Killer Instinct

A chilling copycat killer has the Naturals in his crosshairs in this exhilarating crime thriller from Jennifer Lynn Barnes, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Inheritance Games. 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? With her trademark wit, brilliant plotting, and twists that no one will see coming, Jennifer Lynn Barnes will keep readers on the edge of their seats (and looking over their shoulders) as they race through the pages of this thrilling novel. Praise for Killer Instinct "A welcome addition to the teen-sleuth genre." -Kirkus Reviews "Barnes knows how to keep the reader hooked, and fans will be eagerly reaching for this title and clamoring for the next in the series." -Booklist "This is a definite purchase for libraries...." -School Library Journal "Intricately plotted, this novel will keep teens guessing and leave readers eagerly waiting the next installment in The Naturals series." -VOYA Praise for The Naturals YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2014 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers, 2014 "The Naturals is Criminal Minds for the YA world, and I loved every page."-New York Times best-selling author Ally Carter * "[A] tightly paced suspense novel that will keep readers up until the wee hours to finish."-VOYA (starred review) "This savvy thriller grabs readers right away."-Kirkus Reviews "It's a stay-up-late-to-finish kind of book, and it doesn't disappoint."-Publishers Weekly "In this high-adrenaline series opener...even a psychic won't anticipate all the twists and turns."-Booklist

When seventeen-year-old Lane becomes involved in the search for a serial killer active in the Washington, D.C. area, she worries that her life-long fascination with such murderers has a very real and terrible cause.

A shockingly candid, hilarious account of how two young producers broke into the Hollywood studio system--and survived the shark-eat-shark insanity to become Hollywood players. Thousands of people dream about making it big in Hollywood, but almost all of them end up being eaten alive. When aspiring producer Jane Hamsher and her madman partner Don Murphy set up shop in Jane's dining room after graduating from film school, they were too naive to know that people like themselves--far removed from the Porsche-driving studio elite--should never succeed in the movie business. Then Jane and Don stumbled upon a script for a film written by a geeky filmmaker-wannabe named Quentin Tarantino; it was called "Natural Born Killers, and they liked it so much they optioned it for the bargain price of $10,000. But, suddenly, after "Reservoir Dogs turned Tarantino into an overnight sensation, he and every major studio in town decided they wanted control of the script, pitting Jane and Don up against some of the meanest, toughest players in Hollywood. This was only the beginning of their two-year roller-coaster ride through the ruthless world of studio pitbulls, idiotic film crew leeches, and unprecedented butt-kissing and back-stabbing. When Oliver Stone became hot to direct "NBK, Jane and Don could hardly believe their luck --but before they knew it, they found themselves enrolled in the "Oliver Stone School of Filmmaking," a maddening and mind-altering experience, even before the drugs, money, and fame. Throw Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, and a whole cast of outrageous characters into the picture and you've got not only the makings of a hit movie but a Hollywoodjoyride unlike any other. From the script meetings to the movie set to the marketing and distribution process, "Killer Instinct takes you behind the scenes and provides an insider's look at the "New Hollywood"--told by one who learned how to survive it the hard way. It exposes how deals are really struck and stars are picked, and how the balance of power in Hollywood now favors the Quentin Tarantinos of the world who can add the "indie" cachet to big-budget monsters. Fresh, witty, and irreverent, "Killer Instinct provides an unprecedented look inside this wild and irresistible industry.

Dr. Dylan Reinhart and Detective Elizabeth Needham reunite to stop the most sinister plot against New York City since 9/11. The murder of an Ivy League professor pulls Dr. Dylan Reinhart out of his ivory tower and onto the streets of New York, where he reunites with his old partner, Detective Elizabeth Needham. As the worst act of terror since 9/11 strikes the city, a name on the casualty list rocks Dylan's world. Is his secret past about to be brought to light? As the terrorist attack unfolds, Elizabeth Needham does something courageous that thrusts her into the media spotlight. She's a reluctant hero. And thanks to the attention, she also becomes a prime target for the ruthless murderer behind the attack. Dylan literally wrote the book on the psychology of murder, and he and Elizabeth have solved cases that have baffled conventional detectives. But the sociopath they're facing this time is the opposite of a textbook case. There's no time to study for the test he's about to give them. And if they fail, they die.

A historian of science examines key public debates about the fundamental nature of humans to ask why a polarized discourse about nature versus nurture became so entrenched in the popular sciences of animal and human behavior. Are humans innately aggressive or innately cooperative? In the 1960s, bestselling books enthralled American readers with the startling claim that humans possessed an instinct for violence inherited from primate ancestors. Critics responded that humans were inherently loving and altruistic. The resulting debateÑfiercely contested and highly publicÑleft a lasting impression on the popular science discourse surrounding what it means to be human. Killer Instinct traces how Konrad Lorenz, Robert Ardrey, and their followers drew on the sciences of animal behavior and paleoanthropology to argue that the aggression instinct drove human evolutionary progress. Their message, spread throughout popular media, brought pointed ripostes. Led by the anthropologist Ashley Montagu, opponents presented a rival vision of human nature, equally based in biological evidence, that humans possessed inborn drives toward love and cooperation. Over the course of the debate, however, each side accused the other of holding an extremist position: that behavior was either determined entirely by genes or shaped solely by environment. Nadine Weidman shows that what started as a dispute over the innate tendencies of animals and humans transformed into an opposition between nature and nurture. This polarized formulation proved powerful. When E. O. Wilson introduced his sociobiology in 1975, he tried to rise above the oppositional terms of the aggression debate. But the controversy over WilsonÕs workÑled by critics like the feminist biologist Ruth HubbardÑwas ultimately absorbed back into the nature-versus-nurture formulation. Killer Instinct explores what happens and what gets lost when polemics dominate discussions of the science of human nature.

Jason Steadman is a thirty-year-old sales executive living in Boston and working for an electronics giant, a competitor to Sony and Panasonic. He's a witty, charismatic guy who's well liked at the office, but he lacks the "killer instinct" necessary to move up the corporate ladder. To the chagrin of his ambitious wife, it looks as if his career has hit a ceiling. Jason's been sidelined. But all that will change one evening when Jason meets Kurt Semko, a former Special Forces officer just back from Iraq. Looking for a decent pitcher for the company softball team, Jason gets Kurt, who was once drafted by the majors, a job in Corporate Security. Soon, good things start to happen for Jason—and bad things start to happen to Jason's rivals. His career suddenly takes off. He's an overnight success. Only too late does Jason discover that his friend Kurt has been secretly paving his path to the top by the most "efficient"—and ruthless— means available. After all, as Kurt says, "Business is war, right?" But when Jason tries to put a stop to it, he finds that his new best friend has become the most dangerous enemy imaginable. And now it's far more than just his career that lies in the balance. A riveting tale of ambition, intrigue, and the price of success, Killer Instinct is Joseph Finder at his best. *San Francisco Chronicle ** Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Cold cases are about to get hot. Don’t miss this exhilarating crime thriller—perfect for fans of Criminal Minds and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder—from Jennifer Lynn Barnes, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Inheritance Games. Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But, it's not a skill that she's ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they've begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie. What Cassie doesn't realize is that there's more at risk than a few unsolved homicides-especially when she's sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive. Think The Mentalist meets Pretty Little Liars -- Jennifer Lynn Barnes's The Naturals is a gripping psychological thriller with killer appeal, a to-die-for romance and the bones of a gritty and compelling new series. Praise for The Naturals "The Naturals is Criminal Minds for the YA world, and I loved every page." -New York Times best-selling author Ally Carter * "[A] tightly paced suspense novel that will keep readers up until the wee hours to finish." -VOYA (starred review) "This savvy thriller grabs readers right away." -Kirkus Reviews "It's a stay-up-late-to-finish kind of book, and it doesn't disappoint." -Publishers Weekly "In this high-adrenaline series opener...even a psychic won't anticipate all the twists and turns." -Booklist

the Killer Instinct? Plain and simple, a developed killer instinct has always been the difference between success and failure throughout history. In his book entitled “The Killer Instinct” serial entrepreneur and author Omar Johnson reveals to you the various secrets of developing and mastering your Killer Instinct and using it to achieve anything that you want.Whether you want more success in business, sports, work, or your love life, this book will assist you by showing you the mindset that you need to achieve those goals. You will meet many people in your life who don't have your drive and ambition. They are fat, happy, and satisfied with what they have. They either lack ambition or they have always had a level of success that they find comfortable. They are not who this book is for. This book is for the hungry, the dissatisfied, and the ones like you who realize that there is something better to strive for.