J.D. Barker Books in Order

J.D. Barker is the thriller writer who weaponized the diary: The Fourth Monkey (2017) - a serial-killer notebook found beside a bus-queuing corpse, its entries unspooling backwards through the killer's childhood - became a runaway and built the 4MK trilogy around Detective Porter's hunt for Anson Bishop, the killer who got inside the investigation itself. Since then Barker has run three lanes at once: solo standalones, the line he co-writes with James Patterson (The Writer, 2025), and - the 2026 headline - a return to 4MK with three prequel novels announced at once, The First Scarlet Door (September 22, 2026) taking Bishop back to age fifteen. This page sequences every lane (2014–present).

Where to start

The Fourth Monkey (2017), 4MK #1 - the diary structure is the hook, and the trilogy is one investigation. Standalone readers: The Quiet Neighbor (January 2026).

Does the reading order matter?

Three lanes. The 4MK trilogy, strict: The Fourth Monkey (2017), The Fifth to Die (2018), The Sixth Wicked Child (2019) - one case across three books, cliffhangers built in. The First Scarlet Door (September 22, 2026) is #4 in sequence but a prequel - Bishop at fifteen, the origins of everyone - and it spoils the trilogy's reveals, so read 1-3 first; two more prequels are announced. The co-writes: Dracul (2018, with Dacre Stoker, the Stoker-estate Dracula prequel), The Writer (March 2025, with James Patterson, a true-crime author inside a murder plot), We Don't Talk About Emma (February 2025, with E.J. Findorff), Heavy Are the Stones (2024, with Christine Daigle). The solo standalones: The Quiet Neighbor (January 27, 2026) is the newest of them. His self-published debut Forsaken predates the 2017 breakout and stays a collector's item

Which one is the best?

The Fourth Monkey (2017), the diary thriller itself; The Sixth Wicked Child (2019), the landing; The Writer (2025), the Patterson lane at full power.

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: James Patterson books in order, Agent Pendergast books in order, Freida McFadden books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.

Make it a project

Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.