Dot Hutchison's "The Vanishing Season"

"The Vanishing Season"

(The Collector #4)

By Dot Hutchison

Eight-year-old Brooklyn Mercer has gone missing. And as accustomed as FBI agents Eliza Sterling and Brandon Eddison are to such harrowing cases, this one has struck a nerve. It marks the anniversary of the disappearance of Eddison’s own little sister. Disturbing, too, is the girl’s resemblance to Eliza—so uncanny they could be mother and daughter.

With Eddison’s unsettled past rising again with rage and pain, Eliza is determined to solve this case at any cost. But the closer she looks, the more reluctant she is to divulge to her increasingly shaken partner what she finds. Brooklyn isn’t the only girl of her exact description to go missing. She’s just the latest in a frightening pattern going back decades in cities throughout the entire country.

In a race against time, Eliza’s determined to bring Brooklyn home and somehow find the link to the cold case that has haunted Eddison—and the entire Crimes Against Children team—since its inception. ~ taken from Amazon

I have been a Dot Hutchison fan since the beginning! I fell in love with The Collector Series long ago when her first book, The Butterfly Garden, was first released for preview. Since its release, The Roses Of May and The Summer Children have graced my Kindle. Finally we have book 4 to review!

This was supposed to be an ARC review. I planned to have it read and a review posted prior to its release. But in the last 3 weeks our family has had 4 urgent care and ER visits. A couple were not so serious, a couple were serious. I currently have a child starting his summer in a cast... so I apologize to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Dot Hutchison for not getting my review out on time. 

I hate to start out negative, but this was not my favorite book in the series. I was actually extremely bored and struggled to get through the first 3/4 of the book. Unlike the other books, which are full of horrific crimes and FBI agents trying to crack the case, this book was more of a backstory to the FBI agents' lives. 

The Vanishing Season starts when 8 year old Brooklyn goes missing on her way home from school. Our familiar FBI team is put on the case, and soon it becomes clear that one of the agents is connected to the disappearance. Agent Eddison's 8 year old sister went missing years ago and has yet to be found. Similarities between the cases start to unravel. 

The team starts piecing together the mystery of missing girls and disappearances of other girls with similar looks starts to unfold. In the meantime we are taken on a journey of backstories involving Eddison and other team members. It was a lot to keep track of and seemed to take away from the current case.

As always, the Butterfly girls and Priya make their appearances and visit the team to help support them through hard times. They seemed to be an afterthought in the writing, like they were simply were put there to tie all 4 books together. 

This is really an emotional journey of the intertwining relationships of the FBI agents. If you are looking for shock value and unbelievable thrilling moments like in the previous books, you will not find it in this one. If you haven't yet read the 3 previous books, don't bother with this, as you will be so lost in a huge wave of keeping track of characters.

All in all, it was a decent ending to a series. While it was nice to see where the characters we have loved end up, I can't help but feel a little let down by the overall feeling of the book. 

"The Vanishing Season"  was released May 21 in the US so is available now online or wherever you prefer to get your books. I hope you read all 4 books in the series, because it is truly not a series to miss! 

Once again, thanks to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and author Dot Hutchison for allowing me a digital copy to read and give my honest review! 

A 3 star read for me!

Happy Reading!