My review 

Absolute cracker of a thriller, unputdownable, fast paced, addictive page-turner…..I don’t have enough superlative words to describe this book. The gist of the story goes like this – Detective Sam Porter has been trying, for 5 years, to bring down a killer known as The Fourth Monkey or 4MK, who keeps taunting Sam, by sending him little gifts of stuff belonging to his victims. It starts with a bus accident and soon becomes a race against time, to find the latest victim of 4MK. Who wins?? Who is 4MK??  Will Sam succeed in exposing his identity ?? What’s Sam’s story?? Is 4MK, a one dimensional psychotic killer who kills for fun or is there something more??? All these questions run through the mind, while reading… 

At prima facie, this appears to be a simple, straightforward story of a cop trying to find a serial killer, a cat-and-mouse story. But it turns out to be so much more. The first page hooked me immediately, I knew this book would be an adrenaline-filled journey, keeping me on the edge of my seat.. And the following pages certainly delivered that. I had to read faster to know the end, and getting to the end, I was sad as the author has yet to write more books in this series. Barker’s pace of writing caused my heart rate to increase with each chapter till it was pounding at the end. This book has everything ; emotions, friendship, chase, surprise, personal grief, the complete package. Inspite of this being a serious crime story, there is camaderie between Sam Porter and his entire team, Nash, Claire, Kloz and newcomer Watson, including bits of comedy and laughter in their dialogues. That makes the book more real and interesting.. 

J. D. Barker’s style of writing is simple but oh so effective. He sucks you into the story from the first line and you are in 4MK  / Sam’s world, running along with them, wanting to know what makes 4MK tick, urging Sam faster…Each word makes you long to get to the truth. The book gets over in a few hours but it’s hangover lasts for a few days.. 

Barker is a magician he has taken a simple formula : cop + killer = story… and made it a living, breathing world of suspense, intrigue, layers within the layers, where you are hit by his words from all sides. You are left exhausted, but this is a good exhaustion… 

This author has done one thing that I thought, wasn’t possible.. He has made me a fangirl of crime stories and his style of writing… Woo-hoo !! 

Thanks to Maxine Groves, the BookLoverCatLady and her online book launch party, and the author J. D. Barker, I received an advanced readers copy as a win and this is my honest, unbiased review.

My rating : 5 stars 

About the Author 

J. D. BARKER is the international best-selling author of Forsaken, a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Debut Novel. In addition, he has been asked to coauthor a prequel to Dracula by the Stoker family. Barker splits his time between Englewood, Florida, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Book Blurb

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…

Product Details 

Publication date : 27th June 2017 

Publisher : HQ

Language : English 

Available on Amazon