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Every so often I will follow an email link from NetGalley and check out what’s happening. I try to limit how many books I grab at one time…you know how that is. I found some books by Joanna Schaffhousen and grabbed a couple. I would like to thank NetGalley, Minotaur Books and Joanna Schaffhausen for the opportunity to read and share them.
The cover definitely fits the story.
Amazon / Audiobook / Goodreads
MY REVIEW
The Vanishing Season is Joanna Schaffhausen’s debut novel, released in 2017…and, boy oh boy, is it a good one. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it gave me so much more.
Three people have gone missing and Ellery Hathaway knows they are dead and another will be taken very soon. Sam dismisses her warnings, but she won’t stop there. Sam is not only her boss, the chief of police, but also her lover, her married lover. I sure don’t approve of that, but as I read on, I could see how it happened. She uses sex as a weapon. That will have it’s own repercussions.
Woodbury, Massachusetts is a small town, a blink and you will miss it, with only eight police officers. I love to read of small towns, the gossip mill, and secrets that won’t stay secret. Ellery has a big one, but…
Ellery calls in the big guns, Reed Markham, an FBI profiler that had saved her from the serial killer that had taken her fourteen years ago, leaving her scarred and broken. He too has his own story. His marriage is on the rocks, but he had made a promise to her, so when she called, he came.
I love her basset hound, Speed Bump. LOL Critters always add some grins for me, and with a subject like serial killers, I need some chuckles.
The dog leapt from the vehicle with all the grace of a hippo performing a belly flop.
I have plenty of suspects, but two in particular have my attention. Even if I’m wrong, I don’t like them. LOL I do like to try and figure it out for myself as we follow clues, question witnesses, and try look for what others have missed.
There is no romance, though I know there are more books coming, so I wonder. I mean, just think about it, her body is scarred and so is her mind. She doesn’t want anyone in her house. Doesn’t want anyone touching her. And doesn’t want to share her secret. After what she’s been through, I can see why she protects herself, so who could possible get through the walls she has built up but the one person she trusts?
I am at 38% and my tension level is high, the pace is picking up, making me feel like the end is near, nut, there’s so much of the story left. I can only imagine what Joanna Schaffhausen has in store for her characters. I am lovin’ it.
I am filled with horror at the terrible things one person can do another, as the bits and pieces of Ellery’s captivity leaks out, each detail worse than the last.
Well…I didn’t see him coming. It takes a lot for an author to fool me so completely, especially near the end, but she had me eying the wrong guy until a page or two before he attacked. He was well camouflaged, but I will be on my toes with the next case, expanding my suspect list and reading between the lines.
Man oh man, I am so glad I took a chance on Joanna Schaffhausen. I had never heard of her. She kept me riveted from beginning to end and I can hardly wait for Book II, No Mercy. BRING IT ON!
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen.
GOODREADS BLURB
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.
ABOUT JOANNA SCHAFFHAUSEN
Joanna Schaffhausen wields a mean scalpel, sharp skills she developed in her years studying neuroscience. She has a doctorate in psychology, which reflects her long-standing interest in the brain―how it develops and the many ways it can go wrong. Previously, she worked as a scientific editor in the field of drug development. Prior to that, she was an editorial producer for ABC News, writing for programs such as World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and 20/20. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, daughter, and an obstreperous basset hound.
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