An enjoyable read, but do wonder if i should have started this series from book 1. The synopsis really grabbed my attention, as i can never resist a book that features a serial killer. I really feel that i ought to read the previous three books of this series before i can make too much of a comment.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy and this is my honest review, which i have voluntarily given.

Is there a pattern in the deaths of children at different health care facilities across the country? Yes, there is and Dr Theo Cray is determined to find the evil nurse who may have committed innumerable murders. He's a computational biologist (I've read three of these books now and I'm still unable to explain it but go wth it) who has solved some truly wicked problems. He's also dealing with the effects of a virus, although this isn't really explored much in this installment. This is a quick read where it helps to suspend logic occasionally and simply think of it as a thriller featuring a smart and unusual man who works outside the normal borders. I do think it helps to have read the earlier books. This is not my favorite of the series as it felt less well formed. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Dr. Theo Cray is back… and this one is just as good as the first three books. The reader can see how Theo’s past cases are affecting him: the survivor’s guilt, the distance he’s created from his girlfriend, Jillian, and most importantly, the possibility that he has contracted the Hyde virus. Yet, when a woman comes to him with evidence that a nurse may be killing patients, he finds that drive to use his detective skills once again.

It starts in a small hospital in Baton Rouge. A group of families has zeroed in on a nurse they think might have had the opportunity to murder several young children. Theo runs into new obstacles in passive administrators, local politics, patient confidentiality, and a ‘virus’ that has conveniently erased records. He crosses the line once again and gains access to CDC data and uses his computation skills to assess the statistical points… Theo knows that the death rates are far above normal.

Spurned on by his mentor, Cray crosses the country and international lines to hunt the killer. And Mayne adds a new wrinkle to this book: a good amount of legal wrangling. I really liked this part of the book. It reins him in a bit and makes him more cautious… but nothing that would ever stop him.

I read this in less than 24 hours. Each of these books is a perfect *weekend read*. Fast-paced with mind-bending science and a good bit of human interest in an interesting character. I will say that there are many more references to Theo’s old cases in this one than any of the other books, so I would say that it’s important to read the first three to really enjoy all the details in Dark Pattern. But read away and enjoy!

5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Amazon Publishing, and the author for an advanced copy of the book.

Dark Pattern, or: Theo Hits Rock Bottom

I'm a huge fan of this series and main character but this felt rushed. I hope the copy I received isn't the final release version because it feels like a draft Mayne hammered out 3 days before the deadline, while going down a checklist and hitting all his criteria. This time Theo is hunting a serial killer nurse, business as usual, but everything else feels off.

Theo feels out of character, acting rashly and overlooking huge issues instead of being cautious and meticulous as in the previous installments. You could say it's his ego getting to his head but that feels like a lousy excuse; most likely it's just collateral damage from the rushing. And there's no mention of the Hyde virus potentially excusing some of his dysfunction. Maybe that was really just a dropped plot thread, or maybe Theo himself doesn't realise it, but either way we won't know for sure until the next book.

The end was hard to read. Watching as Theo basically spirals down into obsession, you have to wonder how something like that can happen to someone as bright and well-educated as him.

Then it all ends on another cliffhanger, just like the last book.

I'll read the next book for sure, but I really hope the author takes his time and it's a lot more fleshed out and thorough than this one, more like the other books in the series.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for review. All opinions are my own.

As Dr. Cray travels, a family brings their suspicions about their children's deaths in the past few years. Will Dr. Cray prove a health care worker is killing patients?
Good read. Slow but great ending, plus cliffhanger for next book.

"It never stops, not really. What happened to my head, it's not something that gets better." (Detective Rust Cohle from True Detectives)

And Dr. Theo Cray, computational biologist extraordinaire, has some head trouble, too. He's been exposed to the vicious Hyde virus that has been laying dormant within him since his last run-up with a serial killer. Theo has been trying to stay one step ahead of it with weekly MRI's at various hospitals under an assumed name. So far, so good.

We catch up with Theo at a speaking engagement at a Baton Rouge hospital in front of a flock of nurses. One of the young ladies approaches him afterwards and suggests that they meet outside of the hospital. Emily shares a mind blowing observation with him. One of the nearby clinics has had an over-the-top amount of unexpected, shocking deaths with no solid explanations. Can you roll out the words: Cover-Up?

'Nuff said. Our guy Theo, a born bloodhound and vigilante, is armed with data that he's masterminded from some under the table means. That's Theo and we don't even blink an eye over how he gets stuff. As readers, we're along for the ride and the ride is filled with plenty of head bangin' noise. Just how we like it.

There appears to be a malcontent nurse on the loose with evil intentions. Tracking this individual is going to be a rough one for Theo. His girlfriend, Jillian, cuts him slack since she knows that this is all about what Theo is all about. His former professor, Amanda Parson, will take him to task and shoves him into the challenging lane.

Dark Pattern is one fun ride into the minds of individuals who are far off kilter. Andrew Mayne has a delightful writing style with slices of biological backup and a heaping spread of humorous dialogue. Although this is the fourth entry into this series, it can still be read as a standalone. However, I would encourage you to start at the beginning with The Naturalist for its full effect. If you're an avid reader of Andrew Mayne, you'll be waiting on the doorstep for the next one just like me.

I received a copy of Dark Pattern through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to Andrew Mayne for the opportunity.

This is the second in the series I have read ( I need to read the others) and I am impressed with how thrilling these books are. Dr. Theo Cray, a computational biologist on the hunt for an elusive serial killer, is such an original character, a flawed individual, who begins to question his own sanity and this causes many problems for him in the story. Not a traditional mystery by any means but one that will have the reader thinking and guessing until the very end. I'll suggest this series to my customers who enjoy John Connolly.

Once again I was sucked into Dr. Theo Cray’s world and could not get out! These books are life! Theo’s moral compass and way of thinking are so similar to mine that I devour these books with ease. This one sets Theo against an adversary he has to follow into a very dark place. Absolutely cannot wait for the next one!

I love these books! I do. I've never been disappointed by this author....but, occasionally, things go sideways.
This was so far from being what I've come to expect, that I'm not even sure Mr. Maybe was paying attention. It felt like he needed to get a book done, and this was his three day take! In other words, it was not worthy! I'm used to authors screwing the pooch eventually, but not on the fourth of this series.

The Naturalist series is quickly becoming one of my favorite series. I like how the main character (Theo Cray) uses logic, reason, statistics and data-crunching to identify killers and then is impulsive, obsessive and risk-taking in his efforts to prove his theory and capture the killer. I also appreciate the author's effort to create completely different types of killers.

Dark Pattern is another great installment to the series. Theo is worried that he is going insane, and struggles with this concern throughout the book. Once he has identified a possible killer, the authorities do not want to acknowledge the problem. In addition to law enforcement ignoring his pleas, he is faced with another entity trying to cover-up what he intends to expose. While Theo is busy catching a killer and monitoring his own sanity, he begins to wonder if he should be doing more with his life.

I wasn't sure Theo would make it through this one with his sanity intact, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Dr. Theo Cray is one of my favorite crime-fighting geniuses with psychopathic tendencies (well, maybe he’s the only one, he’s an original character). He is smarter than most people but sometimes his arrogance gets in the way and blinds him. This is the case in this new installment in The Naturalist series. I have to say I don’t like where his personal life is headed, but it makes sense considering his circumstances. He knows what he’s risking, but has to find the bad guy at any cost. And this time, the victims are the most vulnerable members of society: sick children. Theo notices a dark pattern of deaths, but they were in the hospital so maybe, just maybe, there is no nefarious plot. The scenes in the hospitals at night are really creepy, and the lengths that Theo is willing to go to stop the pattern are heartbreaking. As usual, the rhythm is so fast that it’s hard to stop reading. Theo is not relatable at all and yet I felt his desperation. Be forewarned, though, the novel ends in a cliffhanger that will keep me on edge until we find out what happens next. I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Thomas & Mercer!

Part of a series. I love a good Serial Killer book. This one was just okay. It didn't hold my attention, until near the end. It didn't seem very fast paced to me. I felt that in some spots it kind of got bogged down. Just my opinion, everyone that reads the same book, reads a different one, also.

Theo Cray is an intelligent, introverted scientist who uses his mind and computational biology to catch a serial killer, a nurse. There is possibility he may be infected with a virus, Theo is impelled to investigate suspicious deaths at hospitals with sketchy stories and reveal the truth.

He fights his inner demons while trying to convince authorities there is in fact a killer out there. However, he is both stubborn and convinced of his own correctness, and of course, he is right. He is quirky, his girlfriend is quirky which makes them both kind of fun.

I wish I had read the earlier books, it would have made more sense to me if I had more history, but still, a good read,

Well, Andrew Mayne got me hooked on good ol' Theo again. This one made up for the less than stellar 2nd and 3rd books. (They were fine, really, just didn't wow me.) Anyway, Dr. Cray is a bit more palatable in this one. Not quite so arrogant and annoying. Perhaps he's evolving. Looks like we'll be getting a fifth book ... Good thing is that the author is getting these out pretty quickly, so maybe we won't have to wait long. It's pretty amazing, really, that a book could come together so quickly (and be well edited) in a short time frame like that. Kudos to the author on that note.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of the ARC.

A well written psychological thriller about a man, Dr Theo Cray, chasing a killer nurse across various parts of America using his own system of computational biology to look for patterns in events. He is suffering the after effects of some previous drug and it would have definitely been best if I had read previous stories in the series to understand better his frame of mind. His data analyses and logical thought processes were well written though and you just wanted him to find said killer nurse. He is certainly unconventional as is his girlfriend/lover. Whilst the ending was satisfactory from the point of view of the murders Dr Cray's ending was not but clearly sets the scene for another book. Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I can't say enough about Andrew Mayne as an author. The Theo Cray books are extremely well written and immensely enjoyable. The the character of Dr. Cray is original and well developed. I have been fortunate to receive an ARC of each title in the series and I love every one of them. I look forward to reading more from Andrew Mayne and highly recommend the Theo Cray series.

If you have not read any of this wonderful series, I highly recommend that you do. I was so excited to see another addition to the series and so thankful to NetGalley for advancing me a copy.

Dr. Theo Cray is an intelligent, introverted scientist who uses his ingenious mind and something called computational biology to catch serial killers. Distracted by the possibility he may be infected with a virus generated by the last monster he discovered, Theo is impelled to investigate suspicious deaths at hospitals with skeptical backgrounds and the probability of a nurse serial killer.

Fighting his inner demons while trying to convince authorities there is a killer out there almost proves too much for him. However, Theo is not anything if not stubborn and convinced of his own infallibility when it comes to his beliefs. But this time he may be in for a surprise that will test the limits of his mental health.

Please add this one to your to-read list.

The Naturalist is one of the best mystery series that I've ever read, I love the way the author writes this series and characters. Dark Pattern is a really good addition to the series and I enjoyed reading it.

Dr Theo Cray is a genius at solving crimes using science and mathematics. But after contracting a bizarre illness, he begins to question his own sanity. His former professor, Amanda Paulson believes in Theo and works with him to help him solve a crime and he follows clues around the world. Even so, Theo begins to feel himself slipping into insanity, and his own dark side is slowly creeping up on him