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.
Book Info: 341 pages. Publisher: Minotaur Books. Publication Date: 28 January 2025
I really, really, really don’t like reading real books anymore. I’m lazy. I’m prefer the kindle because I can enlarge the font, search the book for characters names, click on a word I don’t understand and don’t need to worry about putting the book down and losing my page. HOWEVER, Head Cases has been on my radar for ages and because it hasn’t been published in UK it’s only available in hardback. When a good friend from my book club sent me a message last February and asked if I wanted to read it I said YES immediately.
The beautiful hardback copy has been sitting on my bedside table for 12 months and finally I took the plunge and picked it up, forgetting how uncomfortable it is reading a book lying down.. but enough moaning about the difference between real books and kindles.. let’s discuss HEAD CASES.
John McMahon’s Headcases is a sharp, high‑energy launch to a new crime‑thriller series centred on the FBI’s eccentric Patterns and Recognition (PAR) unit—an ensemble of brilliant but socially off‑beat investigators who excel at puzzles, patterns, and decoding the kinds of clues that stump everyone else.
Gardner Camden is the team’s leader. He has extraordinary pattern-recognition skills, the ability to solve unsolvable problems but really awkward social skills and interpersonal issues. The story begins with the discovery of a gruesome murder victim whose DNA matches a serial killer who was declared dead 7 years ago by Gardner Camden. When this is followed by the murder of another ex-convict the PAR team are sent across the country trying to catch a vigilante serial killer.
If you are a fan of Slow Horses or Department Q, then grab yourself a copy and prepare to be sucked into the world of Camden and his team of misfits and cast-offs.
Highly recommended and I will definitely be buying the 2nd book in the series, Inside Man, in Hardback now.
