Killer Instinct (The Naturals, #2)

by Jennifer Lynns Barnes

Before I dive deep into my thoughts and opinions on the second book, Killer Instinct, from The Natural series written by Jennifer Lynns Barnes; I recommend checking out my book of the first book here →

Miss Barnes has done it again….with her second installment of the Natural series we get a deeper look at some of our resident, and favorite Naturals (Cassie, Michael, Dean, and Sloane), With the introduction of a new FBI Agent, Agent Sterling, our team of young naturals are faced with another active serial killer that they’re rushing to figure out and stop before more lives are lost.

Similar to the first book, Barnes wastes no time getting to the real meat and potatoes of the situation as we continue on a new “Who Done It?” mystery, this time set across a random college, Colonial University. Still reeling from the shocking reveal from the first novel, our resident profiler, Cass is dealing with the trauma of her personal life, while she continues to hone her ability to enter the mind of serial killers and profile them.

The second book essentially picks up right where we left off from the debut novel and Cass is borderline obsessed with solving cases and saving lives, often putting her life on the line when its not necessary. While this makes her great at her job, it does make her a liability in the eyes of her handlers, aka, The FBI. As Barnes sets the scene for our chaotic, unpredictable UNSUB for this book, Cass and co battle the limitations of their program and race to catch the killer before more bodies are left in their wake.

The new UNSUB sparks trauma and stress within the group as they believe to be a copycat serial killer copying the work of our second resident profiler’s dad, Dean. Re-opening old wounds, and facing down past demons our Naturals play a losing game against the new UNSUB and Dean’s dad who seems too involved in current events for somebody currently in maximum prison.

Racing against the clock, the naturals must stop and apprehend our latest UNSUB, while simultaneously figuring out what’s truth and what’s a lie as they navigate the horrific mind of Dean’s dad, a prolific serial killer and all around sociopath. With this case being so personal and on the nose just after the last UNSUB being closely tied to Cass’ mothers case, our team is in a spiral as they have personal stakes tied to solving this case, especially with the addition of Agent Sterling who seems more willing to shut down the entire operation rather than utilize the skillset of the Naturals’ killer instincts to catch our latest UNSUB.

I really like this series as a whole and I’m already half way done with the third book in this series. I can’t wait to see how everything unfolds and really get a deeper look into each character and what drove them to the Naturals Program.

4/5 stars

xoxo,

fablouis