The Fourth Victim

In The Fourth Victim, a new crime novel by John Mead, we are introduced to Detective Sergeant Julie Lukula.

Sergeant Lukula is facing a problem. Inspector Matthew Merry has decided to ascribe the murder of a young female jogger to being that of a mugging gone.

But Julie is not convinced. She believes that the victim was targeted by a killer. There have been three deaths, two families have suffered grievous losses and one murder team who are dealing with what could be an unknown number of murderers.

Set in a modern Whitechapel that, although it is subject to improvements and gentrification, there's still a seedy underside, drug dealers, prostitution and murders.

Julie does not think that there's any danger of her inspector setting the murder team alight. But was she correct in her judgment of him? After all, he had made it as far as an Inspector.

And the case, or cases, were far more complex than the police could have realised.

Who were the killers? Why did there seem to be so many of them? What were their motives? And what was the role of the therapist, Dr Hassan? What did she know? Anything? Or was she in the dark, too?

And what, exactly, did Julie have to hide? And were other members of the team compromised, too?

This is a highly complex, yet very credible crime thriller from established crime writer John Mead, author of The Hanging Women.

The Fourth Victim is published by The Book Guild at £8.99 and will  probably find its way into luggage for the Summer holidays.