Caged
Ellison Cooper
Minotaur, July 2018
Kindle $13.99  Trade paper $25.49
368 pages

Caged is a gripping thriller debut for fans of Kathy Reichs, Thomas Harris, and Patricia Cornwell.

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’d been slowly starved to death while held captive in a cage, Altair is called in to lead the investigation. When the victim is identified as the daughter of a high profile senator, Altair 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, Altair 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.

Ellison Cooper has a Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA, with a background in archaeology, cultural neuroscience, ancient religion, colonialism, and human rights. She has conducted fieldwork in Central America, West Africa, Micronesia, and Western Europe and worked as a murder investigator in Washington DC.  She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and son.