Cut to the bone / Ellison Cooper.

By:

Cooper, Ellison

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: New York : Minotaur Books, 2020Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 323 pages ; 25 cmISBN:

9781250173898

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

813/.6 23

Summary: "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 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."-- Provided by publisher.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Fiction	Adult Fiction	FIC COOPER	Available		36748002473538

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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 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.

"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 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."-- Provided by publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In Thriller Award finalist Cooper's exhilarating third outing for FBI agent and neuroscientist Sayer Altair (after 2019's Buried), Sayer heads up a challenging, high-profile investigation into a hijacked bus carrying 24 high schoolers returning from a STEM fair in Washington, D.C. When a 17-year-old girl's body is found on the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences, she's identified as one of the missing students. The ritualized staging of the corpse, carefully placed on the celestial map at the Einstein Memorial and surrounded by a circle of nine baboon figurines and a large axe, persuades Sayer it's the work of a serial killer. The suspense mounts as the tally of victims rise, and the remaining hostages on board the bus plot an escape. Meanwhile, fake witnesses, misinformation, and false identities undermine Sayer's hunt for the missing teens, and a shocking revelation tests her strength of character. The sharp, intricate story, full of chills and unexpected twists, will keep readers guessing to the end. Fans will hope to see a lot more of this smart, capable lead. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Booklist Review

In this third in the series (following Caged, 2018, and Buried, 2019), Sayer Altair, FBI agent and neurologist, is on a desperate search for a group of teenage girls who disappeared on a school trip. Then the body of one of the girls is found, followed by another, both posed at high-traffic Washington, DC, monuments with odd artifacts and messages referring to ancient Egyptian beliefs. Altair, a Black woman in a field where that is a rarity, must wrestle with having made missteps in tracking a killer who seems to be on the fast track to murdering the remaining girls in his grasp. Most effective here are the switches in perspective between the FBI investigation and the feisty captives, who are not sitting around waiting for their fate. Readers will find themselves devouring this genuinely gripping thriller in one (long) sitting as the clues become more esoteric and the twists mount. Cooper's series is ideal for fans of Patricia Cornwell and for readers who crave more mysteries with women of color in the lead.