Cover Image: The Vanishing Season

The Vanishing Season

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Member Reviews

We were first introduced to this series with The Butterfly Garden, a book that horrified and traumatized many readers several years ago. It continued with The Roses of May and last years bestseller, The Summer Children. (You can read my review of that book HERE) Each book has built on the development of the team members who originally found girls in the Butterfly Garden and their work within a special unit of the FBI. Now a child has been abducted, their specialty, but the case is eerily similar to kidnapping of Eddison’s sister years earlier. As the team members deal with their own haunting demons from past cases, they also must search through clues to see how and why this case may be linked to the cold cases from old before it is too late to save the missing child.

Let me state up front that absolutely is not a “stand alone” book. I read The Summer Children last year and only slightly fell through the cracks a few times. After that, I promptly went back and read the first two books in the series. All of these books are top notch, horrifyingly marvelous thrillers. This one, however, is the end of the story. For those of us invested in these characters it is a book that ties up all of the loose ends, answers questions from the past and allows us and the author to move on to new topics. It is a must -read for followers of Hutchison’s work, but I don’t recommend starting here. I do, however, recommend reading every single one of the books in the series. They are absolutely fantastic! Hutchison is a masterful storyteller whose tales you will not want to miss.

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I am a huge fan on The Collector series. I devoured each one and couldn’t wait for the next one to come out. I wish Dot stuck to the idea of it being only a trilogy. At first I really struggled to get into the story and when I did it was more about Eliza and Eddison and not so much on the victims and the crime etc. It warms up towards the middle and the end. Overall I am glad that this is the final book in the series. I will however be looking forward to reading Dot’s next book.

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I enjoyed "The Vanishing Season," but I have such mixed feelings about it. It was a solid story. It was an easy read that I devoured in less than a day. And I’m satisfied with the way things ended…but I’m only satisfied, not blown away. Don't get me wrong - This is a great series; the only problem is that the first book was so amazing, it was almost impossible to get the same reaction from all four.

I absolutely loved the first novel in this series, "The Butterfly Garden." It was a masterpiece and I was absolutely blown away by it. None of the other books elicited anywhere near the visceral reaction of the first. The rest of the series was just an entirely different kind of writing, in my opinion. I liked all of the novels, but the first and the last were by far my favorites. Now, the last wasn't anywhere close to a masterpiece, but as conclusions go, this one is really good. It ties up all the loose ends; it respects the characters arcs and their individual journey and answers all the questions that’s been there along the way while giving us a picture of who the characters are and how far they have come.

Kudos to Dot Hutchison for bringing the series to a satisfying end instead of trying to prolong the story past it's obvious conclusion.

**Received from NetGalley for my honest review.**

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2.5 Stars rounded to 3... This series was a roller-coaster. The series began with a bang, the second installment was just OK and then we had another winner with the Summer Children, and just when you are wanting to go out on a high note, The Vanishing Season just didn't do it for me. There were SO many unnecessary details that detracted from the story and cause the reader to go into skim mode. If you take out all of the fluff and expand on the plot, focus less on the back and forth banter of the characters that just felt forced I think this would have been a 5 star read. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Vanishing Season in the exchange for my honest opinion.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an E-arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

After reading The Butterfly Garden I had to know if there were more books in this series or if it was a stand alone book. The Butterfly Garden was definitely my favorite. The 2 books before The Vanishing Season were so-so. I felt like this was an alright ending to the series, but I didnt6like that Brooklyn's kidnapping felt overshadowed by Eddison's issues. After reading all the books I wish The Butterfly Garden had been a stand alone book.

Would I recommend this book? If you've read all the other books in this series, read it at some point. I wouldn't rush it.

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Book 4 in The Collector series is The Vanishing Season written by Dot Hutchison. Sadly this is the last book in the series. It does a great job of wrapping up a big mystery for the team of the Crimes Against Children division. The anniversary of Eddison's sister is here, it's been 25 years since Faith Eddison disappeared while walking home from school. She has never been seen again and his family still fights to find her. Now, 8 year old Brooklyn Mercer has gone missing. She is also a blonde hair, blue eyed girl just like his sister, AND just like his team member Eliza Sterling. Eliza and Bran Eddison are in a relationship in addition to working on the same task force.

The Vanishing Season brings the whole series together

If you have been reading the whole series of The Collector, you will be glad to know that there are a lot of flashbacks that answer a lot of questions that we all had about Faith. One scene in particular is about Faith's last Halloween before her abduction. You see the sweet caring connection that Brandon has with his sister. You realize how close Faith was with 3 other girlfriends. Those girlfriends play a part in this book as well as they are all now adults.

There is also a return of Ian Matson, a retired Tampa Police Department Detective who was the lead detective on Faith's disappearance. Ian took a special place in Bran's life when he helped him channel his anger as he grew up. They have always remained in touch. So when Ian arrives to meet with Bran in person after he hears about the Brooklyn Mercer case, the team is shocked to hear his theories. When his theory starts making valid connections, the case starts moving at lightening speed.

Eliza has to take the lead, because Bran is removed from the case due to conflict of interest. She knows how hard it is for him to be on the outside, so she pushes with everything she has got to solve this complex mystery. Other characters come in to the story due to other strange connections and soon the team is coordinating with many states to get everything done before the news story breaks.

The only issue I had with this book, and it's hard for me to stay because I love this story and the whole series so much, is the continuous description of the behavior between Bran and Eliza. At first you read about the subtle intertwining of fingers that they do when they wait for news. At first this is touching, you can tell how much they are in love and how much they draw strength from each other. It tells you that they are conscious of keeping their relationship professional at work. Great. The second time this same description comes up you know that it's a thing for them. Ok. By the tenth time of describing their fingers finding each other I was getting to the point that I was glossing over those paragraphs. Keep reading despite this repetition of their interactions, The Vanishing Season is excellent and the amount of characters coming together to make everything happen is well worth the read.

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This is such a great series and I hate to say goodbye to these characters. I did love the author’s satisfying conclusion. I love the personal details she gave her characters as it was very easy to connect with them. Well done Dot Hutchison!
Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

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I have not read any of her other books...which I now must because I enjoyed this book alot! You follow FBI Agent Elizabeth Sterling on her journey to find the blonde hair, blue eyed, 8 year old Brooklyn. After she goes missing walking home from school to her safe middle class neighborhood where all the neighbors are friendly. Along with Agent Sterling you meet her teammate FBI Agent Brandon Eddison. This case hit close to home for him since over 20 years ago his little sister Faith also a 8 year old, blue eyed, blonde hair went missing on her walk home. I recommend this book to all those who love thrillers. You will deeply enjoy going along through the case of the missing girls while trying to connect the dots. The way the team of agents have become a close knit family through such tragic times will tug on your heart.

Honestly the only issue that I had was where they spoke Spanish and I had no clue what they were saying.

Thanks @netgalley for a ARC of The Vanishing Season in trade for a honest review.

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This is the final book in this collectors series. The first book was my favorite and this was an ending I didn't see coming. Great finale to this series. It did get a little slow for me in the middle but picked back up. It will definitely leave you guessing.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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I have now read all 4 books in The Collector series, and my final thoughts are:

1) I appreciated the mystery, but found the interactions between the FBI agents to be very off-putting. It seemed so...odd, how they interact like a bunch of high school girls.

2) Since the mystery/thriller piece of these books is so horrible, maybe #1 above is a way to temper that and make the books more appealing to a wider variety of people?

Overall, 2.5 stars rounded up to 3. I'd give a 5-star review to the mystery piece, but a 0-star to the setting/character interactions.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Another great read from Dot Hutchison! Kept me guessing through the whole book, I had no idea how it would end and that is my favorite when reading thrillers!

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The Vanishing Season is the finale in Dot Hutchison's Collector series. This one is so well written that it had me in tears more than once. It's the perfect finale for this dark and haunting series. This book is about a missing 8-year-old girl who seems to be the latest in a long line of missing 8-year-old girls who all look alike and disappear at the same time of year. The FBI team does a stunning job of solving the case. Read and enjoy!

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The Vanishing Season is defiantly not for the faint of heart. Every page will have your heart pumping. The story gets off to a chilling start in the prologue with ominous feel from the first line. The realistic characters will keep you skeptical of who's lurking in the shadows.. Buckle your seat belts for a chilling ride!

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"Family isn't always blood, it's the people in your life who want you in theirs: the ones who accept you for who you are, the ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what.” This perfectly describes our characters!
The Vanishing Season is the 4th installment of the Collector Series. Bran’s storyline is unique and original. At first I could barely stand his character in The Butterfly Garden but he slowly became my favorite character through the series. I wish we could have had chapters through Bran’s point of view, it would have added substance. I will say that the story was well written but it seemed to drag in certain areas and some the chapters seemed a bit too long for such a short book.

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I did not know there was going to be a fourth book in this series. When I saw this book, it felt like Christmas morning. Once I read it, it felt like I had just opened a box of pajamas instead of the latest toy. I was a huge fan of The Butterfly Garden. I wasn’t sure I was going to like the second and third books but, I was a fan. It seemed like one book was Eddison centric while the other focused more on Mercedes. This third book is about Eliza.
Let me start off by saying that I liked Eliza well enough but, I was not a raving fan. I thought she was kind of boring and I didn’t like that two members of the team were romantically involved.
This book ties up some loose ends for Eddison and solidifies the family dynamic of the team. We also get updates on some of the Butterflies and Priya.
The case itself is sad and spooky. It feels very real but, I might watch too much tv. There were aspects of the mystery that reminded me of The Lovely Bones. The team travels around the country to gather evidence and solve the mystery.
This was only three stars for me. I find Eliza to be kind of boring and I just wasn’t that interested in a book where she was the main character.
With that being said, I can’t wait to see what this author does next.

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I love, love, loved this volume of The Collector series. Told from Agent Eliza Sterling's perspective, this might be my favourite of the 4 books. The characters, as always, are really 'real', and the mystery here was solid. I wish there were many more books to come in this series, but based on the way this one ended, I suspect my wish will not come true :(

5 stars for The Vanishing Season

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a DRC of this book.

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A satisfactory conclusion to the series but a little dragged out which made it boring in parts. The first book remains the strongest by far but this is worth a read.

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This book was much better than the previous, but not quite as good as the first in the series. I think that the chills were back and the writing style is a great style, but I did miss something that I felt was not in this one. Overall, a good read for those who like the series of criminal thriller type books’.
Will be recommending to the members of Chapter chatter pub!

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Of all of the books in the series so far, I found this one to be the most tedious. Four books down and I still don’t care about he characters or like them much, they only serve to annoy. Eddison is the least annoying of the lot, but still. Dramatic case but not really, rather bland and the book is chock full of filler. Pity, these books try to be very dark and twisty but don’t really deliver the goods.

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I didn't quite get to this book before it was archived. So sorry about that! I will buy it and review it.

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