The Fifth To Die (4MK Thriller #2) by J.D. Barker @JDBarker @HMHbooks #bookreview #thriller

Title: The Fifth To Die

Author:  J.D. Barker

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Publication Date: July 10, 2018

Page Count: 544

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

In the thrilling sequel to The Fourth Monkey, a new serial killer stalks the streets of Chicago, while Detective Porter delves deeper into the dark past of the Four Monkey Killer.

A 4MK Thriller

Detective Porter and the team have been pulled from the hunt for Anson Bishop, the Four Monkey Killer, by the feds. When the body of a young girl is found beneath the frozen waters of Jackson Park Lagoon, she is quickly identified as Ella Reynolds, missing three weeks. But how did she get there? The lagoon froze months earlier. More baffling? She’s found wearing the clothes of another girl, missing less than two days. While the detectives of Chicago Metro try to make sense of the quickly developing case, Porter secretly continues his pursuit of 4MK, knowing the best way to find Bishop is to track down his mother. When the captain finds out about Porter’s activities, he’s suspended, leaving his partners Clair and Nash to continue the search for the new killer alone.

Obsessed with catching Bishop, Porter follows a single grainy photograph from Chicago to the streets of New Orleans and stumbles into a world darker than he could have possibly imagined, where he quickly realizes that the only place more frightening than the mind of a serial killer is the mind of the mother from which he came.

The Fifth To Die by J.D. Barker is the second installment of the 4MK Thriller series. A police procedural series in which the detectives have been tracking a serial killer known as the Four Monkey Killer. Picking up where the story had left off it would be best enjoyed reading in order to get to know the characters and what had happened up to this point.

The story now has resumed with Detective Porter and the rest of the team having been pulled from chasing the Four Monkey Killer but Porter just can’t let the case go. As a new body is found frozen beneath a lake it becomes apparent that this is a new killer on the loose but Porter goes against orders and continues his search meanwhile the other detectives begin to track down the new killer.

With the detectives separated in this installment the story is told from multiple points of view all throughout. There are also still peeks into the diary of 4MK that Porter has hung onto. As both are going on it’s a bit like following two different stories but as with most books you know things will eventually come together once again and learning just how definitely keeps the pages turning.

I would warn once again that this series is dark and disturbing and can be quite graphic but when chasing someone as twisted as a serial killer the content wouldn’t be sunshine and roses. Being someone that can be hit or miss with a police procedural I loved the first book of the series and was looking forward to this second and rejoining the detectives once again. The casework seems realistic, the detectives likable and the story has plenty of twists and turns. This one did seem a bit long to me and perhaps could have moved a tad bit faster but overall it was right back to what I had come to expect from the series and now the wait begins yet again.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

J.D. Barker is the internationally best-selling author of FORSAKEN, a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel, and winner of the New Apple Medalist Award. His work has been compared to Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Thomas Harris. His latest novel, THE FOURTH MONKEY, released in June 2017. His third novel, THE FIFTH TO DIE, releases June 2018. He has been asked by the Stoker family to coauthor the forthcoming prequel to DRACULA due out in fall 2018. His novels have been translated into numerous languages and optioned for both film and television. Barker currently resides in Pennsylvania with his wife, Dayna, and their two dogs, both of whom sit outside his office door daily, eagerly awaiting his next novel.