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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[It's too dark to go out but too hot to sleep] ***(Titan Books, 27 February 2018, ebook, 384 pages, copy from publisher and voluntarily reviewed)
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This is my first time reading the author.
I had a good time reading The Vanishing Season. This was a well-written, taut and engaging thriller. I was gripped from page one until the concluding scene. I had no idea who the killer was so was pleasantly surprised when the author reveals who has been haunting Ellery.
Ellery is a great character. She's complex, sort of fucked up given what she's gone through, but full of heart and inner strength. I really rooted for her.
I liked the way the story developed, fairly rattling along as Ellery's instincts and fears are proven right.
The Vanishing Season is well worth a read.
