7/15/19

Review: Buried by Ellison Cooper

Format: Hardcover
Pub Date: July 16, 2019
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Length: 356 pages
POV: 3rd, past
FTC: Review copy courtesy of the publisher

An FBI agent and his working dog stumble across a cavern filled with human bones. And discover that fresh bodies are also being deposited in the site.
SSA Sayer Altair gets assigned to the case which would ordinarily require a task force. Only one problem: the FBI is being investigated and resources are scarce. She cobbles together a small team to help her investigate the horrendous crime scene, while also worrying about the political fallout in Quantico that is, partially, her fault. 
The complicated subplots dilute what should be an utterly terrifying book. The chapters that deal with an anonymous, powerful psychopath and the shitshow at the FBI headquarters don't serve the plot or the book at all. 
This is clearly a mid-series book with threads that lead to the book before and presumably the next book in the series. If you like every thread neatly tied up, this book will annoy you to no end. I actually liked the various subplots, some tied up and some left hanging. My main complaint was the flatness of the characters. I wanted to know more about them. Instead, they felt flat and didn't add much to the story. 
It's a decent book, but could have been excellent with tighter editing and character development. Recommended, but check it out from the library.
My Grade: C
The Blurb:
Senior Special Agent Sayer Altair studies the minds of psychopaths. But even she didn't expect to uncover a killer within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Rooting him out and exposing internal corruption got her a bullet wound and six months of desk duty. Now, she’s finally back in the field, called in when an off-duty FBI agent and his cadaver dog fall into a sinkhole filled with human bones. 
Found deep in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, the skeletal remains date back almost two decades, the same time a beloved local teen disappeared. The cold case quickly heats up when Sayer's team finds two fresh corpses among the bones. When a gruesome clue ties these new bodies to a woman recently kidnapped along with her young daughter, Sayer has to uncover the connection between the old bones and the new bodies before the mother and child become the next victims. 
But the killer is one step ahead, attacking her team and sabotaging their efforts. With Sayer's investigation compromised and unsure of who to trust, she receives unwanted help from Subject 037, one of the anonymous psychopaths she is currently studying. She has the chilling realization that he’s someone powerful in Washington D.C.―and he is not about to let a mundane serial killer jeopardize his own ominous agenda for Sayer…

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