Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has a gift for profiling people. Her talent has landed her a spot in an elite FBI program for teens with innate crime-solving abilities, and into some harrowing situations. After barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother’s murder, Cassie hopes she and the rest of the team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance.

But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean’s incarcerated father—a man he’d do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer’s psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer’s brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good?

Book two of The Naturals and we come back still a little shaken by the events of last book, especially the betrayal of Agent Locke. There is a new handler and a new case focused on Dean's mass murdering father - understandably, emotions run a little high.

Cassie and the team have the lovely task of getting into the old cases and this new one, to try and decipher the killer's motivation and if/how much Dean's father is involved. It is always super creepy trying to get into the head of a killer, especially this one, but I've got that morbid curiosity necessary to love it. It was also really interesting psychology with this killer, the vying for attention. And of course I had several guesses throughout the book and only one was nearly correct!

The other thing is the interaction between the team, which is always hilariously awkward. They all can get into each other's heads, which makes secret crushes and white lies basically non-existent. Plus Cassie is a great heroine; she is protective of the people she cares about, maybe a little reckless, caught in a love triangle that doesn't annoy me. Dean and Michael take things up a notch with Cassie and for once, this love triangle actually worked, partly because the boys are so different, partly because Cassie truly feels for both of them. 

There were a lot more hidden truths, more sudden twists than the first one; it was exciting and breath taking and damn creepy. A fantastic sequel that set up great things for book three.

Published 6th November 2014 by Quercus.