In Ellison Cooper’s new standalone novel Cut to the Bone, a bus full of high school students has disappeared from Washington D.C. and FBI neuroscientist Sayer Altair must hunt down the culprit who has a link to her own past. After grieving the death of her fiancé and almost losing her job, Agent Sayer Altair is finally starting to rebuild her life. Her research into the minds of psychopaths is … minds of psychopaths is breaking new ground and her strange little family is thriving. But Sayer’s newfound happiness is threatened when she is called in to investigate a girl’s body left inside a circle of animal figurines below a cryptic message written in blood. When they discover that the dead girl is one of twenty-four missing high school students, Sayer quickly realizes that nothing in this case is what it seems.
As the investigation draws her in to a tangled web of fake identities and false leads, the trail soon begins to point directly to her own life. Now, Sayer must confront her painful past to uncover her connection to the deranged killer if she hopes to save the missing teens and protect everything that she loves.
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Never kidnap kids on the way to a science competition.
“Cut to the Bone” opens with the death of a police officer in Washington, DC; this will be a high-stakes case, one of those cases without a good outcome. When a second victim is found and the murders show some ritualistic nuances, FBI Senior Special Agent Sayer Altair, a neuroscientist for the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, is called. In a shocking turn of events, an entire busload of children traveling to a science competition is reported missing, kidnapped. The atmosphere is tense and frantic as the search for the children turns up only misdirection and false leads.
The story unfolds in alternating points of view. Readers have an inside view of the elite FBI squad action strategy, sources, procedures, and readers also learn the FBI does not know. The children themselves take things into their own hands. They are observant, resourceful, and determined, far from timid. The action is conversation driven; both casual and friendly, but deadly serious when the situation dictates. The narrative sometimes goes back in time slightly to show just how people got to a particular event.
“Cut to the Bone” is hard driving, fast paced, and intense. Help and answers come from an unexpected place, and those answers are shocking. However, there is a nice dog that can be counted on when things get bad physically and emotionally. I received a review copy of “Cut to the Bone” from Ellison Cooper, St Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books. The pace is frantic, and the plot is powerful. Just when readers think things are over, there is a startling revelation that hints of what is to come next. I can hardly wait.
I am a big fan of the Agent Sayer Altair series and Ellison Cooper sure started Cut to the Bone out with a bang! This is the third installment to the series, and I swear they just get better with every book she writes. Sayer does irritate me at times which is why I can’t bring myself to rate this a full 5/5 stars, but they are all solid mysteries that surprise me which is exactly what happened with this one.
I started out reading Cut to the Bone, and even though it starts out with plenty of action that continues throughout the entire novel, I decided to switch to the audio. Danielle Deadwyler is the narrator and I while I didn’t LOVE her narration, she still does a good job with it. I also noticed she narrates all the books in the series so if you wanted to listen to all of them that might be a good way to do it, but I will probably just stick to reading them from now on. She tried to do different voices for each character and I just felt like she would lose herself and carry that tone into a different character which made for a weird listening experience.
Cut to the Bone is perfect if you are looking for a fast-paced, chilling mystery and as always I loved the police procedural feel. This book felt like a mix of the TV shows Criminal Minds and Castle which I believe I have used to describe books one and two as well. I absolutely love that about them, and it makes for a very enjoyable reading experience. The chapters are all super short and quick, and that combined with the fast pace make this easily readable in one sitting. I had no idea what was going to happen and was completely surprised by the ending.
While it is disturbing and chilling, Cut to the Bone isn’t super gory so if you aren’t into, say Karin Slaughter type gore, this would be a great series to check out. I wouldn’t recommend reading them out of order because of the way they progress, so I would recommend starting with book one and binging them because that is what this series is perfect for. Overall this was definitely another win for me in the series and I will be over here looking forward to book four. The end gave me CHILLS, and I can’t wait to see where Cooper takes the series next.
Thank you to the publisher for my advance review copy via NetGalley. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Cut to The Bone by Ellison Cooper
Loved this book! I could not turn the pages fast enough, did not want to put down. This book had characters that I cared for and so much action it definitely held my attention! Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read this and leave my thoughts!
Chilling, suspenseful, and fast-paced!
In this riveting third installment in the Agent Sayer Altair series, Cut to the Bone, Cooper has written an unpredictable, sharp, sinuous thriller that takes you on a hunt for a dangerous, mass kidnapper and deranged serial killer who seems to have a fascination with Ancient Egypt, the afterlife, and Washington architecture.
The prose is crisp and precise. The characters are bold, intelligent, and driven. And the plot is an absorbing, tortuous tale full of twists, turns, intrigue, surprises, misinformation, cosmogony, symbolic references, red herrings, violence, and murder.
Overall, Cut to the Bone is a sharp, engrossing, intricate tale that keeps you guessing from the very first page and leaves you unsettled, entertained, and highly satisfied.
FBI Agent Sayer Altair had just finished a lecture at Georgetown University Department of Neurology when she got a call from her superior, FBI Director Anderson instructing her to take the lead in a double homicide that occurred on the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. It looked like a ritual murder and that meant possibly a serial killer was the offender. If that wasn’t bad enough one of the victims was identified as a female Washington DC high school student who was supposed to be on a bus heading to a STEM science and technology competition in Georgia. The busload of kids had disappeared. Now Agent Altair has two simultaneous cases to solve. Add to that someone is following her and she doesn’t know if it is connected to her current case or not.
Cut To the Bone by Ellison Cooper is the third book in her Agent Sayer Altair series. This series is comprised, so far, of bone-chilling serial murder cases that Agent Altair solves. This latest book has a well-thought-out, complex, fast-paced plot with lots of action. Sayer Altair is a three-dimensional character who is smart, determined and dedicated. I love how she thinks and interacts with people. There are a few surprises in this book that really threw me for a loop. Wowza!
Anyone who enjoys thrillers will want to pick up this book. It is a standalone but reading the first two books in the series, Caged and Buried would add to the enjoyment of reading this book.
This book moved fast, like an episode of Criminal Minds mashed into a Dan brown novel. A killer has highjacked a bus full of high school students in Washington DC and is placing their dead bodies around monuments in disturbing, cryptic ways. The book follows FBI agent and neuroscientist, Sayer Altair, as she deciphers clues with her team that relate to Egyptology while she uses her knowledge of sociopathic behavior to track the killer’s next move.
This is not a character-driven book but the characters are fun and probably within the whole series quite complex. You never really slow down to get more than a few short bits of info about her family, her love of motorcycles, or the loss of her boyfriend that was clearly the plot of a previous novel (spoiler I guess) but it has all the hallmarks of a procedural tv series where the cast evolves over a longer span of time. The DC location provides a wealth of nerdy subjects that readers can geek-out on over the course of the series so I can see this being extremely satisfying and successful for fans of this type of book. While the hints of past books do make me curious about those crime-solving puzzles, I’m personally not into reading procedurals.
On the mystery itself in Cut to the Bone, I am a huge lover of all things Egypt, so that’s why I chose the book. I did learn some new details about the Amduat, a famous ancient book on the afterlife, I became frustrated with the typical investigative dead-ends that I knew were dead-ends (it’s only halfway through the book… so of course we’re not going to find the kidnapped girls) but I really loved the alternating chapters that went to the teens on the bus in a warehouse. Something about being with the kidnapped subjects always takes me back to Silence of the Lambs. You know the FBI agents are on the hunt and each time they open a door you’re hoping the two POV worlds you’re flipping between join one narrative and they are saved… That anticipation is what keeps you hooked.
This was a fun read with a twisty ending that was satisfying although not ground-breaking. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves data-driven procedurals with a strong and diverse cast from all nationalities, physical abilities, and mental classifications. There are heroes of every stripe in here.
This is the third in the Agent Sayer Altair series, but you need not have read the first two books in the series to be fully engaged in this one. You undoubtedly will go in search of the first books after having read this one.
FBI Agent Sayer Altair is called out to a murder scene where she finds a teenaged girl at the foot of the Albert Einstein memorial statue inside a circle of baboon statues. There is no obvious cause of death. This case gets stranger as more information comes in. At or near the time of the teenager’s murder a DC cop is killed while he is talking to the police dispatcher. Are the two cases connected? But then a school bus carrying twelve high school girls, twelve high school boys and a chaperone is reported missing. After following each clue, Sayer finds out the dead teenager had been on the school bus. Sayer and her team finally get a break when an eyewitness reports seeing the school bus turn into an abandoned warehouse district.
Sayer Altair is a deftly nuanced character – smart, funny, fearless, and unconventional. The storyline is unique, the minor characters are interesting, and the killer is scary. This book will grip you from page one and not let you go until the last page. It is that last page that leads you to believe – and hope – there will be a fourth book in this outstanding series.
If you like your mysteries complex with unseen twists and turns and a strong intelligent woman at the helm of the investigation, then this book should be at the top of your to-be-read list. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review.
My thanks to Minotaur and Edelweiss for an eARC.
Best in the series to Date!!
This is the third book in the Agent Sayer. Altair series. A ritualistic murder and a bus load of Washington DC teens missing. FBI Agent Sayer Altair is head of the task force. She is being stonewalled at every turn.
This story has so much action, crazy twists and shocking turns it’s hard to put down. I wish every crime fiction suspense was as good as this book. This author us fast becoming one of my favorite authors.
Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for the Advanced Copy.
This is a strange book for me to rate. Typically I don’t give 5 stars unless the book has shook me to the core, and although this book has no done that, it would be unfair to give it anything less than 5.
Cooper checks off everything needed for a great book. I absolutely loved the incorporation of Egyptian history & afterlife in the case, it took the whole story up to a whole other notch.
The characters were diverse, well rounded, and like able. Sayer had a fine crew of side characters to help her along. She was level headed and smart, and her intuition was fascinating to follow.
The story contains plot twists, corruption, and surprises at every chapter. I would recommend you pick it up!
Wow! Just …. wow! When I read the last word, all I wanted was more. I did NOT want this book, or Sayer’s story to end. Can’t wait until the next one!!!
Twists and turns … an unexpected moment/story line I totally did not see coming … Highly recommend this latest installment of the Sayer Altair series. If you haven’t read the others by this author, you are missing out.
Thank you #netgalley and #stmartinspress #minotaurbooks for the eARC.