My rating: 5 of 5 stars
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 victim who lived.
When three people disappear from her town in three years, all around her birthday—the day she was kidnapped so long ago—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’s closet 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.
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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!
I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!
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