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Mary Cage FBI Suspense Thriller
Far From Here
After 48 hours, the chances of finding a missing person diminish drastically, and FBI Agent Mary Cage and her task force race to find victims that others can’t—before they’re lost forever.
When a kidnapper traps victims in unusual ways, FBI Agent Mary Cage must find and stop him. Thrust into a harrowing race against time, can Mary decode his cryptic pattern and save the victims in time?
FAR FROM HERE (A Mary Cage FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1) is the debut novel in a new series by mystery and suspense author Taylor Stark.
An intense and gripping thriller featuring a complex and tormented female protagonist, the Mary Cage series provides a riveting mystery packed with suspense, surprise twists, and an exhilarating pace that will have you turning pages late into the night. Fans of Karin Slaughter, Lisa Regan, and Robert Dugoni are sure to fall in love.
Future books in the series are also available!
When a kidnapper traps victims in unusual ways, FBI Agent Mary Cage must find and stop him. Thrust into a harrowing race against time, can Mary decode his cryptic pattern and save the victims in time?
FAR FROM HERE (A Mary Cage FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1) is the debut novel in a new series by mystery and suspense author Taylor Stark.
An intense and gripping thriller featuring a complex and tormented female protagonist, the Mary Cage series provides a riveting mystery packed with suspense, surprise twists, and an exhilarating pace that will have you turning pages late into the night. Fans of Karin Slaughter, Lisa Regan, and Robert Dugoni are sure to fall in love.
Future books in the series are also available!
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 26, 2024
813 people are currently reading
535 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 16, 2024
I would have liked to rate this book higher but there were quite a few grammatical errors that pulled me out of the story. At one point it said Mark instead of Mary and I was like who is Mark?? How do I not know who this character is? It just pulled me away from the storyline. There also seems to be a bit of dialogue/storyline missing at a crucial juncture when Mary and Jake are interviewing one of the suspects about his alibi - around page 70ish. It’s like several paragraphs were accidentally deleted or something. I also wonder about the feasibility of having just 3 people on a task force like this. Mary barely got home before another call came through - in real life, that kind of schedule is unsustainable/unrealistic especially given the nature of their job.
I do like the storyline. I do like Mary, Jake, and Sam as a team and do have the next book in my wishlist to read.
I wish the author hadn’t used the word metronome so much. What a weird word to use to detail how time is ticking away. Using it once, I get for effect but using it over and over - strange. I know what it is because of piano lessons but I don’t know if a lot of people would even know what it is or what it does.
I do like the storyline. I do like Mary, Jake, and Sam as a team and do have the next book in my wishlist to read.
I wish the author hadn’t used the word metronome so much. What a weird word to use to detail how time is ticking away. Using it once, I get for effect but using it over and over - strange. I know what it is because of piano lessons but I don’t know if a lot of people would even know what it is or what it does.
November 22, 2024
This book felt more like an outline of a book than a real story.
June 24, 2024
Ok, it only JUST scraped over the line for a 2 Star!! Literally, it was the ending that saved it from being a 1 Star!
The basic premise of the book is good but honestly, the massive overuse of descriptive words just to describe a room, a house or someone's mood etc, was way too much!
Also if I see/read the word "tableau" one more time, im going to lose my mind! For a word thats hardly used, its used about 50 times and the book is only 200 pages.
As just mentioned, the book is only 200 pages but if all the totally pointless fluff of the descriptive words were dramatically reduced, it would be about 130 pages (give or take), a better book and make a fantastic novella!
The basic premise of the book is good but honestly, the massive overuse of descriptive words just to describe a room, a house or someone's mood etc, was way too much!
Also if I see/read the word "tableau" one more time, im going to lose my mind! For a word thats hardly used, its used about 50 times and the book is only 200 pages.
As just mentioned, the book is only 200 pages but if all the totally pointless fluff of the descriptive words were dramatically reduced, it would be about 130 pages (give or take), a better book and make a fantastic novella!
June 6, 2024
I enjoyed the story but could help but laugh at the overuse of "Weight". Mary Cage felt the weight of her responsibilities and other things so many times that I could help noticing it and then looking out for it. That said, I enjoyed the story and often carried on reading when I should have put the book down and slept
November 26, 2024
A new task force, created for investigating time-sensitive crimes, is being led by Agent Mary Cage. Those cases that go beyond the crucial 48-hour time period are now turned over to her team as they race to solve the crime and hopefully locate kidnap victims.
I found Mary difficult to like. Perhaps the author didn't have enough time to develop her personality since this is an introductory story. However, the rest of the story is wordy and full of similes and metaphors. I feel that more space should have been allotted to this crucial detail - in one instance, it took a number of pages for Mary to walk in the front door of her apartment, yet I still didn't get to know her. The book needs another round of editing, too. There were mistakes in names, identifications, and even grammatical errors.
I found Mary difficult to like. Perhaps the author didn't have enough time to develop her personality since this is an introductory story. However, the rest of the story is wordy and full of similes and metaphors. I feel that more space should have been allotted to this crucial detail - in one instance, it took a number of pages for Mary to walk in the front door of her apartment, yet I still didn't get to know her. The book needs another round of editing, too. There were mistakes in names, identifications, and even grammatical errors.
July 6, 2024
Far From Here (A Mary Cage FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1) by Taylor Stark.
This is a new to me author and I had high hopes for this book. The premise of this book and series sounds interesting; the FBI has decided to create a special Task-force of 3 (?)people. "This team will tackle missing person reports that hit the critical 49-hour mark—the window where every second can mean the difference between life and death." This task-force is made up of Special Agent Mary Cage who is haunted by her past, a former homicide detective now Special Agent Jake Martinez and "a convict in an orange jumpsuit a master of digital domains now tethered by a court ordered allegiance to the FBI" Sam Tucker. Their first case starts with one missing person and soon progresses into a race to catch a madman who is abducting and killing women.
The story telling is unusual in that the author is very detailed in describing settings and situations and uses obscure words in these descriptions, this took some getting used to and in my opinion hurts the flow of the story telling. I was also taken out of the story because of the random use of first name and last name of characters. At one point there is mention of Sam and the next couple of sentences mentions Tucker, then back to Sam I had to re-read this whole section as I was getting confused as to who this Tucker was as previously he was mentioned as Sam. I think this book would have worked better if the main characters were a team of Detectives attached to a major Police Department and instead of an FBI Task force, they are attached to a Major Crimes Unit. It got confusing to read the numerous times that these FBI Special Agents were referred to as Detectives and in my opinion they behaved more like Detectives than FBI Special Agents. Overall an OK read.
This is a new to me author and I had high hopes for this book. The premise of this book and series sounds interesting; the FBI has decided to create a special Task-force of 3 (?)people. "This team will tackle missing person reports that hit the critical 49-hour mark—the window where every second can mean the difference between life and death." This task-force is made up of Special Agent Mary Cage who is haunted by her past, a former homicide detective now Special Agent Jake Martinez and "a convict in an orange jumpsuit a master of digital domains now tethered by a court ordered allegiance to the FBI" Sam Tucker. Their first case starts with one missing person and soon progresses into a race to catch a madman who is abducting and killing women.
The story telling is unusual in that the author is very detailed in describing settings and situations and uses obscure words in these descriptions, this took some getting used to and in my opinion hurts the flow of the story telling. I was also taken out of the story because of the random use of first name and last name of characters. At one point there is mention of Sam and the next couple of sentences mentions Tucker, then back to Sam I had to re-read this whole section as I was getting confused as to who this Tucker was as previously he was mentioned as Sam. I think this book would have worked better if the main characters were a team of Detectives attached to a major Police Department and instead of an FBI Task force, they are attached to a Major Crimes Unit. It got confusing to read the numerous times that these FBI Special Agents were referred to as Detectives and in my opinion they behaved more like Detectives than FBI Special Agents. Overall an OK read.
December 3, 2024
It started off promising (yes I know that sounds strange), young women who were working in flood preventions were found drowned in the nearby river. Was this their punishment in trying to prevent the floods, or was it that the murderer just wanted to drown them for his own amusement. I found that was never really resolved, because if someone had lost their entire family to a flood you would think that the best thing to do would be to support those working hard for flood prevention measures? Then there was the strange bit were Mary called another character by a name which wasn't his own. Who was ths mystery man or was Mary so exhausted by this point that she had forgotten his name?
The story had promise but I found I was losing the plot and beginning to not feel anger at young women being snuffed out for what. I know I know it's just a book, but each book should have a purpose, even if it's to move you to feel for families who have lost people in disastrous situations. Books shoud move you. It's just that this one didn't.
What I did notice was that Mary was by far the dominant character, again I know I know, but usually your secondary characters still play a large part in the story, in this book they were just sidelines or small footprints. Plus in my country murder enquiries certainly have more than 3 people in the team, in this case there was the dominant Mary, the sort of there Jake whose name I had actually forgotten at one point and the very much in the background convict Sam manning the techie bits. 3 for serial killings, really? Am not sure I would like to read any more in this series.
The story had promise but I found I was losing the plot and beginning to not feel anger at young women being snuffed out for what. I know I know it's just a book, but each book should have a purpose, even if it's to move you to feel for families who have lost people in disastrous situations. Books shoud move you. It's just that this one didn't.
What I did notice was that Mary was by far the dominant character, again I know I know, but usually your secondary characters still play a large part in the story, in this book they were just sidelines or small footprints. Plus in my country murder enquiries certainly have more than 3 people in the team, in this case there was the dominant Mary, the sort of there Jake whose name I had actually forgotten at one point and the very much in the background convict Sam manning the techie bits. 3 for serial killings, really? Am not sure I would like to read any more in this series.
January 24, 2025
Most of these books follow the same formula and you have to focus on whether or not the storyline grips you or not. Some of them are so boring I DNF pretty quickly and others grip you from the start. I actually thought about DNFing this book pretty early on but I decided to persist and I am glad that I did because I ended up thoroughly enjoying this book.
As many of the books like this are, this one did have the vibe of a lifetime movie, which I do not mind as I usually use these books on a cosy Sunday afternoon exactly like I do with lifetime movies. Not really anything significant in the story but it does grip you while its there.
Usually give these type of books an even 3 stars but added an extra star to this one as I enjoyed it a lot more than usual.
If you're looking for a cosy, gripping murder mystery read then I highly recommend this book and the others in the Mary Cage series
As many of the books like this are, this one did have the vibe of a lifetime movie, which I do not mind as I usually use these books on a cosy Sunday afternoon exactly like I do with lifetime movies. Not really anything significant in the story but it does grip you while its there.
Usually give these type of books an even 3 stars but added an extra star to this one as I enjoyed it a lot more than usual.
If you're looking for a cosy, gripping murder mystery read then I highly recommend this book and the others in the Mary Cage series
May 3, 2025
Pretty decent. My only real complaint is that there was quite a few grammar errors.
***authors try reading it out loud. Or better yet someone else read it out loud. Otherwise most people have a tendency to read what you meant instead of what is on the page. I have read many books that were edited by editing companies and found a lot of of these mistakes because you’re brain tries to AutoCorrect when it’s reading but if you have to actually say it out loud, you realize oh wait that’s not what it says on the paper.
***authors try reading it out loud. Or better yet someone else read it out loud. Otherwise most people have a tendency to read what you meant instead of what is on the page. I have read many books that were edited by editing companies and found a lot of of these mistakes because you’re brain tries to AutoCorrect when it’s reading but if you have to actually say it out loud, you realize oh wait that’s not what it says on the paper.
October 31, 2024
I quit after the prologue
Do authors have editors any more? By the time I finished the prologue, I knew I'd wasted enough time. The unnamed person who was "featured" here was so uninteresting that I could not imagine she made it into print. Her assailant took her phone and laptop from her desk but for what? Maybe I'd find out more if I had continued but it wasn't worth my effort.
Do authors have editors any more? By the time I finished the prologue, I knew I'd wasted enough time. The unnamed person who was "featured" here was so uninteresting that I could not imagine she made it into print. Her assailant took her phone and laptop from her desk but for what? Maybe I'd find out more if I had continued but it wasn't worth my effort.
November 15, 2024
This story tries to be exciting but it falls flat. There is a lot of repetition...I felt like I was watching a tv program where after the commercial the show repeats what happened just before the commercial. How many people can be kidnapped in exactly the same way and then killed and dumped and still make it interesting....it wasn't. There really isn't much to like about the characters either. Suffice to say I won't be reading any more of this series.
June 23, 2024
Far From Here
This is Probably the worst book I have ever read! Too many big words in too much disruption signifying nothing! What tripe! I only skimmed through it to find out who the perp was and even that was too much. Won't recommend to others and spare me any more of this long winded author!
This is Probably the worst book I have ever read! Too many big words in too much disruption signifying nothing! What tripe! I only skimmed through it to find out who the perp was and even that was too much. Won't recommend to others and spare me any more of this long winded author!
November 5, 2024
I was confused at the way the two main characters switched repeatedly between Detectives and Agents/Special Agents. They were FBI and so should have been Agents/Special Agents (I can't tell the difference). They introduced themselves by both titles.
Also, a 3 person taskforce sounds pretty small
Also, a 3 person taskforce sounds pretty small
March 26, 2025
Ok. Jumped around. Pretty middle of the road & no real ups or downs. "Vengeance is a B@*#,"... about sums up the plot.
It wasn't bad. It just wasn't something that stood out, or that I'd recommend if someone had to pay money. However, I am getting this free and think it's fine for a fill-in book. 👍
📚📚📚
It wasn't bad. It just wasn't something that stood out, or that I'd recommend if someone had to pay money. However, I am getting this free and think it's fine for a fill-in book. 👍
📚📚📚
November 5, 2025
This is a quick read involving Mary Cage, an FBI agent, who is assigned to a task force where time is of the essence. People have been missing for 49 hours, and if not found within the next 49 hours, they most likely will not be found alive. It has an interesting plot and iis good enough to keep me reading, But the characters have no depth. It was a superficial and unemotional read for me.
November 5, 2024
49 th HOUR! CRITICAL !
FBI create a Special Detail for finding missing persons. Responding day and night as horrible scenarios unfold.
Taunting by suspects create new plots and twist to many cases.
A real page turner!,
FBI create a Special Detail for finding missing persons. Responding day and night as horrible scenarios unfold.
Taunting by suspects create new plots and twist to many cases.
A real page turner!,
July 10, 2025
Really need to have a proof reader. So Many missing or misused words. Also, names spelled differently from place to place. Do agents never sleep? The entire book and never a moment away from the case
January 20, 2026
full of suspense fbi thriller
Taylor will have you guessing until the end. She doesn’t pull any punches but she has avoided blasphemy and swearing, which is a great find for those who retain integrity!
Taylor will have you guessing until the end. She doesn’t pull any punches but she has avoided blasphemy and swearing, which is a great find for those who retain integrity!
May 3, 2024
Amazing 😍 the mystery is unmatched and I couldn't stop reading it from the start all the way to the end.
Read
August 26, 2024Audiobook
October 26, 2024
Good story. Why can’t writers and editors notice that the FBI Agents were sometimes Agents and sometimes Detectives.
December 4, 2024
this book was insufferable. The descriptions? Wtf. The narration was rough to listen to. I only finished because I was waiting on other book holds. Nope. NOPE, nope, hated.
January 23, 2025
Pretty good. Seemed a bit long, fancy prose at times. But exciting chase to find who done it.
February 4, 2025
The writing was uninspired and the story predictable.
May 6, 2025
This book was way too drug out for my liking. I prefer a faster pace thrill.
There weren’t any wow, caught me off guard moments.
3/4 of the way through and I just about knew the ending.
There weren’t any wow, caught me off guard moments.
3/4 of the way through and I just about knew the ending.
May 18, 2025
Too descriptive for me. Long sentence seem to pad out the book. Story was good overall but I was bored by the wordy way of writing. Won’t be reading the others.
August 21, 2025
Can read this in one day. Not that great. No depth to the characters. Story flimsy.
December 26, 2025
Exciting fast paced
Totally different than other books I've read. Great storyline with a strong female protagonist. From floods to serial killer. Lots of suspects!
Totally different than other books I've read. Great storyline with a strong female protagonist. From floods to serial killer. Lots of suspects!
June 30, 2025
shockingly bad 😂 not even sure why I read the whole thing 😅
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews