The Fourth Victim By John Mead
Published by Book Guild Publishing
Publication Date: 28th October 2018
Genre: Crime Thriller
256 pages
Book Description:
Three parks, three deaths, four victims, two grieving families, one murder enquiry team and an unknown number of killers. Can an answer be found?
Whitechapel is being gentrified, the many green spaces of the area, which typify London as a capital city, give the illusion of peace, tranquillity and clean air but are also places to find drug dealers, sexual encounters and murder.
Detective Sergeant Julie Lukula doesn't dislike Inspector Merry but he has hardly set the world of the Murder Investigation Team East alight. And, it looked as it the inspector was already putting the death of the young female jogger, found in the park with her head bashed in, down to a mugging `gone wrong'.
The victim deserved more. But the inspector isn't ruling anyone out; the evidence will, eventually, lead him to an answer...
Whitechapel is being gentrified, the many green spaces of the area, which typify London as a capital city, give the illusion of peace, tranquillity and clean air but are also places to find drug dealers, sexual encounters and murder.
Detective Sergeant Julie Lukula doesn't dislike Inspector Merry but he has hardly set the world of the Murder Investigation Team East alight. And, it looked as it the inspector was already putting the death of the young female jogger, found in the park with her head bashed in, down to a mugging `gone wrong'.
The victim deserved more. But the inspector isn't ruling anyone out; the evidence will, eventually, lead him to an answer...
My Review:
Once again Rachel Gilbey of Rachel's Random Resources has come up trumps with organising the blog blitz for John Mead's 'The FourthVictim'. I have read and reviewed John's previous novel 'The Hanging Women' so was delighted to be able to be part of this tour too.
The book starts shockingly with the murder of a young woman Lynsey Hensley in a London Park discovered by an elderly lady Essey Rawlinson who is on her way home from shopping, quietly mulling over life without husband Solomon who has recently passed away. Next on the scene is a lovely young man who helps the shocked Essey, calling the police and making sure Essey is okay.
So far the book is a fairly standard police procedural, and I was settling in for a regular whodunit kind of tale.
Then as the crime gets somewhat shakily linked to other fatalities in the local area, and a psychologist/profiler gets brought in on the case I started to get confused. The clinician in question seems to know a lot about certain individuals on the case - some police officers, some civilians. I felt she was steering the investigation in a certain direction and in some situations even trying to confuse the detectives investigating the case. I became quite confused myself at one part of the story when multiple personality disorders were brought in as a possible explanation for things.
The author has clearly done a lot of research into the psychology of the murders featured. I felt the book had a good strong start and a satisfying conclusion however I didn't find I warmed to the detectives involved and I tied myself in knots in the mid section of the story. I had hoped that Essey and her helper Mr Kingsley might have a bigger part in the story as a bit of a positive coming out of the horrible encounter they had gone through together - a new-found companionship for Essey in her time of loss - or maybe I'm just going soft in my old age!
My thanks again to Rachel Gilbey for the opportunity to review this book.
Once again Rachel Gilbey of Rachel's Random Resources has come up trumps with organising the blog blitz for John Mead's 'The FourthVictim'. I have read and reviewed John's previous novel 'The Hanging Women' so was delighted to be able to be part of this tour too.
The book starts shockingly with the murder of a young woman Lynsey Hensley in a London Park discovered by an elderly lady Essey Rawlinson who is on her way home from shopping, quietly mulling over life without husband Solomon who has recently passed away. Next on the scene is a lovely young man who helps the shocked Essey, calling the police and making sure Essey is okay.
So far the book is a fairly standard police procedural, and I was settling in for a regular whodunit kind of tale.
Then as the crime gets somewhat shakily linked to other fatalities in the local area, and a psychologist/profiler gets brought in on the case I started to get confused. The clinician in question seems to know a lot about certain individuals on the case - some police officers, some civilians. I felt she was steering the investigation in a certain direction and in some situations even trying to confuse the detectives investigating the case. I became quite confused myself at one part of the story when multiple personality disorders were brought in as a possible explanation for things.
The author has clearly done a lot of research into the psychology of the murders featured. I felt the book had a good strong start and a satisfying conclusion however I didn't find I warmed to the detectives involved and I tied myself in knots in the mid section of the story. I had hoped that Essey and her helper Mr Kingsley might have a bigger part in the story as a bit of a positive coming out of the horrible encounter they had gone through together - a new-found companionship for Essey in her time of loss - or maybe I'm just going soft in my old age!
My thanks again to Rachel Gilbey for the opportunity to review this book.
Buy your copy here:
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Fourth-Victim-by-John-Mead-author/9781912575367
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Fourth-Victim-by-John-Mead-author/9781912575367
About The Author:
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnMeadAuthor
Amazon author profile: https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07B8SQ2ZH
Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17891273.John_Mead
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