Head cases

In this sterling series launch from McMahon (the Detective P.T. Marsh novels), investigative savant Gardner Camden tracks a vigilante who targets serial killers. Camden--a member of the FBI's Patterns and Recognition team--has history with the vigilante's first victim, Ross Tignon, whom the investigator suspected of three murders in Florida a decade earlier. Though Camden believed Tignon died in a fire seven years ago, he'd instead moved to Texas, where a killer caught up with him. Before the team can make much progress on the Tignon case, rumors start swirling that their unit might be dissolved. Then another suspected serial killer turns up dead. With pressure boring down from all sides, the team comes to believe that the murderer has privileged information about unsolved serial killer cases--meaning that a member of the FBI is likely involved. McMahon introduces several clever wrinkles to this classic cat-and-mouse setup, while making the socially awkward Camden and his colleagues three-dimensional enough to sustain future installments. With pulse-pounding action and enough surprises to blindside even seasoned mystery fans, this is an excellent start. (Jan.)

McMahon kicks off a new series about an FBI unit's hunt for a serial killer who's targeting other serial killers. And not just any unit: It's the Patterns and Recognitions Unit, where Special Agent Gardner Camden--whose memory is a lot more finely honed than his people skills--works with mathematically oriented Cassie Pardo and newcomer Richie Brancato under the leadership of Frank Roberts. Their goal is to identify and take down whoever gutted Ross Tignon, who murdered three women and whom Camden thought had died seven years ago. The discovery that Tignon has returned from the dead only after he's been killed again would be jarring enough, but McMahon turns up the heat with news that Barry Fisher, who served 31 years for his own string of homicides, met his end the day after he was paroled. The predator is obviously playing games with the law, carving a "50" into Tignon's chest, stashing each of Fisher's organs in a separate plastic bag in the house his brother let him stay in, planting cryptic clues on both corpses, and phoning Camden to brag about his accomplishments and threaten his loved ones in case the FBI hasn't picked up the pattern on its own. Invited to call his quarry "God," Camden reverses the moniker and dubs him "Mad Dog," and the hunt is on. Camden has the advantage of uncanny analytical skills and razor-sharp focus; Mad Dog benefits from his lack of scruples--since, after all, he's doing God's work by eliminating those monsters--and the fact that he's found his way into the FBI's computers. Could that possibly be because he works for the Bureau himself? A superior cat-and-mouser, with both parties armed to the teeth. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.