This was a very good serial killer thriller. A police procedural but with lots of intense action. The main character was a very likable, strong and determined woman. Yeah, the red herring regarding the police profiler was pretty obvious. Even though I was suspicious, the final twist was still very satisfying. Looking forward to the next book by this author. The last paragraph opens up the direction for the next story and leaves you waiting for more.

Good solid suspense. Sayer Altair, neuroscientist and FBI agent extraordinaire, is hunting a truly terrifying serial killer. The killer traps girls in cages, makes them hallucinate and eventually leaves them to starve. But why? And why did the killer target a senator's daughter. As Sayer works against time to save the starving girls, she also has to face her own fears and sorrows. This was a real page turner and I certainly did not guess the identity of the killer until the final reveal. Fast-paced, enjoyable read.

I really enjoyed this book! I was intrigued from the blurb and was really invested in the book after reading a couple chapters .
FBI Agent Sayer is after a serial killer and her journey to catch the killer is filled with suspense, twists and lies. Caged was one of those books where you think you may know who did it, but Ellison throws a ball out of left field while you aren't looking. Even with some suspensions of all the characters, it still caught me off guard. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars only due to the abruptness of one of the main ending scenes. I'm greedy, I wanted more action and info. Will we get more in another book....I am hoping so!

I would recommend this to my books friends.

One of the best thrillers I've read in a long time! Ellison Cooper's Caged is a very well written FBI driven thriller with one hell of a lead detective. Sayer, the main detective, also studies serial killers brains (cue Mindhunter theme music), and is a take-no-shit-from-anyone kind of detective. Cooper's writing is direct and smart, and I appreciate that all of the "science" incorporated in the book was factual! Caged is dark and mysterious, and while is does go down some thriller/detective tropes, they're never over the top. Definitely recommend to any fans of Criminal Minds, Mindhunter, or any police procedural.

Caged ramps up tension in ways that will please fans of Silence of the Lambs and feats of discovery and deduction like those loved by fans of Patricia Cornwell.

The hero is FBI neuroscientist Sayer Altair, who is still reeling from the death of her fiance, but doesn't let that stop her from chasing down a serial killer while doing research on the brains of killers. The story turns on a scientific revelation which I won't reveal here, but as soon as I finished reading the book I did some research to see if it was true or if Ellison, an anthropologist with a background in cultural neuroscience, had made it up. I was shocked to discover that this bit of scientific know how was based in reality, which added a layer of dread and fear to my reading of the book.

The story also turns around myths in three different cultures that are remarkably similar: Egyptian, Ancient Greek, and Mayan (Cooper lived in tents and explored Mayan ruins for nine years). Campbell and Jung have taught us that mythic archetypes indicate an underlying commonality to the juman experience, a commonality that binds us together whether we like it or not. Cooper has used that to add a rich mythic layer to the serial killer genre. The books leaves us reflecting on how much our experience of death is determined by our understanding of death, all while keeping us turning the pages until we find out whodunnit and whydunnit.

Thank you very much to Minotaur Books for this ebook in exchange for an honest review! My favourite part about Caged is that Special Agent Sayer Altair works for the FBI and is a neuroscientist. She is doing research into serial killer brains when she is called in to investigate a creepy serial killer. I’ll give nothing away but I’d liken this book to the Unsub series. If you like those, you’ll probably like these. Nothing groundbreaking but a good police procedural with plenty of possible suspects and a decent cast of characters. Caged will be published July 10, 2018

Despite the brutal content, <i>Caged</i> is ultimately a forgettable book for me.

I expected psychological suspense, based on the description, but this book is a straight forward police procedural. Sayer, the lead character, is a neuroscientist, yet her part is mostly interchangeable with any cop character. The brain science touched on regarding the specific serial murder case is minimal. The research Sayer is privately working on reads like it was lifted off a pop culture social science book. In fact, the research she talks about is now fairly well known and is certainly no longer groundbreaking stuff. I was disappointed that Sayer's neuroscience background wasn't a stronger part of the story.

The pacing is slow. We investigate along with Sayer, and then we go to the team's daily meetings and rehash everything we've already learned. These scenes could have been condensed for better flow. I found myself skimming a lot.

Character development is weak. Sayer slowly comes alive but gives us mixed messages. She rides a motorcycle, does her own thing despite what people think, and is independent. Yet she's also overly dramatic and, at times, seems desperate for approval. She continually ignores her grandmother's calls for no clear reason, leading us to believe they have a strained relationship at best, but then we later see they have a strong and loving relationship. The mixed messages make it difficult to get an honest sense of Sayer's character. The other characters don't have standout personalities, but only fill their intended parts.

This book has a solid start and definitely grabbed my interest. But all too quickly the pace slowed and the characters didn't give me anything special. The graphic content with the killer felt almost gratuitous; a way to grab the reader when the plot and characters weren't doing enough. And, finally, the ending was far too overblown and implausible for me to buy into the story as a whole.

This book was awesome! I devoured it. The murders were very interesting. Nana aka Sophia McDuff was my favorite character. I really want to read the next book in this series.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.

This book isn't bad, it just isn't good. The writing could have used some polishing, the characters feel not very real, the plot is a bit interesting but not interesting enough to keep me engaged. It could have used a lot more "show not tell" imo. It does have some diversity to it, at least: the MC is a biracial woman of color. I do also want to warn potential readers that there is a trans character who is forced to come out due to circumstances beyond their control as part of the plot. It is a "twist" in a way and as a cis person, I cannot comment on the rep, but I felt a little uncomfortable about it.

I love any thriller that keeps me guessing. The author did just that! I was engaged the whole time and it didn't go over the top or had to suspend my disbelief.

CAGED by Ellison Cooper had me hooked from the very beginning. I don’t normally enjoy police procedurals, but this was difficult to put down. It follows an FBI agent, Sayer, who is also a neuroscientist specializing in the serial killer brain. When she is asked to lead a super creepy, high-profile murder investigation, she finds all aspects of her life (including her research project) become dangerously intertwined. This book has lots of great twists, a likable protagonist, plenty of interesting forensics and, of course, a diabolical serial killer villain. It reminded me of early James Patterson (Kiss the Girls) or John Sandford (Rules of Prey), before they sold out -- quite disturbing but compulsively readable.

Caged by Ellison Cooper is a police procedural thriller with a bit of a twist on the lead investigator. Sayer Altair is with the FBI and a neuroscientist that has been doing a study of serial killers or more specifically their brains and trying to find anomalies that would distinguish them from normal human brains.

When two patrol officers get a call to an abandoned residence to check out a call to 911 from young girl they find the home closed up tight. Neighbors say they haven’t seen anyone coming or going there and without a definite point of origin for the call they leave. Twelve days later a call comes in for a horrible smell from the same abandoned home. Not only do they find the body of a young woman but both officers get shot.

Sayer Altair gets the call to lead the investigation into the homicide of the girl when it looks as if she was left alone to starve to death in a cage. The victim is soon identified as the daughter of a senator bringing the case into the spotlight and with evidence leading them the wrong direction Sayer finds herself struggling to make sense of the case when another victim is in danger.

First I’ll say I’m a bit hit or miss with police procedurals, things need to line up just right to make me love them overall. Caged really started off a strong read and I thought I would fall in love with it but slowly along the way I found little things here and there that brought my rating down a bit with this one.

First, I liked the idea of Sayer being a neuroscientist but at times I don’t think i was used enough in the book to make it stand out. The characters in here didn’t really stand out much other than the detail about Sayer so I didn’t really fall in love with them. The author seemed to concentrate on making the investigation feel real and sometimes too many little details get a tad boring to me but on the flip side of that some of the things also didn’t feel believable.. say calling up the lab about a test and they run one while on the phone, er those things take time.

So as you can see I was a bit up and down with this story as I was going along. Then I’d say fairly early on for this type of read I saw right through and picked out the killer too. Now there were plenty of suspicions and suspects tossed in so perhaps it was just plain luck but I’d also would have been more excited to be wrong so in the end the book ended up a bit meh for me.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book is gripping, thrilling and oh so good from the beginning. It pulls you in and keeps you hooked from the first page. This is a great crime/police type book. 

In this book FBI neuroscientist Sayer works with the police force to solve a crime after the body of a girl is found in the basement of what appears to be an abandoned house. The girl appears to have been murdered, but by whom? The FBI and local police force work hard to try to uncover what happened, who is responsible, and why. They then face the question - are there more victims? Is this an isolated case or are they in search of a serial killer on the loose?

This book I found very interesting. It keeps your interest throughout, as you try to uncover the mystery of what exactly happened and who was responsible. I thought I figured out who the murderer was only to find out I was completely wrong. And the truth shocked me, did not expect that at all.

This is a great book that was a true pleasure to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Caged by Ellison Cooper is a mystery/thriller novel, and the first in the Sayer Altair series.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher St. Martin’s Press, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Synopsis:
FBI Special Agent Sayer Altair is a neuroscientist, who is still recovering from the death of her fiancé Jake. She is devoting her time to researching the brains of convicted serial killers to try and find a common link. She hopes to find something that may indicate that the same problem exists in all of them, and if found early enough, their predilections to murder may have been averted. She seems to have hit an impasse.

When the police find the emaciated body of the Senator’s missing daughter lying in a cage, Altair sets aside her research and leads her team in search of this murderer. When they realize another girl is about to suffer the same fate, they have a limited amount of time to find her. That means finding a connection to the two girls. Sayer starts to dig deep, but one dead end keeps leading to another, as she realizes they are being manipulated by the killer, who seems adept at creating and planting evidence. It’s difficult to know who to trust and what to believe. The killer may be closer than they think.

My Opinions:
This was a really good book, especially for a debut novel. I am not sure why, but I struggled at the beginning, and my only thought is that it must have been me. Because once I got going, I could hardly put it down. Cooper created very likable and believable characters in Sayer, Vik and Ezra, and the supporting cast (Nana and Tino in particular) were great additions. I love the fact that Sayer is a strong female with a science background. The book read smoothly as the plot developed and the suspense built. Twists abound. The writing is very good, with the right amount of gruesomeness to keep it real, and the dialogue felt right. It definitely kept me entertained.

For a debut novel, I was really impressed, and am looking forward to more. (When I asked, Ellison assured me that there would be more!)

Ellison Cooper's Caged is a well written police driven thriller with a mix of a strong female detective.

What I liked about Caged? I really liked how Sayer our main female detective had a strong background in Science. Sayer studies serial killers' brains and the general makeup of how it may appear more or less "normal"then what you would see in a non serial killer's brain. This was something I had never seen before in a crime/police procedural novel.

The story takes off with two police officers come across a mysterious crime scene, where Detective Sayer and Vik are called to the crime scene. Sayer finds the body of a women who happens to be the daughter of a strong senator. Sayer's case takes off from here and she wonders are there others that have been murdered/missing etc?

So.. some things that I had issues with... typical police procedural aspects to this one. Nothing unique about Sayer's team... I felt it was just different names but the same characters that you always see in police procedurals! I was expecting more of an original/unique set of characters and dialogue. I was a tad bit disappointed.

Also, little over half way there was a break in Sayer's case and it was just very unbelievable and little over the top for my taste. I was rolling my eyes big time...

I would recommend this one to those that have not dived too deep into the police/thriller procedural novels and are ok with dark details to the serial killer's crimes.

Overall, 3 stars for this one.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur books for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Published to GR: 6/13/18
Publication date: 7/10/18

A really good whodunit! Fast paced with lots of suspense. It kept me entertained from start to finish. I would love to read other books by this author.

I really liked this author, I want to read more from her. Sayer is a wonderful character, that I want many more books about.

Sayer is a very interesting character, as a FBI agent that specialized in Neuroscience she is involved in how Serial killer's brain are wired and what makes them different from "normal " people, in this story she gets assigned to a case that involves girls being abducted and kept in cages for a gruesome experiment that ivolves the connections between twins , I enjoyed the references to Greek and Egyptian mythology that helped Sayer to make a connections between the victims and the killer , I would have liked a little deeper exploration into the charactes and their interactions with each other, but overall I enjoyed this one and will be looking for a sequel, since the book ended with a bit of a cliffhanger or more as a opening into what happened to Sayer's fiancé Jake

I was doing well, enjoying “Caged” and guessing along with the agents who the killer might be and what could be done to save the next potential victim. Unfortunately, the one thing I hoped wouldn’t happen, happened.

The story is very good, and the cast of characters have enough separation of personalities to keep them from blending together. The main character, Sayer, has personal issues that wind into her life without overshadowing the action (which is a welcome change from many of the special agent/detective novels on the market). While the serial killer idea has been done, author Ellison Cooper adds a few twists that make this story her own.

What I suspected might happen to the plot direction suddenly became more reality than fear. Like all readers, I enjoy when the author can devise a twist that is totally unexpected yet still makes sense. In her attempt to fool the reader, Ms. Cooper has elevated this story to the fantastic (as in unreal) level, forcing me to accept a possibility that frays the last remaining strands of my belief structure. Could this story happen? Maybe…possibly…then again…

What kept me reading until the end (and why I will recommend this book) is that despite the plot twist, Ms. Cooper’s writing saves the story from becoming a crash-and-burn. All the pieces tie together neatly, justifying the killer’s identity and providing an ending that, while unrealistic, still appears logical. The author even drops clues along the way, daring us to guess (good luck to you, I wasn’t even close).

Bottom Line: “Caged” is an enjoyable, satisfactory read, a crime thriller that will wrap you up in its structure and force you to keep reading until the last page. Even with the issue I described above, it is impossible to give this book less than four stars.

I think Caged was one of the best Thrillers I’ve ever read. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I don’t even know where to begin with. The story starts with 2 police officers called into a building where someone reported a “bad smell”. They both knew something was wrong because they could smell the familiar scent of death leaking from the building. However, on the way to find out the dead body, one of the officers gets severy injured. There was a trap with a shotgun on the stairs. Later FBI Special Agent/neuroscientist Dr. Sayer Altair is assigned to lead this case because they found a young girl’s dead body in a big cage that is meant for circus bears. She has been captured and killed slowly by starvation and dehydration. They also find out there is another girl captured somewhere just like this dead girl, and Sayer knows unless they find her within few days, the girl would be dead of dehydration.

I really enjoyed so many elements of this story. But what I enjoyed the most was that the creepy experiments the killer have forced upon the victims. Experiments that involve ritualistic and religious components. I’m a big fan of Robert Langdon series. So if you like old religions, conspiracy, and murder with ritualistic elements, you would love this book as I did for sure. Not as grand as Langdon series though it was interesting enough to keep reading.

I also liked the neurological research Sayer was conducting on serial killers. Sayer as a Dr. suspects that all the serial killers’ brains must be different from the “normal” human’s brains. Like some parts of the brain is underdeveloped. She suggests if they can find out this brain differences in early age, they can prevent certain crimes to happen. I have actually read the real research conducted on serial killers and psychopaths. I really liked the author decided to use this interesting research in this book, and the research plays the very important role in the story as in how Sayer ends up connecting all the murder cases in the book. Thus, later figuring out the killer.

Bringing “bad guy” to stir the investigation was not unique but still always interesting to find out how he has done it. Well if he has… Besides that, there are other fun elements like man-made DNA, underground catacombs, psychopomps, and bloody package that was sent in the middle of the night. This book is a must-read for this Summer. I highly recommend it to any Mystery/Thriller lover, or anyone who wants little chills and excitement at the beach.