Last Seen Alive by Joanna Schaffhausen

Last Seen Alive is 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.

Don’t miss our reviews of the rest of the Ellery Hathaway series!
For book one, The Vanishing Season, click HERE.
For book two, No Mercy, click HERE.
For book three, All the Best Lies, click HERE.
For book four, Every Waking Hour, click HERE.

 

 

Book 5
Buy Links

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Apple Books  ~  B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  Kobo
Audiobook (US)  ~  Hardcover (US)

 

 

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Mystery

In the fifth installment in this series, you get to see Ellery back at it.

Since the last book, both Ellery and Reed have found different paths, but the cunning and sociopathic Coben is finding a way back into both their lives again.

Reed is still trying to keep Ellery safe and away from danger. He can't help it. It's in his blood. Despite knowing that Ellery can take care of herself, Reed can't help but feel that he's facilitated Coben coming back into her life.

Ellery is no shrinking violet. She wants to make sure that Coben sees that she's not broken. She beat him and is continuing on in her life. But the memories take over every once in a while.

As Reed and Ellery play Coben's cat and mouse game, you'll have to decide who the cat is and who the mouse is.

While you don't necessarily have to read these books in order, I highly suggest that you do. The relationship between Reed and Ellery is complicated and while I can understand their hesitance, it does sometime detract from the story. I wish that they would develop a different path, but it seems that they are destined for the path they were set on when Ellery was just a girl.

You won't be disappointed in this book. It has anxiety inducing scenes and when you face your fears, something unexpected always comes up.


Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
3.5 stars

This fifth book is probably the most exciting and the most disturbing book in the series. The initial premise still doesn’t quite work for me. Somehow the FBI approves and encourages a reality television show wanting to reunite a child survivor with the serial killer who tortured her. It leads to all sorts of drama for Ellery, but I found myself continually having to suspend my disbelief.

I did enjoy the tension and drama in this story. I’ve never been a huge fan of the slightly creepy relationship between Ellery and Reed, and I’ve been getting tired of the hot and cold nature of their relationship for a couple of books. Thankfully, this story introduces a whole new cast of characters to the series.

While this is an exciting, fast-paced action story, it isn’t the most carefully plotted psychological thriller. I loved the action sequences but found the twists either too predictable or entirely implausible. The story is littered with dead bodies and potential suspects. It’s a bloodbath that will appeal more to readers who enjoy a gory thriller than readers who want to untangle a psychological puzzle.

This feels like the end of the series, and I feel like I’m ready to leave the series here. Ellery has been a fascinating antihero and I’ve really enjoyed her journey.

 

 

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. The Vanishing Season is her first novel.

Connect with Joanna

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

 

 

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Last Seen Alive (Ellery Hathaway #5) by Joanna Schaffhausen to read and review.

Every Waking Hour by Joanna Schaffhausen

The fourth book in Joanna Schaffhausen's heartpounding Ellery Hathaway mystery series, Every Waking Hour...

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.

Don’t miss our reviews of the rest of the Ellery Hathaway series!
For book one, The Vanishing Season, click HERE.
For book two, No Mercy, click HERE.
For book three, All the Best Lies, click HERE.

 

 

Book 4
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo
Audiobook (US)  ~  Hardcover (US)

 

 

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆☆
M/F Thriller
Triggers: Click HERE to see Avid Reader’s review on Goodreads for trigger warnings.

Ellery survived a serial killer when she was younger and it's shaped her past and present. Now a Boston detective, she knows how to solve crimes and get results. Because of her past, she prefers her solitude. However, she is in a relationship now, with her rescuer, and he brings with him a whole different dynamic.

Reed knows that he is good at his job. He also loves his daughter. He is trying to learn to juggle his demanding career with raising his daughter and co-parenting with his ex-wife. While visiting Ellery, his daughter, Tula, and Ellery are slowly getting to know each other. What they weren't expecting was to be embroiled in a kidnapping.

The family of Chloe is beside themselves. Not a stranger to heartbreak and trauma, Chloe's parents don't know why their family is being targeted again for tragedy. This mystery will leave you on the edge of your seat. In reality, there are two mysteries to solve and it was fun watching them unfold, intertwine, and resolve.

You won't be disappointed with this mystery and despite the relationship between Ellery and Reed in constant flux, you won't be disappointed in their story either. I think that both are trying to do what's best for the other and sometimes that doesn't align.


Sarah – ☆☆☆☆☆
Ellery’s first big case as a Boston Police detective sees her tracking down a missing child. Elements of the case are very similar to Ellery’s own abduction as a child and Ellery has to fight to stay professional – and stay in the present – as she tracks down the missing girl.

This is easily the best book in the series so far. The writing is excellent. The complicated, twisting plot has been exactingly crafted. I loved every twist, turn, and dead end in Ellery’s investigation and I love the way the author builds almost painful tension as time runs out for the missing child.

Ellery feels functional and competent for most of this story. I feel like I was meeting her fresh this time. For the first time, she is almost likeable and almost relatable. Her relationship with Reed is an unsteady constant and this book sees them mixing families and lives more than ever before. I love Ellery’s sister and I even enjoyed Reed’s daughter here.

This new angle – Ellery as a detective – really works for the series. Ellery is easier to engage with in this role. Her past trauma is still an enormous part of her life, but here we see Ellery use her experience to be a strong cop. She feels more of Reed’s equal here and they almost make sense as they live and work together.

I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to more in the series.

 

 

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. The Vanishing Season is her first novel.

Connect with Joanna

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

 

 

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Every Waking Hour (Ellery Hathaway #4) by Joanna Schaffhausen to read and review.

All the Best Lies by Joanna Schaffhausen

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.

Book 3
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B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆☆
This is easily the best book in the series so far. Reed takes on the investigation of his mother’s murder 40 years ago and enlists Ellery’s help. It’s an exciting, suspenseful read. The story is perfectly plotted and beautifully paced and I love the growth we get to see in both Reed and Ellery.

If the first two books belonged to Ellery, this is Reed’s story. In the previous books, we’ve seen enough cracks in Reed’s polished facade to make him feel human – but until now, he’s always been a bit of a mystery. This story spills Reed’s ugly family secrets and he is forced to deal with new revelations both personally and professionally. I really love Reed in this story, and I enjoyed piecing together the murky details of his past alongside him and Ellery.

Ellery also grows into herself in this story. She’s an investigator, not a victim and she’s not playing police politics anymore. I may have admired her from the first book, but this time around I really like Ellery.

I have to admit that I guessed the final plot twist way too early in this story but I didn’t guess the whodunnit until just before the big reveal. The plot is much stronger than the first two books and the author has nailed the pacing perfectly this time. I love the complexity of the investigation and the way Ellery and Reed solve the murder together.


Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆☆
M/F Mystery
Triggers: Click HERE to see Avid Reader’s review on Goodreads for trigger warnings.

Ellery is in trouble again. But even though she knows that she could lose her job, she doesn't really sweat the small stuff. With her past and her present colliding, once again, Ellery will need to figure out what is really her truth. When Reed asks her to come with him to work on a cold case, she jumps at the opportunity. She wants to help him because she knows that the case is so important to him.

Reed Markham is at it again, but this time, for much more personal reasons. DNA is a powerful tool and once it's unleashed, it can't be taken back. Reed knows that his start in life was a rough one. But with a supportive family behind him, he has made a fairly good life. But when secrets start to emerge, he has to know the truth, even if it might destroy what he felt was his truth.

Ellery and Reed will have to contend with witnesses who withheld information, some shady police, and their own family drama in order to solve Reed's mom's murder.

I really enjoyed watching this unfold. It grabbed me from the beginning and I couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting and now, I really want more. I did wish that there was a more tidy resolution, but that in no way means that you're left without a result.

Also Available in the Ellery Hathaway Series

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

For reviews & more info, check out our The Vanishing Season post.

Book 2
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

For reviews & more info, check out our No Mercy post.

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. The Vanishing Season is her first novel.

Connect with Joanna

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of All the Best Lies (Ellery Hathaway #3) by Joanna Schaffhausen to read and review.

No Mercy by Joanna Schaffhausen

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.

Book 2
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
This second Ellery Hathaway book feels quite different from the first. The small town in book one has been replaced by a big city in book two and her mandatory group therapy feels a bit more urban 21st century than small town America.

Ellery is more settled in herself in this book. Her past is no longer secret, and her focus is on the people around her. Ellery’s relationship with Reed is just as interesting as it was in the first book and I love the shifting dynamics between the two.

It’s the plot that lets this book down. Ellery needs something to focus on, but the investigation storyline doesn’t quite work for me. The arson storyline is interesting, but it isn’t enough to support an entire novel. Ellery is drifting in this book – but the book itself drifts a little too much. I like Ellery’s reckless decisions and her arguably poor judgements, but the story doesn’t have enough structure to make up for Ellery’s identity struggles.

Ellery is a brilliantly complex crime hero – but she deserves an investigation that’s as interesting as she is.


Avid Reader – ☆☆☆
M/F Police Thriller

This is the second book in this series and while I think it would be beneficial to read book one, I don't think it's absolutely necessary.

Ellery is suspended and forced to undergo some psychological evaluation. After her traumatic past, the police department isn't necessarily ready to return her badge and gun. But when she finally attends a support group, Ellery is seen as somewhat of a celebrity by some. When she realizes that she can help some of the people who are still going through their own process, Ellery knows that she'll need help.

Reed still remembers Ellery well. He never thought she'd call for his help. But once he starts on this path, he then realizes that he cares more than he thought. Reed knows that he's walking on some thin ice when the case that he and Ellery are working on brings them dangerously close to his boss' past.

Reed and Ellery will follow a twisting, winding path that will out truths, wind them close to killers, and bring their relationship dangerously close to something neither is truly ready for.

It's an engaging story, but with so much going on, it felt somewhat jumbled. And while I liked the complex relationship between Ellery and Reed, it had a young adult feeling to it. That being said, I did enjoy the story and look forward to the next book.

Also Available in the Ellery Hathaway Series

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

For reviews & more info, check out our The Vanishing Season post.

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. The Vanishing Season is her first novel.

Connect with Joanna

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of No Mercy (Ellery Hathaway #2) by Joanna Schaffhausen to read and review.

The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen

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.

Winner of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition, Joanna Schaffhausen’s accomplished debut The Vanishing Season will grip readers from the opening page to the stunning conclusion.

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Thriller
Triggers: Click HERE to see Avid Reader’s review on Goodreads for trigger warnings.

Ellie is a police officer in a small town. She is known to be a strong, independent woman who isn't afraid of anything. But Ellie's past is something that haunts her daily. It's also not something that she discusses. When she notices that people have gone missing and nobody is doing anything about it, Ellie does everything in her power to get her fellow officers to listen. She even goes as far as to use her sexuality at times.

With nobody listening to her, she reaches out to the one person who might. Agent Reed is on a downward slide. He is on thin ice with the FBI and his family. When Ellie contact him, he can't help but be intrigued with her request.

Ellie and Reed are on the hunt for a killer that nobody else sees. But when the facts start to line up and more people go missing, Ellie's department can't help but see what she's seen all along. This is a fast-paced thriller that is very entertaining.

It was fairly predictable and I figured out the killer quite early on in the story, but I didn't feel that hindered my ability to enjoy the story until the end.


Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
Just a few chapters into this book, I knew that Ellery Hathaway was going to be my new favourite heroine. She’s fabulous. Damaged but resilient. Defiant, abrasive, and a complete loner. I warmed to Ellery as immediately as I did to Jessica Jones, Mercy Thompson, or Temperance Brennan.

But while I completely fell in love with Ellery, I didn’t completely love this first book. The plot moves slowly. At one point I realised I was 75% through the book and Ellery and Reed didn’t have any real suspects. The end is exciting but I’m not sure there are enough clues for readers to guess the whodunnit alongside Ellery and Reed. I enjoyed the story but I’d like to see the plotting and pacing improve in the next books.

While Ellery is definitely the hero in this story, I really enjoyed the working relationship between her and Reed, the FBI agent she works with. Tied together by a horror story many years ago, Reed and Ellery are very different people who manage to make each other stronger. Reed is a bit of a cliché. He’s a washed-up agent on the brink of both divorce and a formal suspension from his job. Burned out cops are a bit overdone so it’s his complicated relationship to Ellery that makes him interesting. I’m not sure he’d be interesting on his own but I love him as Ellery’s overqualified and slightly reluctant sidekick.

Having already read the second book in this series, I will say that I felt like the writing gets tighter and the suspense more exciting in the second story. Anyone new to the series will need to read this one first because it is impossible to understand Ellery without it. And this book is worth a read – even if just to get to know a fabulous new heroine.

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. The Vanishing Season is her first novel.

Connect with Joanna

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Vanishing Season (Ellery Hathaway #1) by Joanna Schaffhausen to read and review.