“25 Best Thriller Books of the Summer”–NY Post“Pathologically twisted”–Library Journal“Best Summer Reads for 2018”–Publishers Weekly“25 Must-Must Read Books to Make Summer Fly By”–PopSugar“19 Biggest Thrillers of Summer”–BookBub“Best New Thrillers”–Barnes & Noble Reads“Beyond the typical serial killer novel”–Associated Press“Psychologically complex, character-driven serial killer … character-driven serial killer hunt”–Booklist
“Breakneck-paced thriller”–Library Journal, Books For Dudes
“Plan on losing sleep because of this one”–Criminal Element
“Dark and mesmerizing”–Lisa Gardner, NYT bestselling author
“Pulse-pounding twisted thrill ride”–Chelsea Cain, NYT bestselling author
FBI neuroscientist Sayer Altair hunts for evil in the deepest recesses of the human mind. Still reeling from the death of her fiancé, she wants nothing more than to focus on her research into the brains of serial killers. But when the Washington D.C. police stumble upon a gruesome murder scene involving a girl who was slowly starved to death while held captive in a cage, Sayer is called in to lead the investigation. When the victim is identified as the daughter of a high profile senator, Sayer is thrust into the spotlight.
As public pressure mounts, she discovers that another girl has been taken and is teetering on the brink of death. With evidence unraveling around her, Sayer races to save the second victim but soon realizes that they are hunting a killer with a dangerous obsession…a killer who is closer than she thought.
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Dark and mesmerizing… channels equal parts KATHY REICHS and THOMAS HARRIS… You will read till the bitter end… then sleep with the lights on!
Great characters, FBI procedural, serial killer with a new twist!
I crave a good book that unfolds like a movie. “Caged” opens with the police entering a house they’d already checked out the week before and, after a shocking setback, discovering a dead body suspended in a cage in the basement of a demented serial killer. Great premise.
Enter FBI Agent Sayer Altair, a neuroscientist who studies serial killers’ brains – how they think, why they do the horrific things they do. It’s the perfect set up for a summer read and it doesn’t disappoint.
The tick-tock pace never lets up, and as I’ve said before, I’m a sucker for vivid prose: “The man filled the space around him like a mountain forged from solid rock. Thick jowls hung like slabs of meat off his face. Matted blond hair sprung from his head like a bird’s nest.”
Sayer is driven by the idea that serial killers’ brains are hardwired differently from the rest of us, and ultimately she hopes to spot and prevent evil from taking hold. While pursuing the killer, she must crawl inside his creepy head – by studying the diary he left behind – in search of more clues, crawling through the catacombs of psychopathy, right up to the face-punch ending. Highly recommended.
I’ve been looking for a good police procedural series for a bit now and with Caged by Ellison Cooper, I think I may have found it. I’ll know for sure after I read the second book in the Agent Sayer Altair series, Buried, if this one being so good was a fluke or not!
Caged was a fast paced serial killer thriller filled with great character development and a multi-level puzzle that had me guessing until towards the end. Cooper mentioned one clue that I thought was too big to overlook and it was at that point I was pretty sure I knew who was the killer. I really enjoyed how the clues and twists were laid out so evenly in the book and not everything being rushed at the end.
Sayer has some quirks to her which made her character even better; riding a motorcycle with a sidecar (so she can transport dogs and grandmas when need be!) and she was able to keep her emotions together… until she wasn’t, just like most of us. This made Sayer feel even more real to me. I also enjoyed how laid back her partner was and I can’t wait to get to know even more about her neighbor, Tino.
If you do read Caged and enjoy it as much as I did, you may want to try the Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell series by Chelsea Cain… one I always love to recommend… and it seems I might be recommending the Agent Sayer Altair series all the time now too.
Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. – Unknown
Sayer Altair started out as a neuroscientist interested in the differences in the brains of serial killers as compared to brains of non-killers. She ended up as a Senior Special Agent for the FBI.
Soon she is put on as the head of a team looking into a serial killer who keeps young women in cages, studying them, and then letting them die of starvation and dehydration.
Sayer is a different type of FBI agent, strong willed, wanting to fight for the underdog. She rides around on a vintage motorcycle, lives in a bare bones apartment, and started out life with a history of trauma and continues to live a life filled with traumatic events.
Soon she and her team are on the trail of the Cage Killer, more devious than any killer they’ve previously encountered.
I liked Sayer and her FBI partner Vik. Oh, and neighbor Tino. The author does a great job artfully filling in Sayer’s backstory. This is the first book in a series. The second is BURIED, which I’m off to read next. I hope the author fills in more of the stories of the side characters in it.
There was also an interesting premise for this book. I had an idea of who the antagonist might be but I wasn’t sure until right at the end.
I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy psychological thrillers, mysteries, and stories about serial killers.
Great book! I enjoyed this book it was very entertaining and very unpredictable. I couldnt set it down.
Caged is a pulse-pounding twisted thrill-ride that will keep readers guessing — and plotting revenge — right up to its satisfying conclusion.
If you are a fan of the police procedural/suspense/thriller genre you must read this book! Twists and turns with wonderfully developed characters!! Highly recommended!!!!!
I enjoy reading books about serial killers and the detectives that solve the cases to put these killers behind bars. I was excited to begin a new series involving Special Agent Sayer Altair.
In this installment, Sayer is assigned to find a killer who is keeping young girls caged in underground rooms. The killer is conducting experiments on them. Sayer has to find the connection between these girls and try to reach them before they die.
While I feel the book could have been stronger, I do want to read more from this author, as I hope that the characters introduced in this novel will become more fully developed as the series continues.
#Caged #EllisonCooper
3.5s. The first in a murder mystery series, Caged, follows FBI agent Sayer Altair as she tries to catch a super smart, soulless serial killer who has an obsession with death & what happens when we “cross the veil”. I had no problem getting through the book but it didn’t have anything that made it standout from other similar books. A good whodunit with lots of action & a likable protagonist, however, it was a bit too predictable for my taste.
Great protagonist. Although I pretty much figured out who the serial killer was about half way through the book, I really enjoyed reading it.
Wow. A new great author to follow! What skillful writing, excellent character strengths, and wonderful plot. Loved it. This book has no foot-dragging or boring sections. Excellent crime story.
This was a great read
/ 5
All I can say about Caged by Ellison Cooper is how on earth did I not read it sooner?!
What it’s about: FBI neuroscientist Sayer Altair studies the brains of murderers trying to figure out why some people become killers, and some don’t. When she isn’t doing that, she is taking down bad guys for the FBI, and she has just gotten called in to lead a new case. Someone is holding young women in cages and the one that was just found happens to be the senator’s daughter who went missing weeks ago. As Sayer tracks the killer while also being in the spotlight, she might find out the killer is closer to her than she ever could have guessed.
Okay so I do have more to say about this book. Caged is a crazy wild ride of a novel and there was always something happening. Pacing was oh-so-fast, and I just loved Sayer along with a few other characters. She is a total badass (she even has a motorcycle!) and is the epitome of a strong female character. I did end up yelling at her towards the end of the book to get her shit together already, but overall, I really loved her as a character.
Caged also gave me incredibly strong Criminal Minds vibes, and is a procedural to the max. There are occasional chapters with the title ‘unknown location’ which reminded me of when CM cuts to the killer. In my opinion this book is basically just CM in book form which I absolutely loved.
There isn’t anything overly descriptive in Caged so I think this would be a great novel for people that like the fast pace and procedural aspect, but don’t necessarily like gore. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t fairies and flowers, but overall, I didn’t find it too bad. I also loved the humor that Cooper managed to infuse which really helped with all the heavy themes.
Final Thought: If you are looking for a fast-paced procedural with a badass female lead that takes ‘write what you know’ to a whole new level, then Caged is a must read. I think this was a fantastic start to the Sayer Altair series and I’m already reading book two!
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
I can’t wait to read another book by Ellison Cooper. This book has lots of twists and turns that make you want to keep reading even though it’s 2:00 in the morning and you have to get up at 6:30 to get the kids ready for school.
Page turner. Didn’t want to put down!
Scary. Not to be missed !!!
I liked the book It was a page turner and I was very surprised at the end of the book
A good psychological thriller. The author tells a great story and keeps your wondering who the killer is until the end. A mixture of suspense as you try to solve the clues and save another girl from dying. This one was good book with plenty of action.
This book was quite intriguing and I liked the storyline. Sayer Altair works for the FBI and is looking for the person who put a young girl in a cage in a basement and left her to die. As the police search for her we find out that the place has also been booby trapped with explosives making the search even more difficult.
Sayer has personal.problems of her own as she searches to try and solve this case. Then another cage is found and the plot thickens. Overall the narrative is good, but I felt some areas of writing to be quite passive which caused me to lose the thread and often I had to re-read a chapter. I was also disappointed with the ending as it left many unanswered questions.