The Fifth to Die

By: J. D. Barker

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Graham Winton

Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

©2018 J. D. Barker (P)2018 Recorded Books

Excellent Taught Fast Paced Thriller- Loved it...

I'm always happy when I see a new book by an author I like and if it's narrated by Eduardo Ballerini it's Christmas !!!!
This is the second book in the 4MK series. If you haven't listened to book one in this series you will be lost. There is a lot of reference to book one.
The character development is excellent and the protagonist, Detective Porter's in the thick of things with a serial killer again. First the body of a young girl is found frozen in fresh water but the forensics show that she drowned in salt water. She's wearing another young girl's clothes. Then that girl is found the same way. Also the girl was suspended by strings in the water until she was at least partially frozen in to the water so she wouldn't float away under the ice. The killer wanted her to be found.
The FBI has taken over the case but Detective Porter can't just let them have it. He begins his own investigation. He believes Anson Bishop (the four monkey killer) has something to do with these killings. It's a long shot but 4MK got away. Porter has a hard time believing this second killer is a coincidence, he thinks there's a connection.
The two stories run parallel and finally begin making connections.
You will also be anxiously waiting for book three because this book has no conclusion!!!!!
This book has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!
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Loved the first book!

Just finished TFTD and I have to say... not sure I’ll listen to any future books in the series. It was hard for me to follow most of it and when twists and turns were revealed toward the end, I was left feeling totally confused. I would love to have someone explain the last 90 minutes, if not the whole book to me.

I’m done with this series.

With the exception of not caring for the so-called diary of the serial killer, Bishop, in book #1, The Fourth Monkey, I thought that the initial book in the series was great. I looked forward to a good listen from The Fifth To Die. No doubt it was well received by others, but I didn’t care for this sequel. Once again, the best part for me consisted of the well written interactions and dialogue between the cops on the case. But that positive aspect wasn’t enough. The plot in this second book is wildly convoluted. The main police officer from the first book, Porter, makes one dumb decision after another in the second book, very unlikely given his already established character and talents in the first. Bishop’s character deteriorated as well. He is less well rounded and void of any cause for sympathy. The revelation of whom Bishop’s mother happens to be was not a surprise, though it should have been. There are too many plot holes, too many improbabilities, too many threats against too many people, too much gratuitous torture and death. And the ending isn’t an end, just a creepy segue to future book #3. For those who still like the series, that’s good news. I’m taking my reaction to this book as my cue to stop listening while I’m ahead.

Novel Fell Off The Cliff

I thought the plot and characters were terrific until the last 30 minutes. The end of the book was a complete nose dive. Ok, I get setting up for the next installment, but this really fell flat!
The end was hurriedly rushed and was too cute. I doubt I will listen to the next, if there is one.
With the exception of the character, Detective Nash, the narration and performances were stellar. I could not have asked for more. Nash’s voice seemed to me to be constantly hysterical and overblown. I would have liked to see him as more complex and more modulated.
The end of the story just killed my interest in reading more of Barker’s work.

Don’t like the cliffhanger ending

Great Story. Great Performance, but the mystery continues.... It feels like this book is just the middle book of a trilogy. There were questions answered, but so many unanswered and clearly another book on the way.

I remember why I didn’t like the 1st book

All serial killers the same? Some kind of speech impediment? Some weird quirky action that identifies them. I don’t think that’s realistic. I think most act like regular people. Are we supposed to feel more suspense or intrigue because they are a weirdo? It makes me feel disinterested. Also - All the time and dialogue the killer spends with the victims?

A few chapters in and I am done with this nonsense.

J

Not as good as the original

4MK book 1 was a much better book. Don’t get me wrong I love the story, the characters and especially the narration (one of the best if you ask me). I just feel like the Fifth to Die was stretching out a story line for far too long. It was almost a book of 133 chapters to set up book 3 when the author could have done that in half as many chapters with much more action. It kinda drags but the switching from character to character and plot line to plot line keeps it interesting. 4MK was one of my favorite books ever on audible, the follow up was just ehhh.

GREEDY TRICK

One of the most desperate tricks an author can play on his/her readers, who have already paid for the current book and thus already put money in the author's pockets, is to create a cliffhanger ending to the novel. The only purpose for this greedy gimmick is to force this built-in base of readers to spend more money simply to find out what happened in the preceding novel. I refuse to honor such greed with a decent review.

The Fifth is Second to the Fourth

I see from reading reviews already posted, I am repeating what has been said. But it bears repeating [monkey see, monkey do]. Information from The Fourth Monkey needs to be fresh in your head starting into this one or else you need to have a memory like a steel vice.
Contrary to another reviewer's remarks, I didn't think Barker included much of a refresher. He does refer back to points from the TFM but that's reference lifted without explanation. And, this new book picks up with the same frenzied pace that drives The Fourth Monkey to its confusing conclusion. It has been 4 months since the Fourth Monkey Killer escaped, and Porter is still obsessed with Anson Bishop / Paul Watson. The wall in his apartment where his bed used to sit remains covered with everything Porter had on the 4MK: hundreds of pictures, articles, maps, and pins connected with black string. He's just returned from the scene of a new crime; a young girl has been found frozen in an icy pond, meticulously staged so when she was discovered it would look as if she was floating just below the frozen surface of the pond. She's not missing an ear. Returning to his apartment Porter looks at the wall and thinks there's no reason to believe the escaped Bishop had anything to do with this murder, but picks up a tack and pushes it in the map on the wall. It's a head-snapping turn in MO since the 4MK wrapped up his *philanthropic* project, but he decides that tack is staying there until he's sure there is no connection.

There were so many titillating specifics I'd forgotten, I finally had to grab my copy of The Fourth Monkey and do some reviewing. It reminded me of looking at a snapshot, then hearing the story behind it and going back and looking at that same photo again, seeing the evidence hidden in plain sight. Barker stays on track with the feel of the story, but his second in this trilogy still didn't escape the curse of the middle book. It feels like a middle book--a bridge to another book, less interesting, but necessary. Most interesting to me were the years Bishop is in some kind of mental facility. His diary version of his years at home with those odd and murderous parents are very revealing, but only when the doctor finally gets a hold of the diary and reads it through the lens of reality instead of Bishop's psychopathic mind.

If Barker stays on the schedule he has used thus far, we'll all have to remember all of the details for another year before we get the conclusion...next July.

AAARGH! This is NOT a novel but merely a chapter.

First off, do not even attempt this book without first listening to its predecessor. Even if you have heard the first installment in this tedious tale, keep your notes on it at hand and don't let too much time lapse between that book and this. Barker assumes that your life includes plenty of room to recall his intricate early work. Mine doesn't so I was working in a world of half forgotten or entirely forgotten ghost characterizations that caused me to lose interest in The Fifth To Die while I tried to reconstruct what had happened before. And that caused me to rewind to go again through what I'd missed... And Etc...

WORST OF ALL... This thing abruptly ends mid thought, depending that I shall buy the next in this series. None of that was mentioned in the Audible description of this interminably tedious telling. I'm returning The Fifth To Die and will no longer buy J.D. Barker books.