~ Spoilers for The Fourth Monkey ~
The Fifth to Die is a crime/thriller novel by J. D. Barker, first published in 2018. It is actually the second book of the series. The first book is titled The Fourth Monkey. It tells the story of Sam Porter, a police officer, and his team that hunts a serial killer known as Four Monkey Killer (4MK). The 4MK works by kidnapping young girls and cutting one of their eyes, ears, and tongue and sending them inside a box to their family. The first book ends with a confrontation between Sam and 4MK that leads to a seemingly utter victory for the latter character. In The Fifth to Die, however, the story continues with a couple more kidnapping of young girls. Because of the apparent similarity between these cases and the 4MK's modus operandi, Sam and his team are tasked, once again, to solve these new cases. But things get even more complicated as Sam is trying to hide something 4MK gave him from his team and the FBI taking over the case from Sam's team.
This book wastes no time at all to swallow you back into the beautifully disturbing world of 4MK. The plot flows naturally from the solid first book thanks to the carefully-placed "plot breadcrumbs" that the author scattered throughout the first book. The ever dynamic characters that fill Sam's team are back to battle their wits once again against 4MK with the addition of several more interesting characters. There's also a moderate amount of light humor that balances out the overall dark mood of the story.
The combination of tense crime-solving narrations and the serial killer's messed-up mind that makes the first book great comes back with a stride in this second book. Despite using the same formula from the first book, the author manages to keep it fresh by sneaking plot twists where you wouldn't expect them, questioning every little assumption that the characters have, and raising the stakes even higher than its predecessor.
Although, (in my opinion) individually this book stands quiet weakly compared to the first book, The Fifth to Die offers a broad expansion to the overall story of the series. Giving some extremely needed explanations for the first book while also preparing the floor for Sam and 4MK's final dance in the next book.
