A teen girl version of Dexter meets the high stakes danger and mystery of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in this riveting debut. Lane is a typical teenager. Loving family. Good grades. After-school job at the local animal hospital. Martial arts enthusiast. But her secret obsession is studying serial killers. She understands them, knows what makes them tick. Why? Because she might be one herself. Lane channels her dark impulses by hunting criminals and delivering justice when the law fails. The vigilantism stops shy of murder, but with each visceral rush, the line of self-control blurs. And when a young preschool teacher goes missing—and returns in pieces—Lane gets a little too excited about tracking down “the Decapitator,” the vicious serial murderer who has come to her hometown. As she gets dangerously caught up in a web of lies about her own past, Lane realizes she is no longer invisible or safe. Especially after the Decapitator contacts her directly. Now she needs to use her unique talents to find the true killer’s identity before she—or someone she loves—becomes the next victim… Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Crimespree Magazine and S. E. Green, Author of Killer Instinct Q : What was the inspiration for your protagonist, Lane? A : Believe it or not, I am my own inspiration for Lane. Though I don’t act like Lane, I do tend to think like her. Very black and white. Right and wrong. Wanting justice for those who deserve it. Eye for an eye. I guess you can say I live vicariously through Lane. Everyone does have a dark side. Q : Lane has been compared to a young Dexter. How would you respond to this? A : I am big fan of shows like Hannibal, The Following, and Dexter. So when I decided to write a new series, the serial killer theme was a natural fit for me. Yes, many people are calling my series Dexter for teens, and I can totally understand that. Lane does share similarities with Hannibal, Dexter, and Joe from The Following. Q : Lane is a complicated character. Was it hard to write a person who is so emotionless? A : Through no fault of her own, Lane is most definitely a complicated character. I found her a very easy one to write, though. As a writer it is important to know your strengths and your weaknesses. Lane is all about my strengths. The true challenge for me is to one day write a book that tests all my weaknesses. I cringe just thinking about it. Q : Are there any plans for this to become a series? A : Yes! The sequel, Killer Within, comes out in May 2015. Q : What made you decide to take Lane down the vigilante route instead of killing the “bad guys” she stalks? A : Lane does walk a fine line. She wants to right the wrongs, but her conscience won’t let her take it beyond a certain point. She can’t and won’t justify making someone pay for anything other than what they have done. For example, she targets a rapist, has every chance to kill him, but decides to handle him in a different manner. . . . Gr 12 Up—Lane is an apparently normal teen with an abnormal obsession—hunting down criminals that have evaded justice and making them accountable for their crimes. When a brutal serial killer strikes close to home, the 17-year-old knows she is the one to catch "The Decapitator." But what begins as a hobby quickly turns into a sinister game of cat-and-mouse, and Lane is drawn into a deadly web of family secrets that threatens everything she holds true. The teen is unappealingly antisocial, and her first-person narrative sounds forced in its attempt to be relatable. The story suffers from a plot that moves from one unbelievable event to the next in a series of disconnected vignettes, while erroneous details and awkward encounters between characters litter the pages. Sexual situations, including descriptions of rape and kinky sex, are more appropriate for an adult thriller. The end result is a disjointed story that stretches readers' suspension of disbelief too far. With so many great edge-of-your-seat thrillers to choose from, such as Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers (Little, Brown, 2012), it is easy to leave Killer Instinct off the list.—Sarah Lorraine, Nazareth Academy, LaGrange Park , IL With a mom and stepdad both in the FBI, it’s not surprising that 17-year-old Lane is interested in criminal minds. What’s surprising is how much she is interested. Enough, in fact, to exorcize her own dark urges upon those that, to her mind, deserve it. Rapists, sex-slave abductors, and animal torturers alike feel her wrath as she dons a ski mask, incapacitates them, and tortures them. It’s only annoying that the press has mistaken her for a heroic vigilante. One serial killer, however, has her number: the Decapitator, who has been chopping the head off a new woman every September for 14 years. He begins sending Lane private messages, which lead her to believe that they are somehow linked. The mystery: how? Green throws in enough side characters to keep the red herrings effective, but readers will be most fa