Review: The Sixth Trap – JD Barker

SYNOPSIS: THE SIXTH TRAP – JD BARKER

The book starts right where the previous installment ends: Sam Porter, until now the detective in charge of the case, has been removed from it and is increasingly suspicious, the largest hospital in the city is
closed for quarantine due to the risk of contagion of the SARS virus and among the sick are the police officers Clair and Klozowski, as well as Upchurch, the Fourth Monkey’s accomplice, who is torn between life and death. His survival is decisive for the Fourth Monkey to decide not to release the virus to the rest of the country.
When bodies begin to appear in different parts of the country with the same pattern, the police are clear: the Fourth Monkey continues to act, and this time it is impossible for him to do it alone. Thus begins a race against time to stop one of the most fascinating and intelligent murderers ever known who has managed to terrorize an entire country.

OPINION: THE SIXTH TRAP – JD BARKER

«The Sixth trap» is the end of the trilogy created by J.D. Barker«The fourth monkey», a fast-paced and intelligent thriller that will keep the reader waiting to know what will be the next step that Anson Bishop will take in his bloody career for no apparent reason. Barker manages to tie up every loose end left in the two previous novels (“The fourth monkey» y «The fifth victim») with mastery, always establishing a constant tension so that the reader does not allow himself to stop devouring the novel. There may be one or two deus ex maquina that help the plot fit together, however, this is not a big problem and may go unnoticed without obscuring the work.

J.D. Barker picks up the story right where it ends «The fifth victim», with Detective Porter confused when finding some strange photos at the Guyon Hotel, becoming a suspect after the events that occurred previously, while new bodies begin to appear with the modus operandi of «The Fourth Monkey», although with certain changes. Likewise, the threat of the SARS virus that Bishop released together with Paul Upchurch continues, which complicates things and makes the web built by «The Fourth Monkey» start catching each of your opponents, both the detective Sam Porter and the agents of the Metropolitan of Chicago as well as agent Poole of the FBI.

The narrative is undoubtedly entertaining and establishes a synergy between chapters that present the events as they are experienced by the important characters, in the same way J.D. Barker puts Anson Bishop’s psyche back into play through the diaries, where the reader will get an idea of ​​who the psychopath is behind all the murders.

The author does not just stay with a linear vision of the story, with the typical structure of the “Cat and Mouse” game, but takes it a little further by establishing new rules in which the reader will have to deal with doubts about the innocence of the star detective Sam Porter and what is its relationship with «The Fourth Monkey», and see how much of the spotlight falls on Agent Pool.

It is noteworthy that «The sixth trap» extends Bishop’s motivations by making him a kind of vigilante as already seen in «The fourth monkey», in addition to presenting a dark world of human trafficking, child abuse and government and institutional corruption that has spread its tentacles so much as to become a monster that appears to work for the good of citizens while hiding a face of perversity that prefers money at the cost of innocent lives.

J.D. Barker manages to close the cycle of «The Fourth Monkey» in a very good way, creating a great villain and inserting him into an intelligent, entertaining story with good plot twists that never falters.

QUALIFICATION

J. D. BARKER

(Jonathan Dylan Barker) was born on January 7, 1971 in Lombard, Illinois (United States). He is mainly known for the horror and thriller genre, using mystery, horror, science fiction, crime and the supernatural world. With his first novel, “Forsaken”, he managed to raise expectations within the genre and was nominated for various awards, including the Bram Stoker, one of his most important awards. In Spain, the destiny publishing house published “The Fourth Monkey” with which he became known, which will be followed by “Dracula. The Origin” co-written with Dacre Stoker.