The storyline about Ellery is mostly in the past, with ties to the plots of Wendy, a rape victim, and Myra, a victim of a warehouse fire who is wheelchair bound and who lost her young son in the fire. Reed is the FBI agent who found and rescued Ellery, so they have a past relationship. That is now brought into the present when Ellery asks for his help with the two cases with Wendy and Myra.

I thought the writing was very good, flowing along and holding my interest, as did the co-mingling plots. We are left with a cliffhanger regarding Reed and Ellery, so guessing there may be another book down the road!

This was a Netgalley offering and I'm thankful to the author and publisher as well for the opportunity to read this novel. 4 Stars! Not high-suspense but a great read.

Ellery Hathaway is a police officer who in her mind was unjustly forced to take a leave of absence and attend a group for victims of violence all because she shot and killed a killer and does not feel as though she should apologize. WHAT? I am sure that there is still left over trauma from being abducted as a child. However, that is what really drew my attention to this book and as I read more I realized that Ellery was going face more in this group. A woman who was raped and the perpetrator is still at large and a victim of a house fire set on purpose killing a child and leaving the victim in a wheelchair. Something strange is going on here and Ellery needs to find out just what it is. She calls in a friends help that works for the FBI however, he was Instructed not to have anything to do with Ellery. Will she be able to convince her friend to help her figure out what is going on and to find those responsible? Why is there so many victims with no outcomes? This is well written with characters who are reliable and work off of the others in a way that helps this book achieve the twists and turns really well. You do not see some of them coming and so it is best not to try and figure out what is actually going on. Just read it all the way through. You will be happy you did.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great series, full of twists and turns. Can't wait for the next one in the series. Recommended.

When I finished the first book in this series, I knew I wanted to continue with the series. The second book was even better than the first - not particularly surprising since the first book in a series is always a bit of a set-up, plus in this case the first was the author's debut novel. But in this case the author has created two intriguing protagonists, who each have some compelling issues that make their relationship both interesting and frustrating for the reader. In this book they're working together again to solve two crimes. The setting has moved to Boston, where Ellery is undergoing counseling that's required for her to have her badge reinstated. In the course of that counseling, which includes group therapy sessions for victims, she learns of two crimes that she wants to solve. She turns again to Reed Markham, an FBI agent who saved her from a serial killer when she was a young girl. There's a lot of psychology involved for both of them - they work well together yet their past keeps them from making the most of their unofficial partnership, both professionally and personally. But frustrating as it can be for the reader at times, it's what keeps things interesting and keeps me reading to see - can they or can't they? Both crimes came to surprising conclusions, and the end was a perfect set-up for book 3 in the series. I look forward to reading that one.
My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy for an unbiased review.

Police officer Ellery Hathaway has been placed on forced leave , made to attend group therapy for victims of violence - her sin , shooting a killer dead and showing no remorse . Once there her Police training kicks in , at least two of the group have secrets ........ one is the victim of rape , the perpetrator still at large , the other a survivor of arson that left a child dead ........ just what is it that has her antenna twitching ?
Ellery tries to enlist the aid of her old saviour , FBI Behavioural Profiler Reed Markham - but there is a problem , he is up for promotion and has been advised to have nothing to do with Ellory .
Can she convince him to help her - will their tentative relationship decelope further ?
The book is fast faced , with many twists and turns and a shocking reveal that will surprise many - a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to readers of this genre .

I was given an arc of the book by NetGalley and the Publisher in exchange for an honest review .

A wonderful series great follow up to the first series.A book and series that kept me turning the pages late into the night.Great characters and storyline looking forward to next in series.#netgalley#st.martinspress

The Vanishing Season set tthe bar very high, but Joanna Schaffhausen doesn't disappoint. Her characters are as strong and the plot is as good, if not better!
The novel starts with Ellery being on a forced leave due to her using lethal force and shooting a murderer. There is no doubt, her childhood trauma of being abducted and tortured by a serial killer is a factor in how she aproaches everything in her life and work. Ellery is sent to group therapy in order to help her come to terms with what happened all these years ago, but once she is there her police officer's training kicks in and she knows there is a case or two to solve. There is a victim of a brutal rape whose perpetrator is still at large and there is also a survivor of an arson that killed a young child and left her in the wheelchair. Ellery knows what it's like to feel nobody is going to care enough to help you, however brutal the violence against was.
FBI Behavioural profiler Reed Markham and Ellery will always have a special connection. He saved her from Francis Cobin, although not before a considerable psychological trauma had been incurred. He will always feel he needs to continue rescuing the scared half-alive teenager girl as long as he lives. Ellery knowing that many victims live on a borrowed time (perhaps she even includes herself in this category) means she takes many risks and Reed willingly or unwillingly has to share them. Their relationship becomes deeper in this book and it will be great to see how it develops in the next part of the series.
There are twists and shocking reveals that will keep you turning the pages, but above all, this is a character-driven procedural that leaves you craving the next book. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

What more can I say about this author than I love everything she writes! This series just keeps getting better and better. It takes me on an emotional roller coaster, always trying to figure out what is coming next!

Well written story. Kept me engaged the entire time. A page turner for sure! Looking forward to reading more books by this author!

Thru Netgalley, I received an ARC edition of No Mercy by Joanna Schaffausen, and wow,what a ride. No Mercy starts off as a book of a young lady who can no longer feels safe in her apartment. She is attacked and raped, but has no true closure. She feels somewhat responsible, despite the fact it is not her fault. Then as the situation goes along, what if the man who did the crime, really did not do the crime. How do you handle it? But what do you do when noone is willing to help,let alone hear you? They say leave it alone,the case is solved, but why not check out other suspects? Could there be too much at stake, to already have a suspect in custody, so the other victims will feel safe? More goes, and I do not want to go on anymore, I can promise you there are twists and turns and I feel for her.

No Mercy is the 2nd book in the Ellery Hathaway series. I definitely recommend reading the first book prior to reading this one (I unfortunately did not).

Ellery Hathaway is on involuntary leave from her police job because she shot a murderer. She is forced to see a psychiatrist to see if she is capable to return back to work. Her doctor ordered her to go to group meetings for survivors of violent crime. There, she meets Wendy, a rape survivor, and Myra, who survived a burning building but lost young son. It's been 25 years since Myra's ordeal and the person responsible the fire is up for parole. Ellery and FBI profiler Reed Markham join forces once again to catch Wendy's raper and to find out who really started the fire.

I found Ellery to be a bit annoying and unlikable. I also know without a doubt I would have enjoyed book #2 better if I had read #1 first! Overall the book was just OK for me.

Thank you to Joanna Schaffhausen, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Ellery Hathaway is on leave after a shooting and her job required therapist has suggested she attend meetings with other victims. She meets two women that she gets involved in their cases with the aid of the FBI’s Reed Markham. Truck fire, beating with a pipe are signs that she is getting too close to finding the real suspects.
Goodreads

No Mercy by Joanna Schaffhausen is the second in the Ellery Hathaway series. After the events of The Vanishing Season, Ellery Hathaway is on leave from her job, living in Boston and attending group therapy sessions for victims of violent crimes at the behest of her bosses before she can be reinstated.  Ellery's conversations with her fellow group members lead her instincts as an investigator to delve into their cases.  

Wendy Mendoza was a victim of a violent home invasion rape committed by a perpetrator who hasn't been caught.  She's traumatized and unable to move on with her life.  Ellery can't help but sympathize with Wendy's circumstances and wants to help so she calls FBI Agent Reed Markham to consult on the cold case. Ellery and Reed also become intrigued with the story of Myra Gallagher, an arson victim who was horrifically injured and whose son died in a furniture store fire decades earlier.  The man who went to prison for the arson claims he didn't set the fire and a few aspects of the official story don't seem to add up. With Reed's boss directing him to stay away from Ellery and Ellery's inability to stay away from the cases, both of them are in danger of losing their careers.  
No Mercy is a thrilling and fast paced follow up to The Vanishing Season and an excellent second entry to the series.  I flew through the book in a day and am eagerly anticipating reading the next in the series.

Great sequel to The Vanishing Season with returning characters Ellery Hathaway and Reed Markham! Hope these two characters “hook up” soon :)

Following The Vanishing Season, No Mercy by Joanna Schaffhausen was another thrill. It again pairs Ellery Hathaway and Reed Markham, the FBI agent who saved her as a teenager and worked with her on her last case. Ellery is on involuntary leave because of how her last case ended. Her past experiences make her un-inclined to get in touch with her feelings and she resents and balks at attending the group therapy for victims of violent crimes.

While in therapy, Ellery stays true to her investigative personality and starts to investigate the case of someone she meets there. Let's be honest - it's also alot more comfortable to deal with someone else's issues than your own. She suspects that one of the group's members helped to convict the wrong person for an arson and digs into it. She also finds herself drawn to help a woman who was brutally raped and to try to find the rapist.

Since Ellery is suspended, she doesn't have her police resources to rely on. What she does have is Reed Markham, FBI Agent. Their relationship is complicated. Not quite friends, not quite professional acquaintances. More than anything, they share an experience from different perspectives. Reed is drawn to help her, whether as a hero, a colleague, or a potential romance, but he's also pulled in different directions since his bosses dangle a promotion while advising that he should keep his distance from Ellery. Reed hasn't necessarily made the most sound judgments where Ellery is involved, be he also can't just leave her on her own. As Ellery digs into the past and current brutal crimes, Reed helps while trying to figure out where his life is going. The same wonderful writing seen in The Vanishing Season kept me on the edge of my seat with this story as well.

Both of the mysteries were compelling, tense, and realistic. I love Ellery's character as a strong female lead who doesn't simper and wait for someone to save her. She both faces and denies her demons, as does Reed. Even when I wanted to thump both of them upside the head, I had to keep reading.

Strong characters, strong writing, strong plot. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be reading Book #3 as well. I'm very grateful to Joanna Schaffausen, St Martin's Press, and NetGalley for introducing me to this series!

I got a free e-reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my opinion. Hence why I’m jumping into a series at the second book. However, there was enough background given that I could understand what was going on and who the characters were, where they were coming from. This being said, the author really wanted to make sure you didn’t forget what happened in the last book and brought it up a LOT. If I had read the last book and knew the full story, it would have bugged me even more.

Ellery Hathaway is a cop on leave because she killed a murderer in the last book. She is attending group therapy sessions and ends up getting involved investigating the cases that landed some of her fellow crime victims in therapy. She’s also the only surviving victim of a serial killer back when she was a teenager. Reed Markham is the FBI agent who found her as a teenager and helped her with the case in the previous book. He ends up getting involved in helping her investigate these cases, in part to try to keep her from getting into more trouble.

The story was fast-paced and interesting, even the cold case investigation. The characters were complex and made you care about them. The twists and turns were good and not always completely predictable.

I gave this 3 1/2 stars but bumped it down to a 3 due to the amount of bad language. It was almost enough to make me give up on the book, but the plot was intriguing enough that I muscled through.

First I want to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this story.

I foolishly left this book sitting on my kindle, just waiting for me to get to it. Once I started reading that is all I did! I was immersed in what Ellery was going through since her last encounter with a serial killer. Reed becomes involved in the unofficial investigation and it was interesting to see the play between them. I look forward to getting my hands on the next book in this series to see if Ellery can get her badge back and what she does with it.

I loved the first one so much that I decided to dive right in to the second one in the series and it was also fantastic! It was so engrossing that I honestly couldn’t put it down!! So glad I decided to go right into the second one!

I really enjoyed this book. It is part of a series and I read the whole series and can not wait for another one.

So for some reason I read number three in this series out order. I finished this one before number two, so excuse me if everything doesn’t line up perfectly. This is probably my favorite in the series thus far. Special agent Reed Markham and Ellet Hathaway reunite again with Reed asking for Ellery’s insight into the 40 year old homicide of his mother Camilla Flores. Their journey brings them to the bright lights of Las Vegas to dig into the cold case that seems destined to remain unsolved. In a case this stale filled with multiple uncooperative witnesses, Reed faces insurmountable odds on his journey to find his mother’s killer. Even though this is a story about a homicide, it has a lot of heart, and that is the strength of this story. As awkward as Reed and Ellery are you have to root for them. The ending comes with a pleasant and unforeseen surprise. Looking forward to more books in the series. Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review. Review posted to Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Amazon.