John Bryant

The National Average: Welcome to the Program John Bryant

Publisher Marketing: What if there was a government-run test that could determine whether or not you would become a psychopath? In 1948, Dr. Noel Everett was fresh out of graduate school with a master's degree in psychology. While at his job as a university researcher, he created a psychological test that could predict if someone would develop violent behavior. When a U. S. senator approached him with funding to further develop his test, Noel could never have predicted his work would evolve into the government-run juggernaut that it is today. Present day. Shortly after their 17th birthday, twins Marcus and Simone were carted off to the nationalized mental health evaluation known only as the Program. Anyone can be reported to the Program if they don't conform to the standard of normalcy, THE NATIONAL AVERAGE. And most people consider the twins anything but normal. As children, Simone always protected her brother, but she couldn't protect him from the test that was coming. Administered by FBI profilers, the month-long test is used to determine the fates of those reported to the Program. The options are few for those that are evaluated. It's either be enlisted into a special branch of the military, or worse... be sent to the Culling Program. Although their paths never cross, the lives of Noel in the post WWII era, and the twins in the present day are inevitably intertwined. Is it possible to predict whether or not someone will become a psychopath? Marcus and Simone are about to find out.