The Instinct Series

James Patterson and Howard Roughan have gifted us with yet another fantastic suspenseful thriller. The Instinct series includes; Instinct (previously published as Murder Games in 2017), Killer Instinct, and the upcoming Steal.

This series also brought us the adaptation of Murder Games, two seasons of ‘INSTIИCT’. A police procedural drama television series that premiered on CBS, March 18, 2018.

This series will likely be a tough one to put down. It’s loaded with suspense and surprising twists and turns. It also includes the short fast-paced chapters that we have come to expect from James Patterson. The Instinct series is right up there with the Alex Cross Series in my eyes. The protagonists are extremely amiable and I hope we see a continuation of this series.

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1. Instinct (2018)

Dr. Dylan Reinhart is a thirty-four-year-old Professor of Psychology who literally wrote the book on criminal behavior. He teaches Abnormal Behavioral Analysis at Yale. Dylan met Tracy McKay fifteen years ago at college. They have been married for four years now and are desperately trying to adopt.

Professor Reinhart was shocked when NYPD Detective, Elizabeth Needham burst into his lecture hall and interrupted with a warning. “I’m pretty sure someone wants to kill you!”

They later met at a local coffee shop and there Elizabeth informed Dylan that Allen Grimes (a writer for the New York Gazette) had received an anonymous package two days earlier.

The King of Clubs

Of course, that didn’t exactly sound like a crime nor did it explain who wanted to kill him. However, Elizabeth also informed Dylan that his book WAS the package and it came with a bookmark, a King of Clubs playing card to be exact. The playing card had a blotch of blood on the back. It was tested and found to be AB positive which is extremely rare. So rare in fact, that only around one percent of the population has it.

Even more, Dylan’s author photo on the back of his book had the eyes cut out and the rest of his face had been cut to shreds. There was also a note on the forehead that read Dead Wrong. Dead had been underlined in red.

Elizabeth also pulled out a photo of a brutal crime scene. Jared Louden, in a pool of his own AB positive blood, stabbed to death six days earlier. There had been no other unsolved murder cases since.

Elizabeth and Dylan team up to solve the case, The case that continues to reveal new victims along with, yes, you guessed it, new playing cards. The serial killer, named ‘The Dealer’ uses playing cards to point to the next victim and for reasons unknown, seems to be highly obsessed with Dr. Reinhart.

2. Killer Instinct (2019)

Dylan remembered that Tracy and their daughter Annabelle were heading to the Disney store in Times Square that day. He was desperately trying to make contact with Tracy after receiving the devastating news.

New York City had been attacked.  It was the worst attack on U.S soil since 9/11. IED’s destroyed buildings, drones dropped bombs over Times Square, and bodies were everywhere. New York was literally, a war zone.

Coincidentally, An Iranian nuclear physicist (Professor Jahan Darvish) was found dead in his Manhattan hotel suite the night before his speech at the nuclear symposium. It seems that this may somehow be connected to the attacks in New York.

Detective Elizabeth Needham is back and once again teaming up with Dr. Dylan Reinhart to bring down the sociopath behind the terrorism and prevent another attack. This time there is no book. They must get help from other officials and use all of their resources to end the terror.

Elizabeth herself becomes a prime target after a selfless act of heroism brings a great deal of attention her way. Additionally, a name on the casualty list threatens Dylan’s secret past which may be in danger of being exposed and put his family in harm’s way.

The terrorists are plotting another attack on an unknown target in New York and this “Sherlock and Watson’ like duo must race against time in order to save New York.

3. Steal (2022)

Imagine everyone’s surprise when Carter von Oehson, a sophomore in Dr. Dylan Reinhart’s Abnormal Psychology class, posts on Instagram that he plans to kill himself. 24 hours later and still no one has seen him.

Release the hounds. A massive search ensues. But when Carter’s sailboat rolls in with the tide without him or anyone else on it, the worst seems to be confirmed. He really did it… Or did he?

The one person convinced he’s still alive is his father, Mathias von Oehson, founder and CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund. But what Mathias knows and how he knows it would ultimately reveal a secret so damaging that it would be as if he were committing suicide himself. There’s no way he can go to the police. But there’s still someone he can turn to.

Dylan now finds himself wrapped up in multi-million-dollar secrets and danger and it’s going to take every bit of his wit, and the brilliant and headstrong NYPD Detective, Elizabeth Needham, to stay ahead of both his enemy… and his employer.

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Happy Reading!

I hope you get the chance to read this series, if you do, please come back to share your thoughts. You may also like the NYPD Red series. Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to Alex Cross Addict today!