Absolutely stunning end to the trilogy. I will always remember these books and the absolute brilliance behind them. Can not wait to see Dot Hutchison’s next adventure!

An amazing and thrilling ride, an emotional rollercoaster, sprinkled with laugh-out-loud moments, that come to a satisfying conclusion.

Book Review – The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison
JUNE 2, 2018 ~ FROST AT MIDNITE (AKA JAYASREE BHARGAVAN) ~ EDIT
Shifting between genres is a good thing. After I read Circe (Review) I read this book called The Hawkman. I did not enjoy the book as much. It was a historical and it was not evocative. All I felt was a sense of mild disappointment. Then I decided to take up another genre – a thriller. And it was The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison.

The Summer Children is the third book in the series The Collector by Dot Hutchison. Though I did read it as a standalone. There are characters that come and go in this book who have made their appearance in the previous instalments. The only inconvenience this causes is the curiosity and the want to read the other two books. The Summer Children is about an FBI team. Mercedes Ramirez is a part of a team, Crimes Against Children, at the FBI. She has been there for ten years and has helped more children than she can count.

The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison Review by Frost At Midnite

The book begins with Mercedes and her girlfriend returning to Mercedes’ home where they come across a little boy waiting for Mercedes. The little boy, Ronnie, is covered in blood and holding a teddy bear. He claims to be deposited on her porch by the angel who killed his parents. A few days later, Mercedes and her teammate Eliza Sterling return to Mercedes’ place to see three kids on her porch. Sarah, Ashley and Sammy with faces streaked with blood and holding a teddy bear say the same thing as well. All the children were brought here by the angel who killed their parents and deposited here because Mercedes would keep them safe. These kids had to watch their parents be killed, and then they were told they’d be safe with Mercedes. Safe because they are all victims of abuse. Ronnie was abused by his father while Sarah by her stepfather. As more and more children from similar backgrounds turn up at Mercedes’ place, the local PD asks to partner with the FBI to solve the crime. And solve it they do.

There is a good plot in this book. While abuse is a thread running strong throughout the book, certain sections of the book have a much horrific version than the rest. Stomach turningly horrific. There is evil in this world and sometimes we choose to ignore it willfully. This is something that a few characters do with aplomb in The Summer Children. But the CAC team tries hard to stop further damage. So, if you are someone who can not read about bad things being done to children, then skip this book. What I loved about this book was the team in which Mercedes works. A unit that works together in sync and a team that’s more family than friends. Office politics and other distractions do not hinder their investigations or stop them from pursuing criminals. Each of them, be it the head of the unit or the newest member, is involved in their job hoping to save one more child. A noble cause, for which they all have their own reasons to contribute to.

The book starts off sluggishly. But never does it get boring. There is a nice pace that begins once the children start arriving. The Summer Children is perhaps not filled with a rash of unnecessary crimes. It is a book that has blood, sweat and tears and makes us question rules and regulations, between right and wrong.

This is the third book in the Collector series – but the first I have written. In all honesty, that was a huge shame for me because at some points I floundered with the characters and reference to the earlier books. Clearly this can be read as a stand-alone but I am sure my considerable enjoyment of this book would have been enhanced had I read the earlier books.

The Summer Children was presented through the character of Mercedes Ramirez an FBI agent within the Crimes Against Children unit. Mercedes herself was subjected to abuse as a child, a fact that was ignored by her extended family from whom she is estranged to such a degree that she has to change her phone whenever they track her down. Her family is now her colleagues, an intriguing cast of characters, close-knit, dedicated and supportive of one another to the nth degree.

Returning home one evening she finds a boy, bloody and bruised waiting on her porch with a teddy bear. He has been told by the ‘Angel’ to wait for Mercedes who will keep him safe. What follows is a sometimes harrowing catalogue of crimes against children and the efforts made by the authorities to protect and save them.

This is a really well written book with strong characterization and staggering plot development and structure. I cannot praise it enough. However, I would urge you to read it as it is powerful and moving and just tragically sad.

Well now, The Summer Children was a really happy surprise for me! I'm one of those huge fans of The Butterfly Garden who felt a bit let down by The Roses of May, so I went into this book hoping for the best but with tempered expectations. I don't know if that tempering helped me have the right perspective for this one or not, but the end result is that I really enjoyed this book!

To be clear, if you're hoping for more of the creepiness that was The Butterfly Garden, you're not going to find it here and this is probably not the right book for you. What you will find is a fantastic police procedural and what I hope is the true starting point of Dot Hutchinson's series -- I like this group of agents and I really want to read more about them! I was halfway through this book when I saw the announcement that this is no longer a trilogy, it's now a series, and I sure hope that the next book sticks closely to the formula used here, because it works really well.

Instead of trying to use alternating perspectives as she did in the first two books, in this book Hutchinson tells the story strictly from Agent Ramirez's POV and that was a great decision. I felt like I was reading the first book in a detective series and I'll definitely sign up right now to read book 2.

I did have a few minor quibbles with this story that knock it down a star:

**Our core group of detectives is just a tiny bit too perfect -- I hope to see a few more flaws in the next outing.

**The inclusion of Priya and the Butterflies was a bit contrived and really unnecessary - it's been several years since those cases finished, I'd be ok if those characters just had a simple casual mention (or nothing at all). I hope in the next book these characters don't play as big of a role unless one of them is actually involved in some pertinent way with an investigation.

**Dios mío las interjecciones españolas!

Overall, though, this was a great story and I'm really glad I read it. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with a free electronic ARC of this book.

The Summer Children is the third in The Collector’s Series by Hutchison, the most popular, of course, being the first one: The Butterfly Garden. This is one of those rare books for me that crossed genres of horror, thriller, police procedural and simply great fiction primarily due to the incredible writing skills of Hutchison. Admittedly, I have not read either of the two other books in the series so I have nothing against which to compare this book as others have done and are doing. This book, alone, is stellar – excellent mystery, fabulous character development and unspeakable scenes of horror as each poor child is brought to agent Mercedes Ramirez’ porch.

Having not read the previous books in the series let me add that if you have read the other books, this is a must read. It continues the saga of the garden girls as well as the agents involved in their rescue. The ending of this book had me in tears and, as I’ve said, I don’t know the butterfly girls’ story. However, the ending is perfection. If you haven’t read the first two books, have no worries, there is enough detail within that you never once will feel lost or confused. There were details that made me want to read more but never did I feel that I needed to know more in order to understand the context of the story.

There are few writers that can pull off a well written, intense thriller and it is very obvious that Hutchison is one of those writers. I cannot begin to recommend this book highly enough to you.

Thank you #Netgalley, Dot Hutchison and Thomas Mercer Publishing for allowing me to read this copy for free.

Having read book one and two with only three-star ratings and disappointment from the plot, I went into this with the attitude that if it didn't improve that I would be finished with the series; however, I was blown away by the improvements in this book. I feel like the author finally settled into a style of her own and settled into her characters as well. Once again it was a plot and idea that was unique and familiar, but this time I really enjoyed how things played out. I cannot wait to get the next book. I couldn't put this one down once I got out of my reading slump.

Fantastic read and well recommended I just couldn't put it down and another winner from Dot Hutchison

I'm sorry to say that I felt like this series got worse as the books progressed. I LOVED The Butterfly Garden, thought that Roses of May was good but very different (much more introspective and character-driven), and I found The Summer Children to be on the cusp of disappointing.

This is likely going to be unpopular opinion time, but here it goes. To me, the Summer Children reads like a wannabe Tana French without any of the mastery, finesse, or subtlety. It also reminded me of the final season of Dexter when it felt like they hired all new writers because the script declined so rapidly. I found The Summer Children to be extremely heavy-handed.

On the positive side, it was an easy read and satisfied some of my murder/thriller itch. But this one was not memorable (completely opposite of the two previous books in the series).

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC!

Third installment of the Collector Series, The Summer Children is focused on FBI Agent Mercedes Ramirez who finds herself involved in a case of abused children's parents murdered.

Night after night children with teddy bears appear at her door, and soon the FBI finds that their parents were murdered by a masked person who defines him/herself as an angel, freeing the children from their abused parents. This main plot relates also with Agent Ramirez past.

The story is quite engaging at first, then it becomes somewhat repetitive while the police is looking for the serial killer. In my opinion the best book of the series is the first one.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

The Summer Children is the final book in The Collector Trilogy, and I'm a little sad because I would love to read more about the CAC team. Not only are the cases very interesting to follow, but their personal lives as well. It's a shame that Mercedes couldn't find a real partner in Shioban and now I never will know if/when she settles down. This story made me think a lot about the after. What happens after the kids are rescued. How do they cope with the trauma. Some become an FBI agent (like Mercedes) and others try to help kids with taken matters in their own hands (like the killer). Great ending to an amazing trilogy.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer!

Dot Hutchison has done it again! I was enthralled from the first page of The Summer Childrenand could not put this book down! I read it in a day. The characters are vivid and compelling. The plot kept me guessing, kept me turning the pages long into the night. The writing is beautiful, haunting, and heartbreaking.

The story is set three years after the events of The Roses of May and focuses on a new serial killer case. This time, Agent Mercedes Ramirez is the narrator and the main focus of the story. Mercedes is tough, independent, and butt-kicking. She also has a haunting past. But there are little things that show her softer side like her teddy bear collection and her Hufflepuff phone case. She was an engaging narrator. The only tiny critique I have is that sometimes the intermittent Spanish dialogue didn’t feel as organic.

Her FBI team has such a strong bond. I just wanted to hug them all. After three books and following these characters through such brutal circumstances, these characters mean so much to me.

I won’t give away anything about the plot. But it certain things in common with its predecessors while also being markedly different.

As a shift from the first two books, most of the story is told in first person, present tense from Mercedes’ viewpoint. There are intermittent scenes in third person, but I cannot explain them without giving anything away. Like the other books, I quickly forgot all about tense and perspective because I was so sucked into the story. Proving once again that it is most writers’ inability to properly handle first person and/or present tense that bothers me not those things in and of themselves.

Sadly, this series is exactly why I find most of the popular Thrillers to be frustrating and boring. It shows that a Thriller can still have character development. It shows that characters should not horrible jerks for no reason. It shows that you can have beautiful, atmospheric writing without killing the pacing of the plot. Hutchison’s writing is so evocative and moving. I don’t understand how she is such an underappreciated author while some truly mediocre writers lounge atop the best sellers list with ease.

I mentioned this in my previous reviews for this series, and it hold true for The Summer Children as well: one of the things I love about this series is that the author explores topics and emotions surrounding these crimes not just the crimes themselves. These stories have extra depth because they delve into the raw emotions around how people react differently to trauma, survivors’ guilt, grief, and the fact that no matter how hard you try, you can’t save them all. The theme of how people survive and how they heal is woven throughout the whole series. And it keeps the stories from being too bleak.

This book does concern some distressing topics though, so I’ll include a trigger warning for physical and sexual abuse, incest, child neglect, rape, and murder. In some ways, it was more emotional to read because it deals with the abuse of children. But I’m not one to get upset just because of the fact that it involved children. No, this book literally brought me to tears because of how Hutchison brought those children and their situation to life. And because I know that those are not far-flung ideas (which some people accused The Butterfly Garden of). No, tragically, these are situations that occur every day. I know this is not a series for everyone because it does concern disturbing events, but it is so wonderfully written. You should definitely read them in order though.

This was one of the top books of 2018 that was looking forward to reading. I am so glad that it lived up to my expectations! While The Butterfly Garden is still my favorite of the series, The Summer Children definitely lived up to my expectations. I laughed. I cried. I got goosebumps. And now I have a massive book hangover, because I know whatever I read next won’t be as evocative as this book.

So much did I love the first two books in this series - "The Butterfly Garden" and "The Roses of May" - that I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. And I thoroughly enjoyed it as well, although for a somewhat different reason. It doesn't have the emotionally charged, edge-of-your-seat thrills like the others, but the writing is superb and I loved the character development and their interactions with one another.

And to that end, I'll offer a word of advice: Read the series from the beginning. The books can stand alone, yes, but the full understanding and impact from each, IMHO, will only come to those who've read them all in order.

This one begins as Mercedes Ramirez, an agent with the Crimes Against Children unit and survivor of horrific abuse as a child, comes home after a romantic evening with her lover, Siobhan, to find a bloodied child in her porch swing. An "angel," the youngster haltingly explains, forced him to watch while she murdered his parents. Then, she gave him a white teddy bear and dropped him off at Mercedes' house, telling him Mercedes would make sure he's taken care of.

I shall digress for a moment to say it's refreshing to see an openly gay woman (Mercedes) portrayed with such, well, normalcy. She's a competent agent who is both admired and totally accepted by her co-workers for who she is (that she gets hugs from her straight female team members unaccompanied by an "OMG, if I touch her it's gonna rub off on me" attitude is truly amazing considering the way gay females all too often are portrayed).

The killer may be reprehensible, but she's right; Mercedes is the perfect person to make sure the young boy gets the right kind of attention and care. Immediately, she gets down to the business of identifying the killer, with help from her partner Brandon Eddison and boss, Victor Hanoverian - the two who, years ago, rescued Mercedes from her hellish life and are the reason she's making a career out of protecting abused children.

The trail leads nowhere, and then three more blood-covered kids show up on Mercedes' porch telling the same story. And then come even more, prompting Mercedes to wonder why she's been chosen to be the children's savior. Could it be because of something, or someone, from her storied past? Whatever the reason, it's clear that the murders aren't going to stop anytime soon; if anything, they're escalating. In the end, it's a race to save lives - and the killer from herself.

Honestly, I'm a bit confused as to whether this is the last in the series - some places I've read that it is while others call it the third of four books. This one wraps things up in fine fettle; but that said, almost any of the characters are strong and intriguing enough to have starring roles in future editions, including Mercedes and her quirky but very capable team. In any event, many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this one.

The Summer Children builds and builds with tension, making it nearly impossible to put down. The characters are interesting and complex, and I enjoyed the background information, provided before some chapters, in italics. Even though I have not read the first two books in this series, I had no trouble following the story line. The Summer Children would make a great movie or series on television.

I first found Dot Hutchison’s The Butterfly Garden (The Collector Trilogy #1) simply because it was free to listen to on Kindle Unlimited. I started listening to it and fell in love. It was an amazing story and so wonderfully written. I finished it in one day and then bought the book. After that I owned Roses of May (The Collector Trilogy #2) audio and hardcopy the day it was released. It was also a great story. I was lucky enough, thanks to NetGalley and my blog I didn’t even have to wait until release day to read it. Yes I was so thrilled lol.

“But things did get worse in the dark, didn’t they? People are always more honest when no one can see them.”

“Children like the idea of secrets; they don’t actually like keeping them, usually. Children want to tell people things.”

“Scars mean we survived something, even when the wounds still hurt.”

“Those who turn to violence don’t usually have solutions to offer. Or they tried, and lost, and think this is their only way forward.”

“And whenever she started to doubt, whenever she felt like she was more scar tissue than real person, she remembered her angel, and drew strength from the memory.”

Just like the other books in The Collector Trilogy, “The Summer Children” was also beautifully disturbed. Even though I think “The Butterfly Garden” may be my favorite of the trilogy, “The Summer Children” may be the most “Beautifully” disturbing of them all. The pain of the murderer and disturbed sense of justice of “saving” the abused children and giving them to someone they will be safe with makes for a great story that you have a hard time hating the murderer in the beginning. (haha) After adding Agent Mercedes Ramirez horrible childhood (and finally learning what happened to her) its a truly great story that I couldn’t put down. Like the other 2 books I got through this book in less that 24 hours. I love this book and the whole Collector trilogy and would recommend it.

Discovering a new series is always exciting for me. I am always on the lookout for my new
favorite lead character. More than likely, the character is a troubled, disgruntled, and disliked
detective. The Collector trilogy offered me not one, not two, not three, but several new favorite
lead characters. In the final book of the trilogy, The Summer Children, Hutchison concludes the
story of a group of damaged and heart broken people who have been dealt some the cruelest of
circumstances. In spite of each characters troubled background they have survived, found each
other, and are dedicated to supporting one another and every victim of a tragedy they meet.

FBI Agent Mercedes Ramirez returns home late and finds a child on her front porch. The boy’s
clothes are soaked in his parent’s blood and he claims an “angel” brought him to Agent Ramirez
to keep him safe. More children begin to show up at Ramirez’s home, each child covered in the
blood of their parents and looking to Ramirez for answers and the safety the “angel” promised.
During the investigation Ramirez is forced to recall her own painful past while trying to catch a
killer determined to act out their own version of justice.

During her ten years with the FBI, Agent Ramirez has rescued many children from terrible
circumstances. She works in the Crimes Against Children (CAC) division. Over the course of her
career she seen the worst humanity has to offer. Ramirez has also experienced personally the
actions of the worst of humanity. Each of her team members has their own reasons for joining
CAC, Ramirez’s reason for joining is to protect the children who are victims of crime. Her
dedication to the victims is what stands out throughout The Summer Children. During the
investigation, not only is Ramirez’s career on the line but also her mental state. Nevertheless,
Ramirez does not hesitate to do all she can to help each child who crosses her path. Hutchison
has created a hero, who constantly dives into oceans filled with terror and unspeakable horror
and has no fear of drowning.

Although this review is for The Summer Children I absolutely have to mention the previous
books in the trilogy, The Butterfly Garden and The Roses of May. The most enjoyable aspect of
this series is how each book is so different. The Butterfly Garden is a story of a man who
collected young women over a thirty year span and keeps them hidden from the world within a
large garden connected to his home. The story is told from the perspective of Inara, who has
just been rescued from the garden. The Roses of May is the story of Priya, whose older sister
was murdered by a serial killer, and she is now being threatened by the same killer. Lastly The
Summer Children, is the story of one of the FBI Agents featured in both The Butterfly Garden
and The Roses of May.

This is the first series I have read where the perspective and story line differs so much from book
to book. Not only did I experience twists and turns throughout the story, but just starting the next
book in the series adds mystery to the trilogy as you try to connect the new characters to the
characters in the previous books. For this reason I encourage readers to read the first two
books of series before starting The Summer Children. The Summer Children can be read as a
standalone. Hutchinson provides readers with enough background info, but the way Hutchison
reintroduces the characters from the previous books into the latest book is so original and for
me is the best part of the series.

Throughout the series, readers get glimpses into the backgrounds of all of agents in the CAC. In
The Summer Children Hutchison focuses solely on Agent Mercedes Ramirez. I was happy to
read more about Ramirez’s history. When I read the first two books in the series, of all the
agents, I felt Ramirez was the most unknown.

After reading The Butterfly Garden and The Roses of May, readers will have basically figured
out why Ramirez’s team mates joined the FBI and the CAC. I knew Ramirez had a troubled past
but specific details were not given. To finally get to know Ramirez and learn what motivates her,
was great. I know the series is a trilogy but I really hope Hutchinson gives us the chance to get
to know each of CAC Agents as well as I now know Ramirez.

I must warn any reader who may be sensitive to stories which portray abuse against children.
Some of the descriptions are pretty graphic. I highly recommend all the books in The Collector
trilogy to any reader looking for a fast paced, thrilling, binge worthy, read full of grit and emotion.

**Thanks to Netgally and Thomas & Mercer for my free copy of The Summer Children**

Murder and Moore Rating :
4.5 out of 5 Stars

3.5 hard to read stars

Can there be a harder job than having to be and FBI agent whose unit is in charge of crimes against children, especially involving sexual crimes. This must be an absolutely heart breaking task and I am pretty sure the burn out rate must be high. We wonder how anyone can possibly hurt children and it is even more gruesome when the pervert is a parent or a relative.

In this third outing we meet with Mercedes Ramiriez, an agent, who herself has come from a troubled past. She understands quite well the heartbreaking issues that children have to deal with as victims of sexual trauma.

When a child is placed on Mercedes' porch, covered in blood but saved by and angel, the unit she works with goes into action. For you see, there is a killer, an angel, out there who even though they are saving children, they are savagely murdering the ones the "angel" sees as responsible for the child's abuse. The angel seems to know Mercedes and trusts her to take care of the children, but as the murders continue and more children wind up with Mercedes, can this supposed angel be stopped?

Unfortunately, agents never know really where these children go after they are rescued. In some cases they are placed into environments that rival what they supposedly have escaped from. So, many times the people working to save and provide a safe arena for these children really never know if indeed they do. The author clearly wants her readers to understand this. We can try to "fix" things never knowing if we do really accomplish that.

This was the first book in this series that I have read and at times, the telling and the characters seemed to be murky. However, that could be because I missed the first two books. However, there was a story to tell and the fact that we have children being abused in families is both awful and horrific.

Thank you to Dot Hutchson, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this novel via NetGalley

Publish Date: 5/22/18 (Today! Go buy it!)

Rating: 5/5

Wow. I LOVED this book. The characters, the depth, the uniqueness of the plot, the everything. The Summer Children is the last book in Dot Hutchinson’s “The Collector” Triology, which I have actually not read prior to this book. However, the back stories of the characters are well explained enough to make it a strong standalone novel. I was actually overjoyed to learn that there were previous books, as I was so fascinated with the characters and their interconnections, that I really wanted to know more about them. Already looking forward to the first two books!

In The Summer Children, kids are being dropped off on Agent Mercedes Ramirez’s porch, covered in blood and clutching an angel teddy bear. Once approached, the kids explain they were dropped off by a masked person who had just killed their parents (and actually made some of the children stand and watch).

The kid’s continue to turn up in increasing frequency and all have one connection – they were all in households where a parent was abusing the child. This killer appears to be playing the role of an “angel” and taking these children’s safety into their own hands. As an agent in the Crime Against Children division, Agent Ramirez is no stranger to the terrible things adults can do to innocent children. However, this case has become deeply personal and threatens to bring back terrible things she has fought so hard to escape from her past.

A thriller all the way through, this book was amazing. The relationships between the agents and deep friendships they have formed had me longing for such comfort with people. Life has never been easy for many of the characters, but they have found their surrogate family in each other and its a treat to read about their relationships.

Some thrillers focus on the mystery/the chase and the characters can then loose depth, but this is not the case for The Summer Children! I’d read about these characters forever, if I could.

Mystery/Thriller lovers, please, go buy this book ASAP!

Here we are. Book #3 in The Collector Series. A series I have loved from the start. The series started with The Butterfly Garden, a book unlike any other you've ever read. We continued the story with The Roses Of May, and it did not disappoint. This is the third installment of the series and I don't believe it will be the last, as author Dot Hutchison's Goodreads page shows hints of a fourth book in The Collector Series!

In this book we get a close up and personal look into the FBI agents we have grown to love in the previous books. FBI Agent, Mercedes Ramirez, begins to get deliveries to her front porch. Children, covered in blood not their own, clutching a teddy bear and claiming they were told by an angel in all white and donning a faceless white mask, that Agent Ramirez will keep them safe. The Angel has killed the parents and saved the children from their abusive households.

While the local PD and Agent Ramirez's team try to figure out who the killer could possibly be, Agent Ramirez is battling her own past. We learn how she became and FBI agent and why she chose to work in a department that rescues children.

We also get to continue the story of the rescued Butterflies and Priya, the former victims that the team has taken under their wing and continued to be friends with after their prior cases were closed.

Hutchison continued the growth of previous characters while seamlessly introducing the reader to new ones. The story was the perfect mix of old and new. The intriguing premise and unexpected plot twists kept me engaged and excited for each new chapter.

This was absolutely a 5 star read for me! If you haven't yet read this series, get started now. If you have read the first two books, you are in luck, because it's release day for this latest installment of The Collector Series!
The Summer Children is available right now to order or pick up in your local bookstore!

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me a copy to read and give my honest review!

Happy Reading!

Once I started reading this book I couldn't put it down. I have read all 3 books in this series and each book sucks you in. You could read this book as a stand alone but I wouldn't recommend it. You would miss somethings by not reading the first two books. This is a new case with the same characters from the first two books. This time we are focused on Agent Mercedes Ramirez but everyone else is not far away. Children keep showing up at her door covered in blood and saying an Angel saved them. Mercedes has to confront her past in this book with the help of friends. I bawled my eye out when I read the end with Priya gives her album. It is great catching up with old cases/friends. I hope there are more books in this series, it's a hard series to let go.