The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison

If the Roses of May was a bit of a letdown after The Butterfly Garden, The Summer Children brought the level of the trilogy back up again. Told from Agent Ramirez’s perspective this time, this installment really brought home the agony that working with abused children must bring, particularly for someone who experienced it herself. I liked Mercedes’ point of view, and her connection to the “subjects” is heartbreaking. Bloodied children keep showing up at Mercedes’ door, after an “angel” killed their abusive parents in front of them. The killer is clearly someone who was abused herself, and she trusts Mercedes to take care of these kids after she gets rid of their abusers. The identity of the killer this time is still pretty obvious (obfuscation is not the author’s strongest skill), but the rest of the plot is well done. There is a new addition to the team as well, so maybe the trilogy will be expanded? One can only hope.

The Roses of May by Dot Hutchison

This book picks up where The Butterfly Garden left off, sort of. The three musketeers, I mean, FBI agents, from book 1 are still there, and some of the Butterflies do make an appearance, though they’re not central to the plot. Instead we meet Priya, a seventeen-year-old whose sister was killed by a serial killer five years ago. The musketeers have been on the case since then, but can’t find the creep who keeps killing teenage girls in churches and laying different flowers around each one. Now it looks like he’s coming back for Priya, who is anything but fine even five years on. The writing is solid once again, but I have to knock it down a star for two reasons: the identity of the serial killer was SO obvious that it was almost insulting (a least make me question who it might be even once!) and that person’s age changed at least three times in the book. Late thirty-something, then late forty-something, but if I do the math he should be early thirties. Pet peeve sure but someone should have picked that up!

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison is some creepy creepiness layered on top of more creep. All that said, it's kind of a good read, and I did that thing I do sometimes and stay up until 3 a.m., reading it all in one sitting. Maybe that was so the creepiness didn't "creep" into more than one day of my life! The book opens with a young girl being interviewed by the FBI. We learn that they rescued a bunch of teenage girls that were being held captive by a sicko who tattooed huge butterfly wings on their backs and encased them in resin on their 21st birthday to "preserve" their beauty forever. (I wasn't exaggerating about the creepy!) Now they've "flow" free of their prison, but this girl, Maya, is causing the police some trouble, refusing to answer all of their questions and leading them to believe she might be complicit somehow.

The book switches back and forth between her interrogation by police and her flashback narrative that answers those questions, with good effect. This is the kind of book I would have loved as a teenager (I was a huge Stephen King fan back in the day), and while it's more sexually gruesome than his work, it does embody some of the same dark and otherworldly feelings that his writing evokes. Another good comparison would be the pre-Gone Girl Gillian Flynn books. I see this being made into a movie somehow, though it won't be one that I actually go to see.