The Naturals

About The Naturals

Cassie Hobbes can read people the way most people read a book -- a natural profiling talent she's used mostly to hustle strangers at diners, until an FBI program recruits her alongside three other uncannily gifted teenagers to help solve cold cases. Working real, unsolved murders under the guidance of agents who see the teens as an unofficial, off-the-books resource, Cassie and the other Naturals are drawn into a serial killer's game that turns out to be aimed squarely at her, tangled up with the disappearance of her own mother years earlier.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes builds the series around a genuinely dark procedural hook -- teenagers profiling real killers -- layered with a will-they-won't-they love triangle and tight, cliffhanger-driven pacing that made it a natural fit for readers who wanted Criminal Minds with a YA cast. Each book adds a fresh case for the team to crack while advancing Cassie's personal mystery and the group's own tangled relationships, building toward a season-finale-style reveal in Bad Blood.

How to read this series

Read the four main novels in publication order: The Naturals, Killer Instinct, All In, Bad Blood. Each book's case is mostly self-contained, but Cassie's mother's disappearance and the team's relationships build continuously across all four.

Twelve is a short e-novella best read after Bad Blood, since it's a bonus case for the team once you already know the main cast. A fifth full novel, Dangerous Impulses, is scheduled for November 2026 and isn't out yet as of this writing.