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Five Bloody Hearts
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Series: Detective Matt Ballard, Book 2
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery
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Publisher's Summary
Grace Repton, a beautiful older woman, walks into the police station to tell Detective Matt Ballard she has information that could stop a murder. Her fiance, the infamous serial killer Jeremy Reader, has told her that he has a disciple who is going to kill using Reader's horrific methods.
Reader murdered five women and was finally brought to justice by Detective Ballard. Reader is safely imprisoned in a high security prison, and claiming to be a reformed man who wants to help the police.
But can Matt believe the serial killer or his peculiar wife to be? Can the love of a good woman really change a serial killer?
And the Fenland police also have another investigation on their hands. A Lithuanian migrant worker is found dead on the fens. There is no ID on him, but he has a Tree of Life tattoo. This is the third body to be found with this distinctive tattoo. Is this gang war or something even more sinister?
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What listeners say about Five Bloody Hearts
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Performance
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- Tina Evans
- 2020-05-02
Five bloody hearts
I’m really enjoying this book.
Well narrated, engrossing story and keeps you hanging on, waiting for the next revelation.
I with I’d know about book one before reading (or rather listening) to this one though. It’s called "beware the past”. Only because there are references to it and they would be better in order.
Still, I recommend Five bloody hearts.
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- Diana Elaine Chow
- 2019-11-04
Not my favorite
I have and have enjoyed many of Joy Ellis’ novels, but this one fell short for me. The story line wasn’t engaging and it jumped around too much for my tastes. The narrator was ok, I think it was more the book itself that didn’t do it for me. But perhaps it just didn’t translate well into an audiobook format.
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- FB
- 2019-09-04
Enjoyed the Story
The story was good, but I didn’t enjoy the narrator, for this type of crime novel, although I think he is a talented narrator.
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- Wayne
- 2020-06-08
Disappointed!!
All Joy Ellis novels are in my Audible library. FIVE BLOODY HEARTS is the first to fail to earn 4 or 5 stars. This 10 hour audio novel contains at least 3 hours of useless fill words that do not add/contribute to the story. The plot is quite interesting. The narration is barely acceptable.
7 people found this helpful
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- Maine Knitter
- 2019-10-05
Much better narrator
This took me a long time to get through the first few chapters. I’d start and stop and start over. At least the new narrator is 100% better than the reader of the previous book.
The story was interesting - eventually. I was disturbed by the relationship between Matt and Liz in the last book and I’m glad to see how that was resolved. Now Matt is awaiting retirement and Liz is recovering from their last case. A copycat killer, the original murderer now in prison, his fiancée, and other murders that appear to be a national feud keep Ballard and his team very busy. Red herrings abound. I figured out the killer (at least partly) before the end. I liked the Nikki Galena reference.
I’ve read the other series by Joy Ellis. She’s an automatic pre-order author for me.
7 people found this helpful
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- BookGirl
- 2019-09-24
When will Matt recover?
After listening to the first book...I was hoping for a recovered in-charge DCI; not so; and the narrator did not help, work to be done here. While the cast of characters are interesting, not enough to add to my "buy every one in the series list" . I will return this one. Hope they will get better, and that Matt will fully recover.
4 people found this helpful
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- jimfarrell
- 2019-09-09
worth it, even with the overdramatic reading
cool story, like the characters, not a fan of the narration (at all) ; but worth it if you need to listen instead of read (like myself) - this is definitely one book i wish i could've read myself
4 people found this helpful
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- LEBla
- 2019-10-05
Good story - terrible narration
The characters in this book are from previous storylines but because of the narration i couldn’t recognize them until well into the story. Very disappointing.
3 people found this helpful
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- Carole
- 2019-09-25
oops!
It was good, but I suspected the real killer from almost the beginning. Kim was correct!
3 people found this helpful
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- Diana Hart 33
- 2020-01-10
book 2
I sorta had this one figured out at the beginning, and it turned out I was right, but I still enjoyed it a lot. other than the narrator getting to quiet at times because the character was whispering or something, he was very good.
2 people found this helpful
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- Garden Womble
- 2020-10-02
Another Ellis treat!
I wasn't sure how much I really liked Ballard after the first book in this series, but I'm warming up to him now! I think I was just too spoiled by DI Galena and had trouble easing into a new character set. I love the way that Ellis uses Rory in both series, although it's a bit jarring when the narrators are different and Rory speaks with a different voice! None the less, I like the cross-overs between the series. I also liked the way that this mystery was, albeit tangentially, connected to the last. Interesting twists!
I look forward to the next in series!
1 person found this helpful
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- Mesajazz
- 2022-03-17
Read Don’t Listen on This One
This was the worst narration I have ever heard. Cartoonish possibly? Very low level skill and extremely over-acted. I did listen to the whole book, as I am trying to get through the Ballard series, but even the plot was iffy for me. This narrator is top of my list on who to avoid on Audible.
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- cdigo
- 2021-11-21
Disappontment
I liked the 1st book in this series but this one was sooooooooooo slowwwwwww. No character to root for, basically it was boring. I kept listening to see if it would get better but no. I preferred the narrator in the 1st book to this guy.