The Fourth Victim by John Mead

The Fourth Victim

by John Mead

"The stillness of the supine figure drew Essey forward, dragging her trolley, off the path to look more closely. `Are you alright, dear?' she began, but she could see something was wrong, the unblinking eyes told her so."

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...

John Mead was born in Dagenham and now lives in Hornchurch, Essex. John has a BSc (Hons), MBA and a PGCE and worked in education for most of his life. He is now retired and focusses his time on writing. John's first crime thriller, The Hanging Women (ISBN 9781912362059) was published in February 2018.

Reviewed by zooloo1983 on

4 of 5 stars

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Mr Mead, you have not let me down! After reading The Hanging Women you are my on my watchlist, and I have to snap up anything that has been written! This book has such a hook too :

THREE deaths, TWO grieving families, ONE murder investigation team, How many KILLERS?

Wow right!! Well, you would be correct. This book sucked me in from the opening pages, and what I love about this author is he is not afraid to do the unexpected. Also, being set in Whitechapel I was sold!

Like his previous book, (Check out my thoughts on the Hanging women), there are a lot of characters and a lot going on. So as much as I devoured the book, you do have to concentrate, but I quickly got back in the flow of Mr Mead’s writing and

When you read this book, we get an insight into everyone mind just at fleeting moments, everyone has a voice. We are also directed at the beginning to who we might suspect and a link to the victims, but is this a red herring?

I love police procedural books, I love seeing how an investigation is run, how they discover the clues and how the assumptions are made. I devour these sort of books, and this as I have said, is no different. Unfortunately, to say too much about the plot will spoil it, but I will say you feel that there is a race against time to solve this murder, albeit some people want to hide this under the carpet.

The descriptive writing had me in the park with the police, had me sitting in the front rooms questioning people, in the police room being part of the team, I was absorbed and I lost track of time reading and next thing I knew it was midnight! This time, I enjoyed the characters especially Detective Sergeant Julie Lukula, as she is fighting for these women, working alongside Inspector Matthew Merry who is ready for just a desk job, not the best pairing, but they make it work.

Do not go into this book thinking yes I have solved it because it is not that simple. It will leave you breathless as you race through the pages as I did.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 17 November, 2018: Finished reading
  • 17 November, 2018: Reviewed