Series: Ellery Hathaway

#BookReview Last Seen Alive (Ellery Hathaway #5) by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #Last Seen Alive #JoannaSchaffhausen #ElleryHathawaySeries #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview Last Seen Alive (Ellery Hathaway #5) by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #Last Seen Alive #JoannaSchaffhausen #ElleryHathawaySeries #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: Last Seen Alive

Author: Joanna Schaffhausen

Series: Ellery Hathaway #5

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jan. 25, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 10/10

The fifth book in Joanna Schaffhausen’s heartpounding Ellery Hathaway mystery series.

Boston detective Ellery Hathaway met FBI agent Reed Markham when he pried open a serial killer’s closet to rescue her. Years on, their relationship remains defined by that moment and by Francis Coben’s horrific crimes. To free herself from Coben’s legacy, Ellery had to walk away from Reed, too. But Coben is not letting go so easily. He has an impossible proposition: Coben will finally give up the location of the remaining bodies, on one condition—Reed must bring him Ellery.

Now the families of the missing victims are crying out for justice that only Ellery can deliver. The media hungers for a sequel and Coben is their camera-ready star. He claims he is sorry and wants to make amends. But Ellery is the one living person who has seen the monster behind the mask and she doesn’t believe he can be redeemed. Not after everything he’s done. Not after what she’s been through. And certainly not after a fresh body turns up with Coben’s signature all over it.


Review:

Astute, chilling, and addictive!

Last Seen Alive is a perilous, action-packed thrill ride that sees Detective Hathaway working once again with FBI agent Reed Markham when her nightmares come back to life, bodies begin piling up with wounds that have an eerie resemblance to the ones the incarcerated serial killer she once was a victim of liked to inflict, and danger lurks around every corner.

The prose is edgy and tight. The characters are astute, flawed, and resilient. And the plot keeps you on the edge of your seat as it submerges you in an ominous tale full of twists, turns, intrigue, action, manipulation, obsession, duplicity, relationship dynamics, swirling emotions, violence, and murder.

Last Seen Alive is the fifth title in the Ellery Hathaway series, and I think this is the one we’ve all been waiting for. As a long-time fan of this series, it lived up to all of my expectations and more. There is just something about the characters, the storylines, and how Schaffhausen writes that I absolutely love, and I can guarantee you I will be a fan for life. If you haven’t already read this series, you really need to.

This book is available now.

Preorder a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Joanna Schaffhausen

JOANNA SCHAFFHAUSEN wields a mean scalpel, skills 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 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 and daughter. She is also the author of The Vanishing Season and No Mercy.

#BookReview Every Waking Hour (Ellery Hathaway #4) by Joanna Schaffhausen @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #EveryWakingHour #JoannaSchaffhausen #ElleryHathawaySeries

#BookReview Every Waking Hour (Ellery Hathaway #4) by Joanna Schaffhausen @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #EveryWakingHour #JoannaSchaffhausen #ElleryHathawaySeries Title: Every Waking Hour

Author: Joanna Schaffhausen

Series: Ellery Hathaway #4

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jan. 26, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 336

Format: Hardcover

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 9/10

The fourth book in Joanna Schaffhausen’s heartpounding Ellery Hathaway mystery series.

After surviving a serial killer’s abduction as a young teenager, Ellery Hathaway is finally attempting a normal life. She has a new job as a rookie Boston detective and a fledgling relationship with Reed Markham, the FBI agent who rescued her years ago. But when a twelve-year-old girl disappears on Ellery’s watch, the troubling case opens deep wounds that never fully healed.

Chloe Lockhart walked away from a busy street fair and vanished into the crowd. Maybe she was fleeing the suffocating surveillance her parents put on her from the time she was born, or maybe the evil from her parents’ past finally caught up to her. For Chloe, as Ellery learns, is not the first child Teresa Lockhart has lost.
Ellery knows what it’s like to have the past stalk you, to hold your breath around every corner. Sending one kidnapped girl to find another could be Chloe’s only hope or an unmitigated disaster that dooms them both. Ellery must untangle the labyrinth of secrets inside the Lockhart household—secrets that have already murdered one child. Each second that ticks by reminds her of her own lost hours, how close she came to death, and how near it still remains.


Review:

Intricate, sinister, and twisty!

In this fourth instalment in the Ellery Hathaway series, Every Waking Hour, Detective Hathaway and Agent Markham find themselves inadvertently working together once again when a child goes missing, a kidnapper seems to have a targeted agenda, and the family has way too many skeletons hiding in their closet.

The writing is sharp and sophisticated. The characterization is spot on with all the usual gang back, including the scarred and stubborn Ellery Hathaway, whose greatest struggles involve her own emotional demons and her apprehension at the growing intimacy between herself and Markham. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unravel quickly into a gripping tale of life, loss, family, friendship, deception, manipulation, jealousy, violence, and murder.

Overall, Every Waking Hour is another addictive, propulsive, thrilling addition to one of my favourite series with its flawed characters, great pace, and consistent sense of urgency that I can never get enough of.

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Joanna Schaffhausen

JOANNA SCHAFFHAUSEN wields a mean scalpel, skills 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 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 and daughter. She is also the author of The Vanishing Season and No Mercy.

#BookReview All the Best Lies (Ellery Hathaway #3) by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress

#BookReview All the Best Lies (Ellery Hathaway #3) by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress Title: All the Best Lies

Author: Joanna Schaffhausen

Series: Ellery hathaway #3

Published by: Minotaur Books on Feb. 11, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 336

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 10/10

The highly anticipated third novel in the award-winning Ellery Hathaway mystery series.

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.


Review:

Raw, complex, and unputdownable!

In this latest novel in the Ellery Hathaway series, All the Best Lies, Hathaway and Markham head to Las Vegas, Nevada to delve into the emotional, heinous cold case of FBI agent Reed’s slaughtered mother from 1975 in the hope of finally capturing her murderer and unravelling all the lies, secrets and deception surrounding his birth and true parentage.

The writing is tight and crisp. The characters are vulnerable, flawed, and resilient. And the plot keeps you on the edge of your seat as it submerges you in an ominous tale full of twists, turns, mayhem, corruption, coercion, jealousy, deduction, attraction, violence, and murder.

Overall, All the Best Lies is a sharp, engrossing, gritty tale by Schaffhausen that has exceptional character development and palpable chemistry that bleeds off the page, and is definitely, in my opinion, one book/series you don’t want to miss.

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Joanna Schaffhausen

JOANNA SCHAFFHAUSEN wields a mean scalpel, skills 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 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 and daughter. She is also the author of The Vanishing Season and No Mercy.

#BookReview The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks

#BookReview The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks Title: The Vanishing Season

Author: Joanna Schaffhausen

Series: Ellery Hathaway #1

Published by: Minotaur Books on Dec. 5, 2017

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 274

Format: eBook, ARC

Source: Minotaur Books, NetGalley

Book Rating: 8.5/10

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.


Review:

Clever, disturbing, and highly suspenseful!

In this debut novel by Schaffhausen, The Vanishing Season, we are introduced to the tenacious, scarred Officer Hathaway and the once heroic now spiritless Agent Reed as they hunt for a serial killer with an all-consuming obsession and a penchant for violence.

The writing is taut and precise. The characters are flawed, complex and intriguing. And the plot is an intense, intricate police procedural full of twists, turns, surprises, cunning brutality, manipulation, and murder.

The Vanishing Season is truly a gripping, sinister page-turner that had me on the edge of my seat from the very first page and left me hoping this isn’t the last but only the first case for Hathaway and Reed.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

                                        

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Joanna Schaffhausen

JOANNA SCHAFFHAUSEN wields a mean scalpel, skills 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 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 and daughter. She is also the author of The Vanishing Season and No Mercy.