The Fifth to Die: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller and Detective Mystery in The Fourth Monkey Series (A 4MK Thriller Book 2)
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.
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.
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.
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Community Reviews
One of the many things that I like about Barker’s writing is that in spite of all the creepy, wacked out craziness that he writes, the man definitely has a sense of humor. I love weird and bizarre stories that have me hanging on the edge from scene to scene and then all of a sudden has me laughing hysterically. I think that’s a sign of a really good writer, one who can instill those kinds of emotions in a reader from one scene after another. What do I know though, I’m not a writer, I’m just an avid reader.
The camaraderie and dynamics between the teammates were amusing and entertaining while they worked the new cases, regardless of the depravity they’re dealing with. The team was no longer allowed to investigate the 4MK because of Porter letting him go (to save a victim) at the end of the previous book. The 4MK case has been turned over to the FBI and Porter has been suspended because he stole one of the victim files from the FBI. This is not a spoiler since it was revealed pretty early in the story.
Porter’s team was investigating the victims of a new suspected serial killer that the general public feared was 4MK but Porter and team didn’t think it was 4MK. I liked that Barker gave the different team members more time on the page in this story. Barker used the opportunity to spend more time developing the characters of the team. Still LOVE Nash and now Claire Bear too. The 4MK was still obsessed with Porter and was still messing with him and now had Sam going rogue in order to do his bidding (retrieving his evil mother).
Another thing I have come to enjoy about Barker’s writing are the very intricate and detailed developments of the connections between the different storylines that he webs together. Some of them are absolutely genius as well as simply bizarre. Eventually, Barker began to merge the different storylines with all the wild and crazy twists and turns that he is famous for. After another very late night of frenzied page turning to finish this wild and crazy new installment, the end was filled with a boatload bizarre revelations and one really scary cliffhanger for Claire Bear and the city of Chicago.
I often have mixed feelings about doing that with a book I’m reading. Part of me feels that I can’t go to sleep until I find out how the story ends but, then there were those times where the details of the end of a story freaked me out until I could fall asleep. Karin Slaughter books come to mind regarding that latter issue, to the point where I have kind of sworn off of her stuff for a while. The only Barker book that has had that effect on me was Coast to Coast (very creepy story).
The only thing that kind of bugged me with the writing were the periodic case notes and the details of the story at the beginning of some of the new chapters. Barker did this in the last book too. It’s like Barker thinks that his audience doesn’t remember the details of the story that they’re reading and isn’t smart enough to consider all the clues and evidence! Seriously??? I suppose there are a lot of readers that want this type of recap. Who knows, maybe people have even made comments about this and that’s why Barker is doing this. However, I’m pretty good at remembering story details, especially while I’m still reading the story. This time around, I just skipped over those parts of the book.
I’m really enjoying the 4MK stories though and find the weird and creep factor exciting and entertaining. I’m absolutely addicted to this series now. I HAVE to know how it ends I and look forward to the final installment.
The camaraderie and dynamics between the teammates were amusing and entertaining while they worked the new cases, regardless of the depravity they’re dealing with. The team was no longer allowed to investigate the 4MK because of Porter letting him go (to save a victim) at the end of the previous book. The 4MK case has been turned over to the FBI and Porter has been suspended because he stole one of the victim files from the FBI. This is not a spoiler since it was revealed pretty early in the story.
Porter’s team was investigating the victims of a new suspected serial killer that the general public feared was 4MK but Porter and team didn’t think it was 4MK. I liked that Barker gave the different team members more time on the page in this story. Barker used the opportunity to spend more time developing the characters of the team. Still LOVE Nash and now Claire Bear too. The 4MK was still obsessed with Porter and was still messing with him and now had Sam going rogue in order to do his bidding (retrieving his evil mother).
Another thing I have come to enjoy about Barker’s writing are the very intricate and detailed developments of the connections between the different storylines that he webs together. Some of them are absolutely genius as well as simply bizarre. Eventually, Barker began to merge the different storylines with all the wild and crazy twists and turns that he is famous for. After another very late night of frenzied page turning to finish this wild and crazy new installment, the end was filled with a boatload bizarre revelations and one really scary cliffhanger for Claire Bear and the city of Chicago.
I often have mixed feelings about doing that with a book I’m reading. Part of me feels that I can’t go to sleep until I find out how the story ends but, then there were those times where the details of the end of a story freaked me out until I could fall asleep. Karin Slaughter books come to mind regarding that latter issue, to the point where I have kind of sworn off of her stuff for a while. The only Barker book that has had that effect on me was Coast to Coast (very creepy story).
The only thing that kind of bugged me with the writing were the periodic case notes and the details of the story at the beginning of some of the new chapters. Barker did this in the last book too. It’s like Barker thinks that his audience doesn’t remember the details of the story that they’re reading and isn’t smart enough to consider all the clues and evidence! Seriously??? I suppose there are a lot of readers that want this type of recap. Who knows, maybe people have even made comments about this and that’s why Barker is doing this. However, I’m pretty good at remembering story details, especially while I’m still reading the story. This time around, I just skipped over those parts of the book.
I’m really enjoying the 4MK stories though and find the weird and creep factor exciting and entertaining. I’m absolutely addicted to this series now. I HAVE to know how it ends I and look forward to the final installment.