Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

This is a great second novel to series that will definitely have you coming back for more, although it is important to read these books in order. The book, like the first, is Criminal Minds for teens.

The Naturals program is a group of five extraordinary teens who help solve cold cases. The narrator Cassie is a profiler, as is Dean. There's also Sloane who is amazing with numbers and facts, Lia who can detect lies, and Michael who reads emotions. Together they work to solve cases that the FBI hasn't cracked and only cold cases because this program is a bit hush-hush and you can't have teens involved in active cases. But when the latest killer seems to be a copy of the murders Dean's father committed, it's impossible for the teens to take a backseat on this case. Even with the threat of someone shutting down the program, they break and bend the rules to help a friend and solve the case before some else dies. 

I know a number of people who hear "Young Adult" and don't want to give a book another shot. They think that given the teen audience, the books aren't as developed or might come off as superficial - they just don't have the depth that an adult book would have. While I have seen that in some books, that does not happen in this novel. I felt like this book had a great balance of teen connection with enjoyable and quirky teen characters, but it has the depth and development and complexities of an adult murder mystery. You feel for the characters, there are twists and turns with the story, and it is an overall enjoyable ride. Just make sure you read the first book first. Things that happen in the first book are brought up throughout this novel, so it is important to have that background knowledge. Sure there are enough references to get you through if you didn't read it, but it would be best to start this series at the beginning. 

I really enjoyed this novel and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good murder mystery. It's not just blood and guts and whodunit. This novel does a great job getting into the mind of the murder and characters. Definitely pick this book up.
MMK

Very Bad Things by Susan McBride

Katie is plagued by nightmares that she swears are not just in her head, that the person calling her name and leaving behind roses is real, but she doesn't have much proof, even though she finds a rose left by her backpack. Regardless of her dreams, a rumor has begun that her boyfriend Mark has cheated on her, and that same day, she receives a package containing something important to the girl he cheated with. Now the girl's believed missing and he's the prime suspect. Katie doesn't know if she can believe in his innocence, not when he can't remember anything about the night he was with this mystery girl. It doesn't help that Katie's best friend has something against Mark and seems determined to prove his guilt, although she claims it's for Katie's own good. Is Mark innocent, even though he claims some guy drugged him, or is there something else going on?

This book is a quick read. For the most part it is a steady mystery with characters who are hiding things. There are three different narrators in this novel - Katie, Mark, and Tessa - although I don't know that switching the narrator adds anything to the novel. They didn't really seem distinct enough to make it necessary. The book is only 225 pages long, so it's a decent mystery with a few twists. The characters probably could have used a little bit more development, but for the limited pages, it's not bad. 

If you enjoy mysteries and are looking for a book you can read in a day or two that is engaging, this is worth picking up.
MMK

Hysteria by Megan Miranda

Hysteria - panic, uncontrollable fear.  For Mallory, who had stabbed a young man to death, possibly to save herself, this means running anytime memories or memories of sounds associated with that fateful night come back.  Readers are just as confused as Mallory by her fleeting memory bits.  I was confused all the way to the very last 25 pages.  I think this was supposed to be a nail biter but I was mostly just confused.  Its easy enough to read and one feels compelled to keep going just to see if everything is explained.  It is, eventually.  Mallory is sent off to the same boarding school her father and grandmother had attended when the mother and brother of the young man who died begin to stalk her.  At the school she meets up with Reid, son of her father's best buddy.  She had met him years earlier and the memories return.  They do hit it off ok.  She also meets Jason, Krista, Taryn, Bree.  Something isn't quite right among the group.  There are secrets being held and lies being told.  Jason and Krista are particularly weirding out Mallory.  Then it happens again, another murder.  Mallory wakes up covered in blood, Jason stabbed to death on her dorm room floor.  This time she is sure she has had no part in the murder.  She was framed.  She is not allowed to go home while the murder investigation is going on so ends up in a motel near enough to campus for Mallory to run over there.  She does this several times, seemingly compelled to get the truth of both killings.  Her best bud from home, Colleen, is always there for her.  So it is that Colleen comes from home to visit at the motel.  Colleen gets involved with the attempt to figure out the truth of things and is nearly killed in the process.  This leads to those final 25 pages or so.  This is only an ok story but teens looking for a mystery that's a quick read may enjoy it. 
JDW 4/9/14

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

This novel creates what could best be described as a young adult version of the hit show Criminal Minds. As the first book in what will hopefully be a series, it not only sets the stage for all of the characters, but throws them into a captivating murder mystery that tests all of their talents.

Cassie has the ability to profile people - she can spend a few minutes with a person and figure out their inner workings. While she doesn't advertize her abilities, it catches the attention of people that can benefit from what she does - the FBI. Special Agent Briggs runs a special group of "agents" who are teens with special abilities like Cassie known as the "Naturals." Michael and Lia are good at reading emotions with Lia specializing in lies. Sloane knows numbers and statistics while Dean is a profiler like Cassie. Together they go through cold cases, hoping to pick up things the FBI missed. While Cassie brought into the group and learning her way, Briggs and another agent, Locke, pick up an active serial killer case. It's a tough one that has them stumped, which peaks the interest of the teens who think they can help. As Cassie looks over the current case, she is eerily reminded of her mother's murder, which she is convinced is connected to this murderer. The killer then starts targeting Cassie. Can she help solve this mystery or will she become the killer's next victim?

Since this is what I assume to be the beginning of a series, a good portion of the book sets up the backgrounds of the characters and gets Cassie acquainted with the program. In no way does this slow the story down because everyone is interesting. Of course there is also the love triangle between Cassie, Michael, and Dean - all of whom have complicated histories that make them complex characters. In terms of the mystery, it is intriguing how the characters get into the mind of the UNSUB to figure out who did it. A nice twist at the end heightens the drama, creating a captivating story. This book, though, is as much about the characters as it is the mystery. It's a quick read that pulls you in and makes you not want to put it down.

This is an enjoyable book that is very character driven, but still a great mystery. I look forward to the next case.
MMK

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

James Patterson is adding to his young adult repertoire with a new series about a teen detective. I was excited about this series because I enjoy an adult series that he also writes with Maxine Paetro, although I was somewhat disappointed in this novel.

Tandy Angel is a unique person who is often times described as robotic given her lack of emotions and extreme smarts. Her parents have just been murdered in their locked penthouse, which makes everyone in the apartment a suspect, including Tandy, her two brothers, and her mother's assistant. She decides that it is up to her to determine who killed her parents, even if the truth is that she's responsible. As her investigation gets underway - she's not shy about accusing anyone - she begins to learn shocking truths about her parents and what they had planned for their children.

To say this family is strange would be an understatement. When I first started the novel I thought that Tandy has Asperger Sydrome, but soon it became clear that her behavior was a product of her parents' creating. A number of discoveries uncover a deep plot around her parents that is both intriguing and disturbing. This book is clearly the start of a series as there are a lot of questions left unanswered. In some ways that's good, but in other ways it's very frustrating. Tandy - the narrator - leaves a lot of holes in her past, some of them eventually being revealed, but there were a lot of situations where it became "that's a story for another time" and it became annoying. The narrator directly communicates with the reader and at times felt awkward and ultimately left me on the fence about this novel.

The story itself is a good story, especially because you don't have any clear suspects or even clues, so it can be anyone and that keeps you guessing. However, I'd personally rather keep the guessing to the mystery rather than guessing about the character who constantly reveals stuff about herself but in tiny doses. True, part of that is her character and how even she has holes about her past, but sometimes you just want answers. There is definitely enough questions to warrant someone picking up the next book to hopefully get closure.
MMK

Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison

Lo has a serious obsessive/compulsive disorder which makes her an outsider, mostly at school and very often embarrassed and even immobilized by her rituals. They come in multiples of 3 with 27 being perfect. They include, tapping, repeating words and collecting "junk" in sets and rearranging them looking for the exact right order. Her compulsions apparently went into overdrive when the family lost her older brother. Lo is in AP classes and one boy is interested in her though she can't understand why. One of the popular girls also shows interest but possibly for Lo's smarts rather than Lo the person.
One way Lo spends her time is riding the bus, taking different stops each time, always some multiple of three. So it is that she stops at Neverland, a very run down area with strip joints and homeless "cities". She is considering where to look for more stuff to collect when shots ring out. She runs in terror and gets lost. A girl carrying onions to her mother's restaurant gets her back to the bus station. The following morning, Lo discovers that a girl, Sapphire, was gunned down just where she was standing. The news carried a description of several of her objects known to be missing and of her love of blue lipstick. The next time Lo goes out shopping for her collection its to a flea market where she discovers the objects described in the news, including a necklace that she buys and puts on and a metal butterfly. Lo is compelled to find out what happened to Sapphire, returning again and again to Neverland. She meets a boy known as Flynt there apparently a throw away kid who she cannot quite trust. She meets exotic dancers who sort of knew Sapphire and considers taking a job as a dancer in the same place as Sapphire. She meets a scary man who she runs from. And, she starts getting weird warnings, a dead cat on her door step, signs on her locker for instance. Yet, she cannot stop herself from searching for what happened to Sapphire. There are other murders. Lo tries to tell the cops what she suspects but they say Sapphire's case is closed. One cop believes differently. In the end Lo is nearly killed, learns about true love and about her brother who is gone. The obsessive stuff gets tiring to me but maybe thats the point. The mystery, well I suspected correctly where it was going but that doesn't mean everyone will and it is quite complex. Lo and Flynt are fairly complex characters but no others are. This is an ok story. JDW

Kill You Last By:Todd Strasser

Three girls have gone missing. All have connections to the same photography studio/modelling agency. This novel has all readers guessing right to the end, who murdered the girls. This novel has many possibilities of a plot that are very interesting. Shelby's Dad started a model agency in Soundview but business was not flourishing. Shelby, a teen in High School is shocked that her Dad is a principal suspect with the police regarding the missing models. But, she is also aware that he has looked at some of her girl friends in weird ways, made creepy statements and asked inappropriate questions about them. Then the police questioned Gabriel, who is the assistant of Shelby's Dad at Soundview. Gabriel had even dated some of the models, but did no harm to them. In a scam run by Shelby's Dad and his office manager, Janet girls were picked out at shopping malls and offered a chance to become models then charged more money than they should have for their photo shoots, and did not use the girls. In fact, the Dad would date girls who wanted to be models. Shelby's Mother had mental problems, and caught her husband alone with a model. This put her in a rage, and she also hit with a baseball bat for no reason. Shelby's Mom is a suspect too. Then there are the mysterious threatening e-mail messages and is Whit really all that he says he is, the way he keeps popping up unexpectedly.
The novel was fascinating, and I enjoyed the novel.
LRD /12/28/11