The Fifth to Die

February 15, 2018

A girl is found beneath the ice of the Jackson Park Lagoon, which had been frozen rock-hard for weeks before her disappearance. What's more, she's wearing the clothes of another just-vanished victim. Sounds like the spooky work of the Four Monkey Killer, last seen in The Fourth Monkey. Detective Porter is on his trail, even after he's suspended for his unorthodox activities. From a Bram Stoker finalist; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 21, 2018
Thomas Harris fans will find themselves on familiar ground in Barker’s competent if unmemorable sequel to 2017’s The Fourth Monkey, in which Anson Bishop, the so-called Four Monkey Killer, targeted the children of people he believed merited punishment, such as drug traffickers and kiddie porn dealers. Bishop eluded capture after managing to infiltrate the investigation of Chicago PD detective Sam Porter by posing as a CSI photographer. In this continuation, the discovery of the frozen corpse of 15-year-old Ella Reynolds, who’s wearing another missing girl’s clothes, leads the media to speculate that 4MK has returned, despite a changed m.o. Porter’s search for his nemesis alternates with gruesome scenes from the perspective of girls abducted by a sadist, who repeatedly drowns and resuscitates them so they can describe the experience to him. The cliffhanger ending points to more mayhem in a third volume. Other authors have done the cat-and-mouse plot line better, and Barker falls short of making Bishop a worthy successor to Hannibal Lecter. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Kristin Nelson Literary Agency.