Book Description 

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.

My Review 

I’ve been branching out my reading to mysteries and thrillers lately, so I borrowed the audiobook version of this book from the Libby app. 

Protagonist Gardner is a bit of a genre archetype with his pattern-seeking brain and quirky ways, but McMahon did a good job of making the character stand out. Gardner is proud of his work on the PAR team, despite the fact that others in the agency refer to them as “head cases” (hence the title of the book). 

In other books/shows, there’s usually someone on the team with a profile similar to Gardner’s, and they are usually the most interesting. However, they are usually relegated to the office, so it was very exciting to see Gardner out in the field being a badass AND deciphering clues with that amazing pattern-seeking brain of his. 

I would absolutely recommend Head Cases. This is apparently the first in a series, and I for one am very happy about the prospect of reading about more of Gardner’s adventures. I hope this series gets its own show as well!