The Guilty Ones

Another winner from Joy Ellis!

Just as with her nine novel DI Nikki Galena series British author Joy Ellis has another wonderful series modern detective with Jackman and Evans. The Guilty Ones is a fine addition to the Jackman and Evans series. Actor Richard Armitage does a nice job of narrating, but I much prefer the narrations of Henrietta Meire due to her Fens British accent compared to the generic British accent of Armitage. In any case the modern detective series by Joy Ellis are always worthwhile.

8 personnes sur 8 ont trouvé cette évaluation pertinente

Do not listen in the order Audible tells you to!!

Love this whole series! She does an excellent job portraying men and women working closely together - bonding - without the silly romance a lot of writers feel they need to include. Get this book and the others in the series!

My review is to tell you to read/listen to them in the order the author wrote them and NOT the order Audible tells you to.

DI Jackman and DS Marie Evans Series
Book 1: The Murderer's Son
Book 2: Their Lost Daughters
Book 3: The Fourth Friend
Book 4: The Guilty Ones
Book 5: The Stolen Boys (not yet on Audible)

2 personnes sur 2 ont trouvé cette évaluation pertinente

I loved it

I had been waiting impatiently for this audiobook release and it was well worth the wait. I love this author’s books and this one is no exception.

The story is twisted and leaves many trails for the reader’s mind to follow if one wants to “play detective.” Personally, I like to let the story play out and have Jackson and Evans and the team work it out. We know who-done-it fairly early on but then there’s the drama and suspense of what will happen next. The character development is first rate, as usual for Joy Ellis.

Richard Armitage is a delightful narrator and gives a tremendous performance. I did find the denouement a bit unrewarding and disappointing. But, overall, one of the best books of 2019.

4 personnes sur 5 ont trouvé cette évaluation pertinente

NOOOOOOOOO!!!

First I must say that I find the characters in this series to be quite enjoyable. I have listened to all four. The ending of this last one was such a trite platitude I swore aloud in my car. The author set the stage for such a powerful ending and blew it trading instead for a predictable severely over-used outcome in this genre. I will listen to the next installment because the characters are well written, but it will take me a long time to get over the BIG miss at the end of this one.

1 personnes sur 1 ont trouvé cette évaluation pertinente

Good . . . But Not Quite AS Good

Book Four in the Jackman and Evans Series is a good one, but in my opinion doesn’t quite stand up to the others in the series so far. Jackman’s family is hit hard when his sister-in-law, Sarah commits suicide by drowning herself in the river. But according to everyone who knew her, she was a happily married wife and mother to two young boys. Questions arise, however, when a similar thing happens to another woman. Jackman’s brother, James, is overwrought and not much help in solving the case, or in caring for his young sons. With the help of Orac (the computer wizard downstairs) Marie Evans and Jackman look into Sarah’s past and discover a lot of secrets. When the suicides continue, it’s a race to connect the dots and to keep Jackman’s family safe. One thing I liked about this book is learning more about Rowan Jackman’s family, his parents and background. The conclusion wasn’t as satisfying as most. But I will certainly continue the series.

1 personnes sur 1 ont trouvé cette évaluation pertinente

Love Joy and Richard 💕

I love the Jackman and Evans Series. This book is the best one yet. Can’t wait for the next book. Please tell me their is a Book 5!💕💕💕

2 personnes sur 3 ont trouvé cette évaluation pertinente

An unwelcome detour into different genres

I’m honestly confused why this book has such high reviews – did the reviewers not read the previous books? If I’d read this in isolation, I’d give it a significantly better review but as part of an established series, it sticks out like a sore thumb. For a series that has been really good up to this point, this book is an annoying (and unwelcome) detour into a completely different genre.

I have two major problems with this book: 1) The premise: that a stable woman with a loving husband and children could be bullied into suicide. I might believe that in real life, there are some horrifying examples, but the author completely fails to convince me here. The idea that this woman would kill herself – not because of emotional reasons, like immense stress (that I would completely understand) but because someone ordered her to, abandoning her family (including her 2 children!) instead of bothering to ask anyone for help, like for example, the police detective inspector who is her brother in law! Even worse that it’s Jackman, who would have moved heaven and earth to stop it and protect his family. The author provides the excuse that she’s afraid of the police/exposure… so suicide is preferable?? It's so staggeringly ridiculous that you'd need massive suspension of disbelief to go along with this.

2) The melodrama: the way the characters go on about the killer is completely ridiculous – constantly referring to them like they’re the devil himself. ‘Evil’ gets thrown around a lot, my personal favourite was ‘the very epitome of evil’ (I rolled my eyes so hard that I immediately wrote it down so I'd remember for the review). They almost literally compare the killer to Stalin?? Diabolical and a master manipulator maybe, but it’s so melodramatic that every time it came up, it just irritated me… and it comes up constantly. We’ve seen far, far worse in this series alone!

The book improves significantly from about halfway, when they stop reminding you about the stupid suicide storyline and stop harping on about how ‘evil’ the killer is, and start focusing on moving the story along and then the pace picks up, becoming a cat-and-mouse game with Jackman... then that tone is ruined with the ridiculous action-movie ending, complete with cliffhanger.

Even Richard Armitage doesn’t seem to be his usual exceptional self, or maybe I’m projecting here. Absolutely no negative reflection on him, he’s the best reader I’ve heard anywhere.

It’s so hard to find a series you really enjoy, that has multiple parts that you can get stuck into. I’ve immensely enjoyed this series so far, and this one left an unpleasant aftertaste – it’s like the author got bored with the ‘police procedural’ genre, and switched to an action/serial killer genre, which just doesn’t fit at all. I will definitely read the next book, but I must say my enthusiasm is considerably reduced. This author is better than this, maybe it was interference by the publisher or something. To be clear – it’s not a bad book at all, it’s just so gratingly irritating in too many areas if you’ve read the rest of the series that I’m being far more negative than I usually would be.

Keeps you on the edge of your seat

Another Jackman & Evans story and this one keeps you on edge with the wicked murderer they’re after! And another great Joy Ellis and Richard Armitage co-operation. Love the voice of Richard Armitage taking you deeper in to the crazy mind of the murderer through the story by Joy Ellis

Hold on to your handlebars

I live this series. This one hits close to home for the team. Twisty, turning mystery you'll enjoy!

terrific UK detective series

Great mystery/ thriller; Joy Ellis has done it again.. Fantastic performance by Richard Armitage. Thoroughly recommended.