It’s time to review The Fourth Monkey by J. D. Barker, but first…

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Rating: 2 out of 5

Genre: Mystery / Thriller

Reasons to read it: If you like police procedurals, serial killers, and a good twist. 

Blah… help me… I feel bad…

Because I didn’t fall in love with The Fourth Monkey the same way that my friend did. (I really hope she’s not reading this)

Sometimes book suggestions work and sometimes they don’t. But most of the time I’m left feeling really guilty about speaking my mind. This is the very reason that I don’t let us pick books that someone’s already read in book club. I don’t want to see their eyes get sad when the rest of us are just speaking our minds. 

So here I am, speaking my mind about The Fourth Monkey hoping and praying that my friend won’t decide to visit the blog this week… year… month… ever. 

Now you may be wondering what’s wrong with the book. If you’re a reader like me, you most definitely don’t want to even give this a try. Otherwise, I think that most people would love this book. It has a pretty decent twist. The main character has that broken heart, trying to do the right thing, vibe. The suspense is thick. There’s even a little grey in there with the antagonist. And Barker mixed it all up by putting in the killer’s journal.

A very nice touch I might add.

But that’s where the good pointers end. 

First off… the book was already behind the line because it’s a police procedural. That is most definitely not my cup of tea. I don’t like hearing the rules. I don’t want to follow the detectives into the house with SWAT, clearing all the rooms. Snooze fest. And I believe that it really takes someone in the field to pull it all off. Barker tried his best, but I felt like I was watching every police show on TV. They held their guns wrong and the stuff they said was just a little bit off. 

I know thrillers these days aren’t all from a detective’s perspective, but this is the main reason that I stay away from the Mystery/Thriller header at the bookstore. That and the fact that I tend to guess the ending way too quickly or I piece together an ending that’s more interesting than the one I’m handed. Like in Knives Out… I still like my ending better.

Okay… time to get off my high horse. 

I love dark books, but this was a different beast. The gruesome parts in The Fourth Monkey were just too gruesome. They weren’t well incorporated and felt more done for the shock and awe instead of being a part of the story. I’m into that kind of thing when I’m picking up a horror book – the gruesome is implied. When it’s put into a thriller, it feels like a sensational thing to make readers come back. The gore is being relied on instead of the point of the genre which is mystery… suspense… the thrill of what’s going to happen next. Where’s the twist? Where is the detective/protagonist going to be thwarted? Not, where is the next knife coming to slit someone’s throat?

The questions I have about the story would probably be answered if I continued the series. I will not. There’s nothing here for me. I don’t care about the killer. I don’t care about the detective. I don’t even really care enough to learn the answers. I want to pretend that I didn’t read this book. Sadly, it’s living rent-free in my head, because I oddly can’t stop thinking about it. Maybe I need to remove it from my coffee table where it can keep reminding me of the hours it took from my life. 

Happy Reading

Kait