Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Minotaur Books for gifting me a review copy of Cut to the Bone by Ellison Cooper. This is the third book in the Agent Sayer Altair series, which is one of my all-time favorite mystery / thriller series!

FBI neuroscientist, Sayer Altair, has been having a seriously rough time of things. She’s grieving the death of her fiancé, she almost lost her job, and it seems like the powers that be have it out for her. But she’s trying to rebuild her life, find some happiness and routine, and is continuing her research into the minds of psychopaths. But her life is once-again thrown upside down, when she’s called to investigate a girl’s body that’s been left inside a circle of animal figurines, along with a strange message written in blood.

The more Agent Altair digs into the case the darker it becomes and the more she realizes is at stake. Can she beat the clock to solve the mystery before the bodies start piling up?

I love how real and raw Sayer is, while also being fiercely loyal, and determined to do the right thing. There is also a cast of wonderful support characters in this book (many of whom were featured in previous books too). And if you also love history and symbology, then I have no doubt you’ll adore how it is woven into this story.

I can’t say too much without giving away some of the twists and turns in the book, so I’ll just encourage you to go read this book RIGHT NOW! You can grab your own copy from an indie bookseller via the button below, or read more about the previous book in the series, Buried here.

Synopsis:

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.