The Fourth Monkey – Grab This Book

The Fifth to Die – J.D. Barker

Murder. It’s a family affair.

In the midst of one of the worst winters Chicago has seen in years, the body of missing teenager Ella Reynolds is discovered under the surface of a frozen lake.

She’s been missing for three weeks… the lake froze over three months ago.

Detective Sam Porter and his team are brought in to investigate but it’s not long before another girl goes missing. The press believes the serial killer, Anson Bishop, has struck again but Porter knows differently. The deaths are too different, there’s a new killer on the loose.

Porter however is distracted. He’s still haunted by Bishop and his victims, even after the FBI have removed him from the case. His only leads: a picture of a female prisoner and a note from Bishop: ‘Help me find my mother. I think it’s time she and I talked.’

As more girls go missing and Porter’s team race to stop the body count rising, Porter disappears to track down Bishop’s mother and discover that the only place scarier than the mind of a serial killer is the mind of the mother from which he came.

I received a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

The Fifth to Die picks up on the story (the fabulous story) started in The Fourth Monkey. We see the return of Detective Sam Porter who is still obsessing about the killer from The Fourth Monkey and has been removed from that investigation.

No let-up on the body count though as a new spate of murders are taking place and they have been carefully planned to confuse the police. A missing girl is found frozen in a lake. The lake has been frozen solid for months, however, the girl only went missing three weeks earlier. There is no natural explanation as to how she got under the ice – yet there she is.

More deaths shall follow and it is clear a very sophisticated and intelligent killer is at work. Porter has his own distraction going on, however, as he pursues a lead in the case he is not even meant to be considering. It will take him far from the action but could end up placing him in more danger than he could know.

The Fifth to Die is a tense police procedural and the reader gets to follow the unfolding investigation. JD Barker keeps the story flowing really well, there were shocks and surprises which kept me engrossed and the killer is decidedly nasty so there are some dark moments which I very much enjoyed.

The Fourth Monkey made my Top Ten reads of 2017 and I was dying to get my hands on The Fifth to Die. I was not disappointed.

The Fifth to Die is published by HQ and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fifth-Die-Detective-Porter-novel/dp/0008250383/ref=sr_1_1?crid=259Z6V2QUTEMH&keywords=jd+barker+books&qid=1554661647&s=gateway&sprefix=j+d+bar%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

June 26

The Fourth Monkey – J D Barker

Brilliant. Complicated. Psychopath.

That’s the Four Monkey Killer or ‘4MK’. A murderer with a twisted vision and absolutely no mercy.

Detective Sam Porter has hunted him for five long years, the recipient of box after box of grisly trinkets carved from the bodies of 4MK’s victims.

But now Porter has learnt the killer’s twisted history and is racing to do the seemingly impossible – find 4MK’s latest victim before it’s too late…

My thanks to Sahina at Harper Collins for the chance to join the blog tour

I love a serial killer story and the majority of the serial killer thrillers that I read and enjoy are really well done. But sometimes a book comes along which just ticks all the right boxes and stands out from the rest – The Fourth Monkey is that book.

For years a Killer has eluded the police and cop, Sam Porter, has long been frustrated in his attempts to track down the Fourth Monkey Killer (4MK). The killer leaves gift wrapped boxes which contain body parts of the victims, an ear, their eyes and then their tongue.

The body parts of each victim are removed over a short period of time which prolongs the suffering and distress of their family. However the killer is delivering more than just body parts – they are leaving a message to someone close to the victim. The ear, eyes and tongue which are removed represent the See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil mantra which we all recognise. However there is a fourth monkey and his caution to Do No Evil drives this story.

A lucky break for the police gives them their first real clue in the 4MK murders. A road traffic accident kills the man en-route to posting the ear of his latest victim to their unsuspecting family. With the killer dead, the race is on for the police to locate the victim (where ever they may be hidden) before they perish alone.

The police have a tangible clue that may assist – the killer’s journal. A telling of a childhood incident which forged the path the killer would follow (and show what a twisted childhood he had). The narrative will switch from present day to the killers childhood diary – both storylines are compelling reading (I am not normally a fan of flashback tales but in this case is is gloriously twisted and grim).

I cannot give away too much of the story as this is a book you really need to read to get the best impact from the reveals. What I will say is that The Fourth Monkey is without doubt one of the best Serial Killer Thrillers I have read for a long, long time. It is June – there is going to have to be a pretty spectacular book lurking in the latter months of 2017 to improve on The Fourth Monkey for sheer reading pleasure.

The Fourth Monkey is published by HQ on 27 June 2017 and is available in Hardback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fourth-Monkey-Detective-Sam-Porter/dp/0008216991/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Category: 5* Reviews, Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off