You can’t beat fully immersing yourself into a crime fiction and following a journey with the police – and The Fourth Victim by John Mead is great for you to delve into.
The plot:
Three deaths, two grieving families, one murder investigation 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 tranquillity and clean air but are also the places to find drug dealers, sexual encounters and murder…
A real page-turner near the end
There was an additional bit to the synopsis about the main characters, but I read this before going into the actual reading, and quickly thought it didn’t actually portray the read at all. It mentions one of the main characters dismissing murder for a mugging gone wrong, but this is quickly overthrown and unworthy of even mentioning.
It did have quite a lot of the usual stereotypes that you get with crime fiction in terms of characters, but these common traits are so frequent that I’m not going to put a black mark against The Fourth Victim.
There were the odd twists in the book, which were welcomed at the right points, but they weren’t major, which was good as it didn’t take away from the main plot itself.
The scene was painted well, and you can tell a lot of thought has gone into The Fourth Victim, and one that could actually be true.
The book constantly makes you questions who done what and makes a great crime fiction. It was slightly confusing at points due to the context (I’m not giving you any more information), but this just made it unpredictable and a good read. A real page-turner near the end.
It ends well, understanding the true meaning of the title, and I’m looking forward to picking up a copy of Mead’s other book (The Hanging Women), as I really enjoyed his writing style.
For fans of crime fiction with an interesting story – The Fourth Victim is for you.
Warnings: Dissociative Identity Disorder
The Fourth Victim, John Mead, RRP £8.99 (paperback); Book Depository
Pages: 244
Publisher: The Book Guild Ltd
Genre: Crime Fiction
