The Race Is On

To Locate A Serial Killer

Description

In Ellison Cooper’s suspense thriller Buried, an FBI neuroscientist is on the trail of a serial killer who’s turned up the heat on a cold case…

Senior Special Agent Sayer Altair studies the minds of psychopaths. But even she didn’t expect to uncover a killer within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Rooting him out and exposing internal corruption got her a bullet wound and six months of desk duty. Now, she’s finally back in the field, called in when an off-duty FBI agent and his cadaver dog fall into a sinkhole filled with human bones.

Found deep in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, the skeletal remains date back almost two decades, the same time a beloved local teen disappeared. The cold case quickly heats up when Sayer’s team finds two fresh corpses among the bones. When a gruesome clue ties these new bodies to a woman recently kidnapped along with her young daughter, Sayer has to uncover the connection between the old bones and the new bodies before the mother and child become the next victims.

But the killer is one step ahead, attacking her team and sabotaging their efforts. With Sayer’s investigation compromised and unsure of who to trust, she receives unwanted help from Subject 037, one of the anonymous psychopaths she is currently studying. She has the chilling realization that he’s someone powerful in Washington D.C.—and he is not about to let a mundane serial killer jeopardize his own ominous agenda for Sayer…  (by publisher)

Thank you to NetGalley, MinotaurBooks, and Ellison Cooper for the ARC of this book.

Details

• Rating: ☆☆☆
• Author:  Ellison Cooper
  Publisher:  Minotaur Books
• Publication Date: (July 16, 2019)
• Genre: Mystery
  Series: Agent Sayer Altair, Book 2
• Book Excerpt
• Hardcover: 368 pages

My Thoughts

Anytime a dog can be woven into a story, especially a police dog, it has my attention. This book does just that. Max, an off-duty FBI agent is walking his cadaver dog when the dog picks up the scent of death. Following the dog to a different area, Max gets the surprise of his life. He falls into a sinkhole. One filled with human bones.

FBI Senior Special Agent Sayer Altair, who is a neuroscientist, is called back from medical leave to supervise the discovery of what appears to be a mass grave. Meanwhile, she is doing ongoing research regarding the personality traits of psychopaths. The psychopaths she interviews by phone are promised anonymity. Though she receives disturbing information from one of her callers, it certainly doesn’t jump to priority status in this book, though I would guess it might reappear in later books.

What a great start to this book by involving a cadaver dog. But for me, however, it slowed down considerably from that point on, perhaps due to descriptions and backstory.  And though I thought the backstory and information regarding the characters would bring them to life, it didn’t for me.

This book manages to take off in several different directions:

discovery of a mass grave,

gathering a team to help solve this mystery,

a hearing going on in Washington,

the apparent mysterious death of Altair’s fiancee,

the disappearance of the sheriff’s sister 17 years ago,

trying to raise a teenager that Sayer Altair has taken in (which you’d apparently need to read the first book to know why),

and more.

If lots of storylines appeal to you, then this will be the type of book you’ll want to pick up. It is original and the main mystery is cleared up, though others are left open to the next book in this series.

Dog lovers: To my disappointment, after the first few pages, very little of the book has anything to do with the dog.

What Concerned Me 

The main mystery felt drawn out, repetitive, and even far fetched. Could it perhaps happen? Of course. But the author seemed to be reaching a little far for the conclusion.

I think if the book was shorter it might have helped keep the exciting pace up.

What I Liked Best

The far-fetched part was a learning experience for me and even somewhat interesting. The last half of the book did pick up speed and Cooper’s writing style is easy to read.

About the Author

Ellison Cooper has a Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA, with a background in archaeology, cultural neuroscience, ancient religion, colonialism, and human rights. She has conducted fieldwork in Central America, West Africa, Micronesia, and Western Europe. She has worked as a murder investigator in Washington DC, and is a certified K9 Search and Rescue Federal Disaster Worker. She now lives in the Bay Area with her husband and son.