Every Waking Hour: Ellery Hathaway #4
by
Joanna Schaffhausen
Order:
USA
Can
Minotaur, 2021 (2021)
Hardcover, e-Book
Reviewed by Hilary Williamson
E
very Waking Hour
is the fourth entry in Joanna Schaffhausen's mystery series that began with
The Vanishing Season
and stars Ellery Hathaway. As a teen, Ellery was captured by serial killer Francis Coben - he raped and murdered sixteen before her, but she gained notoriety as the one who got away.
N
ot wanting that experience to define her, Ellery changed her identity and trained as a police officer. Now she has a beloved basset hound, named Bump, and is in a relationship with Reed Markham, the FBI Agent who rescued her. Fourteen years after her abduction (in the first episode of this series) she contacted him to ask for his help.
A
s this episode opens, Ellery is working as a Boston detective. She's at a street fair with Reed and his seven-year-old daughter Tula, when a nanny asks for help to find twelve-year-old Chloe Lockhart. Ellery finds Chloe's phone in a trash can. Chloe's mother Teresa reveals that she'd lost another child - her son Trevor was murdered, still an unsolved case.
T
he plot thickens when her friend McKenna reveals that Chloe had a second phone that someone gave to her. Then Teresa receives a threatening text, demanding '
a 'bad mom' confession
' but no ransom - what's that about? As we expect, Ellery and Reed solve both the cold case and the current one, bringing to light other wrongdoings along the way.
T
his episode ends on a cliffhanger, a missive from Francis Coben, as well as damage to Ellery and Reed's relationship. I look forward to more.
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