Happy Sunday! On Sunday's, I feature a book that I was unable to when it was released. This week I picked Buried by Ellison Cooper. Ellison Cooper is the author of the Agent Sayer Altair series. The first book in the series is Caged.
Buried by Ellison Cooper has Max
Cho hiking near Rockfish Gap in Shenandoah National Park when Kana, his human
remains detection dog, alerts. Max
investigates and ends up falling into a cavern with multiple skeletons along
with two newer corpses. Senior Special
Agent Sayer Altair is called to the scene along with her team. Kyle Nelson, Rockfish Gap Chief of Police, wants
to know if one of the victims could be his sister who disappeared seventeen
years ago. When they exam the newest
corpse, they discover “Help Us” written on the body. A local woman and her daughter were recently
kidnapped. Sayer and her team must work
quickly to unravel the clues if they are to save them. The killer, though, is aware of their efforts
and does what he can to disrupt their investigation. Sayer wonders who is the killer and how does
he know what they have learned. If Sayer
is to rescue the woman and her daughter before it is too late, she will have to
get help from an unlikely source.
Buried by Ellison Cooper is an intense and gritty
mystery. It is the second novel in the Agent Sayer Altair series. If you have not read Caged, you
will not be lost. The author provides
background information on Sayer Altair and a summary of what occurred in
Caged. I believe, though, that it would
be a better reading experience if the series is read in order. Sayer Altair is an FBI neuroscientist who
studies serial killers’ brains when not in the field. She has been benched after what happened in
Caged, and this new case is her first time back in the field. Max Cho is enjoying a day off hiking when
Kana alerts to the presence of a cadaver.
A wrong step has Max falling into a cavern full of skeletons. Sayer along with forensic anthropologist,
Dana Wilbanks find two fresh victims after a harrowing encounter. There is plenty of action in Buried as Sayer
and the team search for the killer who recently kidnapped a woman and her
little girl. The authors vivid
descriptions allowed me to visualize the grisly scene Max found in that cave. It was interesting to see things from Sayer’s
perspective. I liked that the mystery
was complex with one exception. There
are a number of victims over two decades.
The one downfall of Buried is that I could solve the whodunit before I
was a quarter of a way through the book.
I prefer a mystery that scatters the clues throughout the book with
surprising twists, so I am kept guessing.
Sayer is still investigating the death of her fiancé, Jake. She has a feeling that what is in the case
file is not the true story. Plus, there
still might be repercussions from the case in Caged. Buried does contain graphic violence and foul
language (these two things seem to par for the course with chilling crime
novels). Buried is a psychological
thriller with curious clues, a variety of victims, irksome incidents, a
pathological predator, and colossal changes.
Buried can be obtained here* (can also get a sample to check it out for yourself). Caged is the first novel in An Agent Sayer Altair series. Thank you for joining me today. Tomorrow I am featuring A Field Guide to Homicide by Lynn Cahoon. It is the sixth book in A Cat Latimer Mystery series. May you have a fulfilling day. Take care and Happy Reading!
Kris
The Avid Reader
*This
post contains affiliate links.
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