This FBI agent has come to expect almost anythingโjust not thisโฆ
When Agent Mercedes Ramirez finds an abused young boy on her porch, covered in blood and clutching a teddy bear, she has no idea that this is just the beginning. He tells her a chilling tale: an angel killed his parents and then brought him here so Mercedes could keep him safe.
His parents werenโt just murdered. It was a slaughterโa rage kill like no one on the Crimes Against Children team had seen before. But theyโre going to see it again. An avenging angel is meting out savage justice, and sheโs far from through.
One by one, more children arrive at Mercedesโs door with the same horror story. Each one a traumatized survivor of an abusive home. Each one chafing at Mercedesโs own scars from the past. And each one taking its toll on her life and career.
Now, as the investigation draws her deeper into the dark, Mercedes is beginning to fear that if this case doesnโt destroy her, her memories might.
The Collector Series
Book 3
Can be read as a standalone
Psychological Thriller
A mysterious โangelโ doles out vicious justice, delivering bloodied children to an agentโs doorstep in Dot Hutchisonโs THE SUMMER CHILDREN. One by one, each child recounts a chilling tale where theyโre forced to watch the murder of their abusive parents, who have made them suffer unimaginable cruelty. Theyโre safe now, the angel tells them.
Agent Mercedes Ramirez knows these kidsโ story all too well, sheโs lived it too. But she doesnโt understand why her, why theyโve been entrusted to her care.
As Mercedes and her team work to identify the killer, more parents are savagely murdered, more children covered in blood are dropped off for her to keep safe. Every childโs story dredges up her own real-life nightmares and theyโre beginning to take a toll. Worse yet, the angel assassin is starting to make mistakes, changing the game altogether.
THE SUMMER CHILDREN is the third and final standalone thriller in Dot Hutchisonโs Collector trilogy, and itโs as clever and addictive as it is chilling and disturbing. Hutchison holds no punches in this edgy seriesโitโs gruesome and dark, the crimes vividly depicted. I absolutely loved our heroine, Mercedes, who anchored this suspenseful narrative with both vulnerability and strength. Her story and her relationships helped to strike the right balance between emotional gravitas and edge-of-your seat suspense. Itโs certainly a novel thatโs difficult to put down, or in my case, hard to stop listening to it (on Audible).
While I never finished THE ROSES OF MAY, the first bookโTHE BUTTERFLY GARDENโis as fantastic as this finale. ย I canโt recommend these books highly enough.