I enjoyed "The Vanishing Season," but I have such mixed feelings about it. It was a solid story. It was an easy read that I devoured in less than a day. And I’m satisfied with the way things ended…but I’m only satisfied, not blown away. Don't get me wrong - This is a great series; the only problem is that the first book was so amazing, it was almost impossible to get the same reaction from all four.

I absolutely loved the first novel in this series, "The Butterfly Garden." It was a masterpiece and I was absolutely blown away by it. None of the other books elicited anywhere near the visceral reaction of the first. The rest of the series was just an entirely different kind of writing, in my opinion. I liked all of the novels, but the first and the last were by far my favorites. Now, the last wasn't anywhere close to a masterpiece, but as conclusions go, this one is really good. It ties up all the loose ends; it respects the characters arcs and their individual journey and answers all the questions that’s been there along the way while giving us a picture of who the characters are and how far they have come.

Kudos to Dot Hutchison for bringing the series to a satisfying end instead of trying to prolong the story past it's obvious conclusion.

**Received from NetGalley for my honest review.**

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an E-arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

After reading The Butterfly Garden I had to know if there were more books in this series or if it was a stand alone book. The Butterfly Garden was definitely my favorite. The 2 books before The Vanishing Season were so-so. I felt like this was an alright ending to the series, but I didnt6like that Brooklyn's kidnapping felt overshadowed by Eddison's issues. After reading all the books I wish The Butterfly Garden had been a stand alone book.

Would I recommend this book? If you've read all the other books in this series, read it at some point. I wouldn't rush it.

This is such a great series and I hate to say goodbye to these characters. I did love the author’s satisfying conclusion. I love the personal details she gave her characters as it was very easy to connect with them. Well done Dot Hutchison!
Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I have not read any of her other books...which I now must because I enjoyed this book alot! You follow FBI Agent Elizabeth Sterling on her journey to find the blonde hair, blue eyed, 8 year old Brooklyn. After she goes missing walking home from school to her safe middle class neighborhood where all the neighbors are friendly. Along with Agent Sterling you meet her teammate FBI Agent Brandon Eddison. This case hit close to home for him since over 20 years ago his little sister Faith also a 8 year old, blue eyed, blonde hair went missing on her walk home. I recommend this book to all those who love thrillers. You will deeply enjoy going along through the case of the missing girls while trying to connect the dots. The way the team of agents have become a close knit family through such tragic times will tug on your heart.

Honestly the only issue that I had was where they spoke Spanish and I had no clue what they were saying.

Thanks @netgalley for a ARC of The Vanishing Season in trade for a honest review.

This is the final book in this collectors series. The first book was my favorite and this was an ending I didn't see coming. Great finale to this series. It did get a little slow for me in the middle but picked back up. It will definitely leave you guessing.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have now read all 4 books in The Collector series, and my final thoughts are:

1) I appreciated the mystery, but found the interactions between the FBI agents to be very off-putting. It seemed so...odd, how they interact like a bunch of high school girls.

2) Since the mystery/thriller piece of these books is so horrible, maybe #1 above is a way to temper that and make the books more appealing to a wider variety of people?

Overall, 2.5 stars rounded up to 3. I'd give a 5-star review to the mystery piece, but a 0-star to the setting/character interactions.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Vanishing Season is the finale in Dot Hutchison's Collector series. This one is so well written that it had me in tears more than once. It's the perfect finale for this dark and haunting series. This book is about a missing 8-year-old girl who seems to be the latest in a long line of missing 8-year-old girls who all look alike and disappear at the same time of year. The FBI team does a stunning job of solving the case. Read and enjoy!

I did not know there was going to be a fourth book in this series. When I saw this book, it felt like Christmas morning. Once I read it, it felt like I had just opened a box of pajamas instead of the latest toy. I was a huge fan of The Butterfly Garden. I wasn’t sure I was going to like the second and third books but, I was a fan. It seemed like one book was Eddison centric while the other focused more on Mercedes. This third book is about Eliza.
Let me start off by saying that I liked Eliza well enough but, I was not a raving fan. I thought she was kind of boring and I didn’t like that two members of the team were romantically involved.
This book ties up some loose ends for Eddison and solidifies the family dynamic of the team. We also get updates on some of the Butterflies and Priya.
The case itself is sad and spooky. It feels very real but, I might watch too much tv. There were aspects of the mystery that reminded me of The Lovely Bones. The team travels around the country to gather evidence and solve the mystery.
This was only three stars for me. I find Eliza to be kind of boring and I just wasn’t that interested in a book where she was the main character.
With that being said, I can’t wait to see what this author does next.

I love, love, loved this volume of The Collector series. Told from Agent Eliza Sterling's perspective, this might be my favourite of the 4 books. The characters, as always, are really 'real', and the mystery here was solid. I wish there were many more books to come in this series, but based on the way this one ended, I suspect my wish will not come true :(

5 stars for The Vanishing Season

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a DRC of this book.

A satisfactory conclusion to the series but a little dragged out which made it boring in parts. The first book remains the strongest by far but this is worth a read.

This book was much better than the previous, but not quite as good as the first in the series. I think that the chills were back and the writing style is a great style, but I did miss something that I felt was not in this one. Overall, a good read for those who like the series of criminal thriller type books’.
Will be recommending to the members of Chapter chatter pub!

Of all of the books in the series so far, I found this one to be the most tedious. Four books down and I still don’t care about he characters or like them much, they only serve to annoy. Eddison is the least annoying of the lot, but still. Dramatic case but not really, rather bland and the book is chock full of filler. Pity, these books try to be very dark and twisty but don’t really deliver the goods.

I didn't quite get to this book before it was archived. So sorry about that! I will buy it and review it.

I have loved every second of this series. It was at times gut wrenching and unfathomable to think of the monstrosities that are in this world but At the same time so intoxicating and intricate that I could not stop myself from reading. This final book made me feel the same shock and wonder as I felt in the very beginning of the series. Truly sad to see it come to an end.

The Vanishing Season was a beast to get through, and not an all together solid end to a series that managed to blow me away.

The Butterfly Garden was a game-changer for me. It introduced me to characters I would grow to love. The Roses of May continued that trend; bringing more to the table than before. But by The Summer Children that spark that wowed me was starting to wan; the interpersonal antics of the team were beginning to slightly over-shadow the story. I loved the feeling of the characters on the page being fleshed out and fully realized, where some books the characters are flat and lifeless, Dot Hutchison has written anything but - unfortunately it became over-the-top and overbearing by The Vanishing Season. Too much of the book was devoted to personal interactions and antics that read a lot like the story itself wasn't as strong as The Butterfly Garden or Roses of May and it took well over 50% of the book to start settling into the meat of the case at hand.

The Vanishing Season still surpasses many of it's peers in many ways; it is a complete story and as a reader I can tell that these characters are LOVED by their creator. I had high expectations for this series as a whole after the slap in the face that is The Butterfly Garden, and as a whole I love the Collector Series and can't wait to see what else Dot Hutchison comes up with next.

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!

Received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the latest (and apparently last) book in a series but you don’t have to read the others to understand what’s going on. I absolutely loved this! It read like an extended episode of Criminal Minds. I loved the characters and their bickering and banter. I laughed out loud a few times. I cried.
I really really loved this and recommend this book if you’re looking for a mystery to read

The perfect conclusion to an amazing series.
I devoured this book in a day and I cried the whole time; Hutchison’s writing is like a siren song: you can’t resist being lured in....

First, it should be noted that I haven't read any of the other books in this series, so some of the character attachments that would have developed over time were not there for me. Likewise, I wasn't familiar with the many references to cases that took place in the first three books and so sometimes felt a tad lost. That said, the book was still fairly enjoyable and easy to follow along, but it wasn't anything mind blowing or extremely out of the ordinary even for books within its genre. For me, too much time was spent on bantering and relationships within the group and not enough on the actual crime and solving of it. I found much of the book, including the reveal of the killer, to feel anticlimactic. However, there is still an inarguably emotional conclusion that wraps everything up quite nicely.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. It did not affect my review.

I absolutely love The Collector series, I did believe that it was just a trilogy, so I was a little confused when I saw that this was being released. I think that this book was really good, however I kind of wish it had just been left as the trilogy. As much as I love the characters I just didn't think that this book was needed.