I’m not sure there are enough clues for readers to guess the whodunnit alongside Ellery and Reed. I enjoyed the story but I’d like to see the plotting and pacing improve in the next books.

While Ellery is definitely the hero in this story, I really enjoyed the working relationship between her and Reed, the FBI agent she works with. Tied together by a horror story many years ago, Reed and Ellery are very different people who manage to make each other stronger. Reed is a bit of a cliché. He’s a washed-up agent on the brink of both divorce and a formal suspension from his job. Burned out cops are a bit overdone so it’s his complicated relationship to Ellery that makes him interesting. I’m not sure he’d be interesting on his own but I love him as Ellery’s overqualified and slightly reluctant sidekick.

Having already read the second book in this series, I will say that I felt like the writing gets tighter and the suspense more exciting in the second story. Anyone new to the series will need to read this one first because it is impossible to understand Ellery without it. And this book is worth a read – even if just to get to know a fabulous new heroine.

Ellery Hathaway isn’t your usual detective with a dark past.  Well, she is, but not what you might think.  When Ellery was 14 years old, she survived being captured (and tortured) by a serial killer.   And although that killer was caught, prosecuted, and is serving the rest of his life behind bars, Ellery’s made connections between three murders in the last three years in her small town---can she figure out who’s behind this before it becomes four deaths in four years?  This was a new author for me, but I found the storytelling to be on point and really enjoyed the suspense.  I wasn’t crazy about “who” the killer turned out to be (I’m not going to say more on that because I don’t want to give anything away), but it was still a good book and I’ll watch for more from her in the future.

Special Note:  Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent mystery/thriller. Well written and will hold your interest right up to the end. You will almost guess who the killer is but not quite and you'll want to keep reading to the end to find out!  There could have been more interaction of Reed and Ellie with their family members but I suppose the lack of connection was explained adequately. It would be interesting if Ellie and Reed were to team up in the future or if Ellie were to be invited to join the BAU of FBI with Reed. 
 No book report from me, the cover gives adequate description. 
I received this book as a complimentary copy for an unbiased review.The opinions expressed are my own. Thanks to the author,publisher,and NetGalley for the ARC.

Ellie Hathaway has a secret. She’s working for the Woodbury Police Department as a law enforcement officer. She moved there from Boston because of her secret. No one knew this except for one person. She had been receiving an anonymous birthday card every year for the past three years. Each year that she received the birthday card, a person had gone missing. She had gone to Chief Parker about the fact that three people had gone missing and that she believed they were connected.  Chief Parker wouldn’t here of reopening the three older investigations. Ellie called the one person who knew her secret, and that was Agent Reed Markham with the FBI. She asked him for help with the three missing persons cases. Ellie had been held prisoner by a serial killer, who kept his victims for a few days before he cut both their hands off. Agent Markham had  rescued A.K.A. Abigail Hathaway and put Frank Coben in prison to be executed. In fact, Ellie was the only person who survived being held by Frank Coben. Why are these people missing? Who is sending her the birthday cards? Is there a copycat loose in her small town? How many more people will go missing? Will they be able to catch him. This is a great psychological thriller! I had a very hard time putting this book down. The plot was filled with twists and turns for sure. The character development was great as well. The reader could relate to all the characters. The reader could relate to their emotions and flaws as well. All of the characters’ descriptions were very colorful and enabled the reader to become familiar with them. What an awesome book!! I am really looking forward to reading the next book!!

This first book in the Ellery Hathaway series is quite an opener.  As the reader is introduced to Ellery, the story of her past is unwound as a way of helping the reader understand her idiosyncrasies.  She was literally the "one that got away" from a vicious serial killer during her youth.  As a police officer in a small town, Ellery believes that she can avoid the limelight and keep her past hidden.  However, a series of deaths around her birthday raises her suspicions that her past is not as hidden as she hoped.  When her superiors do not believe her claims of a killer, she contacts Reed, the man who rescued her from the hands of the serial killer.  Together, they will follow the clues to reveal the person behind the murders and bring them to justice.  It is a suspenseful read and sets-up well for a sequel.

This was a very good book, and story. It did keep me on the edge of my seat.

This was a story about a serial killer.  A young girl who was abducted when she was 16 year old. Her name was Abigail and she was found safe and very wounded. She was found by an FBI agent named Reed.

Reed wrote a book about the whole rescue and made a lot of money from the book. The guy who did it is in jail, but Abigail keeps getting birthday cards from she thinks is the killer. 

I have recommended this book to every one I know. It left a great impression on me and I would like others read it.

I read so many books in this genre and when I read the description of the book it sounded like many of the other books I have read in the past BUT I was pleasantly surprised ! This book grabbed me from the very first page and kept me reading into the night. Ellery was a great likable character and the author's writing is superb so much so that I will have to look at her past books and will read any future book by this author. I especially loved that I had no idea who was doing the killing. If you like a great suspense book with no gore and just great writing then read today!