The Fifth to Die (A Detective Porter novel)

By: J.D. Barker

Narrated by: James Alexander

‘J.D. Barker is a one-of-a-kind writer and that’s a rare and special thing. Stephen King comes to mind and Lee Child, John Sanford. All one-of-a-kinds. Don’t miss anything J.D. writes.’ James Patterson

Murder. It’s a family affair.

In the midst of one of the worst winters Chicago has seen in years, the body of missing teenager Ella Reynolds is discovered under the surface of a frozen lake.

She’s been missing for three weeks… the lake froze over three months ago.

Detective Sam Porter and his team are brought in to investigate but it’s not long before another girl goes missing. The press believes the serial killer, Anson Bishop, has struck again but Porter knows differently. The deaths are too different, there’s a new killer on the loose.

Porter however is distracted. He’s still haunted by Bishop and his victims, even after the FBI have removed him from the case. His only leads: a picture of a female prisoner and a note from Bishop: ‘Help me find my mother. I think it’s time she and I talked.’

As more girls go missing and Porter’s team race to stop the body count rising, Porter disappears to track down Bishop’s mother and discover that the only place scarier than the mind of a serial killer is the mind of the mother from which he came.

Perfect for fans of Helen Fields, Val McDermid and Jo Nesbo this gripping and twisted thriller will have you wondering, how do you stop a killer when he’s been trained from birth?

Praise for The Fifth to Die:

‘J.D. Barker is a one-of-a-kind writer and that’s a rare and special thing. Stephen King comes to mind and Lee Child, John Sanford. All one-of-a-kinds. Don’t miss anything J.D. writes.’ James Patterson

‘Superbly paced, beautifully constructed evocation of evil’ Daily Mail

‘A gritty thriller that gets right under your skin’ HEAT

‘Chillingly written’ Woman

‘Barker spins a serpentine and sometimes gruesome
tale… Sparse and cinematic, the pages fly by.’ Press Association

Critic reviews

Praise for The Fifth to Die:

‘J.D. Barker is a one-of-a-kind writer and that’s a rare and special thing. Stephen King comes to mind and Lee Child, John Sanford. All one-of-a-kinds. Don’t miss anything J.D. writes.’ James Patterson

‘Superbly paced, beautifully constructed evocation of evil’ Daily Mail

‘A gritty thriller that gets right under your skin’ HEAT

‘Chillingly written’ Woman

‘Barker spins a serpentine and sometimes gruesome
tale… Sparse and cinematic, the pages fly by.’ Press Association

Praise for J.D. Barker:

‘The Fourth Monkey has one of the most ingenious openings that I’ve read in years. This thriller never disappoints.’
James Patterson

‘Superbly constructed and immaculately paced, this is one of the few serial killer thrillers that bears comparison with Thomas Harris’s 1981 masterpiece Red Dragon.’
The Daily Mail

‘A talented writer with a delightfully devious mind.’
Jeffery Deaver

‘Not since Hannibal Lecter had a friend for dinner has a serial killer been so skillfully rendered on the page.’
Taylor Elmore, Writer/Producer of Justified and Limitless

‘A labyrinth of madness and a macabre charnel house of mirrors, The Fourth Monkey is a 1st-rate, devilish thriller.’
Eric Rickstad, New York Times bestselling author of The Names Of Dead Girls

‘Gripping, addictive, and devilishly clever. From its opening salvo The Fourth Monkey grabs you and never lets go. J. D. Barker is a stunning new talent.’
Barry Lancet, award-winning author of Tokyo Kill and Pacific Burn

‘A chillingly delicious page-turner.’
New York Times Bestselling Author, Kelley Armstrong

‘Creepy, scary… and impossible to put down! The Fourth Monkey is everything a thriller should be—a must read!’
Heather Graham, New York Times bestselling author

Gripping story, very easy to listen

Gripping storyline; can’t wait to start on book #3. The book is an easy read and even more easy to listen too, I tend to switch between actual reading and audio book because the story was so captivating and I didn’t want to stop even when driving.
The audiobook was a little slower than actually reading by myself but the speed adjusting options at audible came in handy to solve this; overall great story and performance.

Solid storyline sabotaged by narration

What should've been a riveting listen, turned into an experience similar to walking barefoot on Lego, due to the narrator's unusual inflection. Every.single.word. is narrated as if it is a 10 second promo for a thriller. While this style works for 10 second promos, it definitely does not for a 17hr + audio book. The narrator delivers dialogue perfectly, though, so I blame the director for a severe lapse in judgement. Increasing the speed to 1.25 helped slightly to ease the listening pain. Had I not already invested time and energy into the first book of the series, I would've abandoned the audio within the first chapter. I am deeply disappointed that Audible continues to sell this narration despite all the many many complaints about it. This is not up to standard and Audible should be ashamed for continuing to charge for sub-standard work.

Cannot keep listening to narration!!

once again i am shocked by what the producers of some audio books put out as final product. did anyone actually LISTEN to this once it was completed?? the narration is so unbearable, I'm stopping the audio version and ordering the paperback because i love the story. the narration sounds like if you took the staccato, overly dramatic diction of captain Kirk and mixed in a robotic monotone with a weird, low-register, nasal fry. on top of that, the narrator's accent is bizarre and anoying ("air" is "are"). every character sounds clinically depressed and over everything. Absolutely awful.

Good Story Terrible Naration

This sounded like an AI narrator, the intonation was all wrong with emphasis on the wrong words in every sentence, if the actual story was not so good I would have abandoned this after 15 minutes. The other two books in the series are really well narrated what happened here?