Head Cases by John McMahon
Narrated by Will Damron

When a killer targets a serial killer whose case FBI Agent Gardner Camden worked years ago, Camden takes the lead on this new case for the PAR (Patterns and Recognition) team. The thing is that this new victim, a serial killer that was supposed to have died in a fire years ago, shouldn't have been alive to have been murdered. Right on the heels of this murder is another murder and it's soon clear that whoever is killing these men now has an agenda and a message and they are not going to stop his murder spree.

The PAR team is made up of a wide range of specialized experts with Camden's analytical brain and eidetic memory making him seem to be a human computer of information and brain power. But along with his super brain power comes his inability to read people and social cues easily. The fact that Camden puts great effort in making up for this lack of social graces means that he usually will remember how he "should" act and is often able to cover blunders he might otherwise make in the course of everyday life and work. Despite not being like most other people in the social arena, Camden is a devoted son and father and he will do anything to protect his mother and daughter. It is actually his mother who has instilled the desire to understand who people are under their outer demeanor as she has always urged a sense of empathy in Camden that wouldn't have come naturally.

The rest of Camden's team have specific skills to go along with their overall ability to work the cases thrown their way. Each of them have some reason to have been sent to PAR, usually as a last ditch effort to stay employed with the FBI before being shoved out the door if PAR isn't a fit for them. They get left over cases, cold cases, cases that need a new way of looking at the evidence when what has been tried so far has finally stalled and is going nowhere.

Everything is seen from Camden's POV and I really liked experiencing the story from his viewpoint. We get all kinds of information, tidbits I would have never noticed but that are a part of Camden's mind taking in every little detail and recording it. You can feel his brain working and it's very understandable to me the way he processes information. I like hanging with this man who has to work so hard at the social part of life while other parts come so much easier for him. I can relate.

I've listened to Will Damron narrate at least ten books and he can be a reason I'll pick up an audiobook. He does his usual great job here and his voice, as Camden, will be in my head for the next week. Since I have both the audiobook and ebook, I was easily able to move from audiobook in the car to the ebook in a waiting room, always a bonus on days spent at a doctor's office.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for this ARC.

This book is complex and I loved it! It kept me guessing from the very beginning, and I enjoyed all of the characters. Gardner is leading a group of FBI agents who are tasked with finding a serial killer. Gardner is challenged in this role and we get to see how he evolves both at the FBI and in his personal life throughout the book. I'm excited at the possibility of a series with how this book ended.

4.25 stars!

This really made me feel like I was in the midst of a Criminal Minds episode and I absolutely loved it. There was just something so compulsively readable about this FBI case, with its puzzles and twists and turns, that I could not stop reading.

I would not recommend this for anyone that does not like police procedurals, but I think Gardner and the other members of the PAR made me so invested in the case. After finishing this book, I immediately went to my Libby app and downloaded John McMahon's other books because I really see him as a new favorite author. I hope this ends up becoming a new series because I would definitely read more about Gardner Camden and his team!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

4 stars for a fast paced mystery about a FBI crime solving unit called PAR(Patterns and Recognition). PAR is brought into a case when no one else can solve it. The narrator is a man named Gardner. The unit consists of Gardner, a mathematician, a weapons expert, a computer analyst, and their leader, a career agent. They are all quirky people, and more misfits than traditional clean cut FBI agents. But they are brilliant at solving crimes.
The case that they are assigned is one of a serial killer killing other serial killers. This killer is methodical, clever and vengeful. They do solve the case, but not before more deaths.
Warning: while there is not graphic violence in the present tense, some of the aftermath of the murders are very gruesome. One scene has them finding a refrigerator full of body parts in bags.
One quote, describing Cassie, PAR member:
"Cassie had changed intro black tights and a pink V-neck tee that bore a long chemical equation: C8H11NO2 + C10H12N2O + C43H66N12O12S2. It was was science geek shirt; the chemicals listed were commonly known as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.
Put together, the three were the formula for love."
This is a series starter.
One minor quibble: One of the incidents takes place at Big Thicket National Preserve, administered by the NPS(National Park Service). When Gardner calls for assistance from NPS, a woman identified as a "Park Warden" comes to help. The NPS has Park Rangers not Wardens. Canada's National Parks have Wardens. The US does have Game Wardens, who enforce hunting laws.

Pub Date Jan 28 2025
Thanks to Steve Erickson, St. Martin’s Publishing Group for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.

This book is dark and twisted in all the right ways. I really enjoyed going on the hunt for a serial killer killing serial killers. The team is unique and though the rest of the worlds might see them as screw ups, they have all the right skills to truly get into the head of a seriously twisted killer. Readers will be drawn in and get lost on this incredible hunt. I can’t wait to start getting it on people’s to be read lists.
Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

"Head Cases follows an enigmatic group of FBI agents as they hunt down a murderer seeking his own justice in this electrifying - and commercial - series debut.

FBI Agent Gardner Camden is an analytical genius with an affinity for puzzles. He also has a blind spot on the human side of investigations, a blindness that sometimes even includes people in his own life, like his beloved seven-year-old daughter Camila. Gardner and his squad of brilliant yet quirky agents make up the Patterns and Recognition (PAR) unit, the FBI's hidden edge, brought in for cases that no one else can solve.

When DNA links a murder victim to a serial killer long presumed dead, the team springs into action. A second victim establishes a pattern, and the murderer begins leaving a trail of clues and riddles especially for Gardner. And while the PAR team is usually relegated to working cold cases from behind a desk, the investigation puts them on the road and into the public eye, following in the footsteps of a killer.

Along with Gardner, PAR consists of a mathematician, a weapons expert, a computer analyst, and their leader, a career agent. Each of them must use every skill they have to solve the riddle of the killer's identity. But with the perpetrator somehow learning more and more about the team at PAR, can they protect themselves and their families...before it's too late?

With an enigmatic case that will keep readers on the edge of their seats and a thoroughly engaging ensemble cast, John McMahon's Head Cases is a triumph."

I mean, if she wasn't seven wouldn't it be great if Camila was the killer?

I loved this book! It would be great for fans of serial killer mysteries, Criminal Minds, or Mind Hunter. I would highly recommend to lovers of mystery / thrillers - and plan to press this into the hands of many library patrons once this releases.

I wasn't sure about this book when I started - detective with a "personality quirk" that others don't understand, in a group of agents who have messed up, profiling cold cases. It all felt a little Will Trent/Slow Horses/Criminal Minds to me. I am so glad though, that I didn't allow my initial thoughts become biases as I continued the book.

Gardner Camden is a brilliant detective, if not the most personable. After what some in the FBI consider a misguided step for justice, Camden is relegated to a team of agents who have "messed up" in someway or another who focus on cold cases. Suddenly, they are thrown into the middle of a very current case- someone is replicating murders of serial killers on the killers themselves. And all too quickly, it becomes personal for Camden, and the future of the team hangs in the balance of these new crimes being solved.

McMahon does a great job of weaving in the story of Camden's past while bringing us along on his current mission. There were a few details that left me confused, but all in all, I was engaged and kept turning pages faster and faster. And I can't wait to see what else is in store for this group of agents!

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced reader copy.

Even for books that I really enjoy, it's rare for me to be so engaged that I speed through them in an afternoon. But that was my experience with McMahon's Head Cases. Gardner Camden is a unique main character: a neurodivergent, semi-disgraced FBI agent, who turned his wife in for a financial crime, and has been relegated to the Puzzle division of the Bureau (the "Head Cases"). When a serial killer that he thought was long dead turns up actually dead, and then another, Camden must figure out who is killing serial killers without losing himself in the process. While the plot was interesting enough, it's the details that make up who Camden is that made this such an enjoyable reading experience: a blunt and socially awkward man who has a soft spot for his daughter and mother, the fact that while no one is immune from his analytical gaze (he investigates his own team) he still chooses loyalty over politics, and though he's portrayed as the least sexy man on the page there's still potentially something brewing with his younger FBI partner.

I'm looking forward to the second in the Head Cases series.

Head Cases will be published January 28, 2025

9/10

This is the first book in what I imagine will be a really popular suspense series.

The main character is an FBI agent named Gardner. He’s on the spectrum, Level I autism (essentially Asperger’s). He’s meticulous, not always connected to others emotions, takes things literally, and thinks of things in a very unique way.

The case he’s tackling is a serial killer killing serial killers. And the journey brings Gardner and his team to places that surprised me.

I read a fair amount of suspense novels and it’s hard to be unique anymore. Somehow John McMahon did it and he did it seemingly effortlessly. Every time I expected something cliché to happen, it went the other way.

This is a really good book. My only challenge with it, was the difficulty in the beginning to get all the names and people straight. It was very confusing for about 60 pages. But once that started clicking in, i couldn’t put the book down.

This is primed for a NY Times Best Selling book and series. Speaking of series, it would also probably make a great television show.

Well done John McMahon.

#netgalley #headcases

A quirky FBI agent, who looks at everything analytically, along with other FBI agents, each with their own special characteristics chase after a serial killer. The continuously moving action takes place in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and California, but the writing is so skillful the reader never gets lost. Entertaining, worthwhile read.

Fan of the classic tv show “Profiler” ?
How about the seminal read “Mindhunter” ?

If so, this is the book to read.

Our MMC, FBI Gardner Camden, is unabashedly flawed. And, he knows it, accepts it and tries to do better.

So, too, is his team. Together they hunt the scum, the underbelly of society. Then they are tasked with the undesirable task of hunting down a vigilante. How they arrive to the inevitable conclusion is a journey through multiple states and encounters with individuals in their past and present. There are surpassingly interconnected ties.

I also liked that the author cultivated the MMC’s personality outside of the workplace. How he interacts with his mother and his daughter adds another layer to his character.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, St. Martins Press, Minotaur Books, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fast, entertaining mystery. I think that it would appeal to people who enjoy shows like Criminal Minds. I do wish that there was a bit more character development for the team. It felt a bit like we were thrown in to an established series where the relationships were already set up previously.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Gardner Camden has a brilliant mind, but he’s a bit socially inept. As part of the FBI’s PAR Unit (Patterns and Recognition), he uses his skill at decoding codes, puzzles and riddles to solve cold cases. Now the PAR Unit is tasked with hunting down a serial killer who is killing other serial killers. The unit follows the cryptic clues left by the killer in a race against the clock.

The book started out great with an engaging plot line, but kind of fizzled out after a while. I think it was because Gardner became a very flat character, lacking depth and complexity. The other characters were one-dimensional, and one verged on annoyance with her manner of speaking (bee tee dubs, donezo, hells to the yeah).

Still, it is a good book for those looking for a Criminal Minds-type read.

https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and John McMahon for this ALC and ARC!

Reading Head Cases felt like watching Dexter for the first time all over again. I immediately was able to find myself in Gardner and his isolated, in-his-head type of thinking and processing. I love a good story about someone like this who struggles to fit in with his peers comfortably, who often says the wrong things and spaces out way too much - but! despite this, cultivates a found family of people who love a character like Gardner for who he is. It always gives me hope lol.

For someone who is not a fan of procedural thrillers, I ate Head Cases up. Who doesn’t love a serial killer killing serial killers? Or a band of outcasts in the FBI tasked with a case that not many care about? It was everything my autistic strong sense of justice craved. I am obsessed. And when I wasn’t reading this book, I wanted to be. It’s all I thought about. I really, really hope we get to revisit Gardner and the Pattern and Recognition team!

An FBI unit tracking down a killer that seems to be embedded in the FBI. Agent Gardner Camden has an analytical mind for tracking down and understanding his cases but it becomes a little more intense with a young daughter he is also trying to protect.

Fast-paced and intense - I could not stop listening to the audio as I read along with the audio part of the time. I especially enjoyed reading about the number of places around Texas that I have been to - including Murder by the Book bookstore in Houston!

My thanks to Net Galley and Minotaur Books and Macmillian Audio for an advanced copy of this e-book and audiobook.

John McMahon is no stranger to detective thrillers and his new series (there will be a second book) involves the fictional FBI “PAR” (Patterns and Recognition) team, an offset of the Behavioral Sciences department. but PAR has a lower visibility and isn’t commanding Gulfstreams out Quantico, but getting rental cars in satellite office Jacksonville, Florida (IF they are allowed out of their cubicles). All the members have specialized skills and all have apparently flamed out elsewhere in FBI-land.

Included on the team are:
Gardner Camden, with an eidetic memory, the riddle solver
Cassie Pardo, mathematician
Jo “Shooter” Harris, a weapons experts
Richie Brancato, a newbie data analyst
Frank Roberts, longtime FBI guy, the boss

The main character Gardner is, indeed, a man of details and numbers (like counting that there were 6 black scuff marks on the Quantico lobby floor). He hints that as a child he was regarded as peculiar, and even now the mean-girl colleagues (who are bros) use the “r” word to describe him while upper management refers to the PAR team as “brilliant freaks”. But his eidetic memory and retention of minutiae make this book spectacularly different. We have a mind warrior matched with an equally intelligent predator.

In the first of the series, Camden’s team are called to solve the murder of a serial killer who they sort of caught, but then immediately died seven years ago. This time he’s really dead. A second case also pops up with another serial killer dying at the hands of an apparent vigilante, one who has access to FBI files and secrets. A serial killer is disposing of other serial killers who slipped through the FBI’s hands.

The plot is clever and you can root for (nearly) all the team members and their quirks, including Camden’s brilliant, insightful and mentally fading mother. It’s an intelligent story with literary, scientific and mathematical references — with normally unseen connections if not for a team trained to spot such patterns. McMahon should definitely keep them around for a sequel.

I was hooked early on and did a binge read until the end. Spellbinding is a good adjective for “Head Cases”! 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Shooter has green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Author McMahon knows that state universities (or extension universities) will have the best sources in horticulture, agriculture, agronomy and entomology since their original charters as land grant schools were to assist rural communities.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press/ Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

PAR consists of minds that run on a different frequency than most. It is an exciting read where connections are made that I may not have found. This was a complex mystery that had numerous obscure threads to follow. I enjoyed being in Camden's mind and seeing how he tackled the obstacles before him. A mind like his sees black and white, and his interactions seem stilted, but there is a lot of contemplation that goes on before action. I got drawn into the story from the start and was carried along on that wild ride to the end. I enjoyed so much about this book and hope that this is a storyline that continues!

Many thanks to John McMahon, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel. I used to read a lot of “serial killer” focused mysteries but have moved away from that in recent years. Still, I enjoyed this book — it’s well written and the plot kept me engaged. I’m not sure how believable it all was but I was invested enough to keep reading and not focus too much on that. I’m happy to discover this author, who was new to me, and I’ll be looking forward to the next book in this series.

When the DNA of a serial killer that is believed to be dead is found at two murder scenes, a team of talented FBI agents is assembled to figure out if the serial killer is in fact still alive. With a trail of clues, the team is forced from behind their analyst desks into the field. But while the team is learning everything they can about the killer, the killer is also learning everything they can about the FBI team and their families.