All The Best Lies (Ellery Hathaway #3) by Joanna Schaffhausen

Publication: February 11, 2020

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Source: Publisher

Synopsis: 

FBI agent Reed Markham is haunted by one painful unsolved mystery: who murdered his mother? Camilla was brutally stabbed to death more than forty years ago while baby Reed lay in his crib mere steps away. The trail went so cold that the Las Vegas Police Department has given up hope of solving the case. But then a shattering family secret changes everything Reed knows about his origins, his murdered mother, and his powerful adoptive father, state senator Angus Markham. Now Reed has to wonder if his mother's killer is uncomfortably close to home.

Unable to trust his family with the details of his personal investigation, Reed enlists his friend, suspended cop Ellery Hathaway, to join his quest in Vegas. Ellery has experience with both troubled families and diabolical murderers, having narrowly escaped from each of them. She's eager to skip town, too, because her own father, who abandoned her years ago, is suddenly desperate to get back in contact. He also has a secret that could change her life forever, if Ellery will let him close enough to hear it.

Far from home and relying only on each other, Reed and Ellery discover young Camilla had snared the attention of dangerous men, any of whom might have wanted to shut her up for good. They start tracing his twisted family history, knowing the path leads back to a vicious killer—one who has been hiding in plain sight for forty years and isn't about to give up now.

******

In All The Best Lies, Reed decides now is as good a time as any to find out what really happen to his birth mother. He enlists the help of Ellery, who finds herself suspended from the police department and waiting to find out if she can go back to work or not. I loved that Reed wants Ellery to help him with a case that is so personal to him. But this murder happened 40 years ago and Reed is unsure if he'll be able to find the answers that he’s looking for. He's been lied to about his past and he needs to find out the truth once and for all.

Ellery and Reed have a very interesting dynamic. They're sort of drawn to each other. Though other people might think they are a dangerous combination, I think they happen to work very well together. Yes, Ellery is sometimes reckless and dangerous and feels like she doesn't deserve to live, but she's a survivor and if anybody will have Reed's back it's Ellery.

The story moved at a good pace and I was hooked from the very first chapter. Every other character in this story seem suspicious. I was second guessing every person and everything. It felt like everyone had secrets to hide. I loved that. This was a very well written mystery that was full of suspense, distrustful characters, and lots of secrets. The ending was really good; I was surprised by it. I cannot wait for hopefully the fourth book in the series to find out what’s next for Reed and Ellery.

RATING: 4½ OUT OF 5.

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No Mercy (Ellery Hathaway #2) by Joanna Schaffhausen

Publication: January 15, 2019

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Source: Publisher

Synopsis:

Police officer Ellery Hathaway and FBI profiler Reed Markham take on two difficult new cases in this stunning follow-up to The Vanishing Season.

No Mercy is award-winning author Joanna Schaffhausen’s heart-pounding second novel.

Police officer Ellery Hathaway is on involuntary leave from her job because she shot a murderer in cold blood and refuses to apologize for it. Forced into group therapy for victims of violent crime, Ellery immediately finds higher priorities than “getting in touch with her feelings.”

For one, she suspects a fellow group member may have helped to convict the wrong man for a deadly arson incident years ago. For another, Ellery finds herself in the desperate clutches of a woman who survived a brutal rape. He is still out there, this man with the Spider-Man-like ability to climb through bedroom windows, and his victim beseeches Ellery for help in capturing her attacker.

Ellery seeks advice from her friend, FBI profiler Reed Markham, who liberated her from a killer’s closet when she was a child. Reed remains drawn to this unpredictable woman, the one he rescued but couldn’t quite save. The trouble is, Reed is up for a potential big promotion, and his boss has just one condition for the new job—stay away from Ellery. Ellery ignores all the warnings. Instead, she starts digging around in everyone’s past but her own—a move that, at best, could put her out of work permanently, and at worst, could put her in the city morgue.

******

I enjoyed reading The Vanishing Season and was looking forward to reading No Mercy when I saw book two in this series was coming out. I was not disappointed. No Mercy leaves off months after the events from The Vanishing Season. Ellery finds herself in some hot water over killing a man…a man who was a dangerous killer, but still. No matter the reason, she is required to do group therapy if she wants to get her job back.

If talking about her past won’t change the outcome, is there even a reason for her to go? Maybe there is more to this mandated therapy then she first assumes. Especially when during one of Ellery’s meetings, she becomes intrigued by the stories of a couple of the attendees. It’s not long before she becomes entangled in not one, but two mysteries surrounding two of those people.

I liked the pace of the story. Nothing felt rushed or drawn out. Once again, I enjoyed getting to uncover additional layers of Ellery’s character. Though she frustrated me more than once when she continued to take matters into her own hands and act like she was unstoppable. I can understand the need to help someone especially when you feel like no one else is listening to the victim and justice needs to be served, but Ellery continually put her well-being at risk when she should have just let the cops handle it. Of course, if she had done that, there wouldn’t have been much of a story for Ellery to involve herself in. I also liked the possibility of a slow burning romance between Ellery and Reid that lingered just beneath the surface of this story. Like the previous book, the mystery was not an easily guessed one and I had fun attempting to figure out who the bad person was.

RATING: 4 out of 5.

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The Vanishing Season (Ellery Hathaway #1) by Joanna Schaffhausen

 Publication: December 5, 2017

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Source: Publisher

Synopsis:

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.

******

Ellery knows someone else is going to disappear again. Time is running out and she needs to do something. The Police Chief doesn’t believe there is anything to worry about. He doesn’t see the connection that Ellery does, so she contacts someone she hopes will believe her. Ellery calls on Reed Markham, the FBI Agent that rescued her from the clutches of a serial killer all those years ago.

Reed is surprised to hear from Ellery. He’s always wondered what she made of her life. When he gets her plea for help, he knows it may not be the best move career wise, but he hops on a plane regardless.  Despite making a big mistake on his last case; he is committed to his job and he will always try and help/save someone if at all possible. When he visits Ellery in her town of Woodbury, things don’t completely add up though. Is there a serial killer loose in Woodbury or is she obsessing over nothing?

I liked Ellery, she is tough and smart, but she also has a few inner demons she sometimes battles with. Who wouldn’t if they were held captive by a serial killer? She doesn’t tell people that she is the one victim of Frances Coben who survived. She likes to keep her private life private. No one but Reed seems to understand the urgency to find this possible serial killer before he or she strikes again. Reed and Ellery hadn’t seen each other since that day he saved her, so they are a little unfamiliar with each other at first. However, the more time Reed helps her with this investigation, the more they appear to work well together.

The writing and pace of the story was well done. There was just enough that kept happening to keep me turning pages and hold my interest. I liked the complexity of Ellery and Reed and the interesting course the author decided to take with her characters. The mystery was one I did not guess so easily, which I appreciated. All in all, I would say The Vanishing Season is a great start in a new crime fiction series.

RATING: 4 out of 5.

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