Includes excerpt from the sequel, Killer instincts.

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 close infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie's help. Cassie moves across the country to train with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own, and who can be as puzzling as the unsolved homicides they have to work together to crack. Cassie's roommate, Sloane, is better with statistics than she is with people, and human lie detector Lia is as prickly as they come. Brooding Dean shares Cassie's gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm's length. Then there's sarcastic, privileged Michael, who has a knack for reading emotions and uses his skills to get inside Cassie's head - and under her skin. No one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes close to home, danger creeps closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a murderer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.