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  • Their Lost Daughters

  • Audible's breakthrough crime author of 2018
  • Written by: Joy Ellis
  • Narrated by: Richard Armitage
  • Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,562 ratings)

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Their Lost Daughters

Written by: Joy Ellis
Narrated by: Richard Armitage
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Publisher's Summary

Introducing Audible Exclusive Their Lost Daughters, the first in the Jackman and Evans crime series, written by Joy Ellis, Audible's breakthrough crime author of 2018.

Deep in the muddy fields of the Lincolnshire Fens, a teenage girl is found wandering, delirious, claiming to have been drugged at a party. Metres away, the drowned body of another girl is found on an isolated beach. And all this on a small stretch of land where, nearly 10 years ago, the shocking disappearance of a young girl remains an open case. 

For DI Rowan Jackman and DS Marie Evans, the pressure is on to bring the perpetrators of these shocking crimes to justice. Are the crimes linked? Who are these young girls? And what on earth is going on under the green and pastured land of the Lincolnshire Fens? 

An Amazon Kindle number one best seller, Their Lost Daughters by Joy Ellis is performed by the incredible Richard Armitage (The Hobbit) and available exclusively at Audible. Be prepared for your pulse to rise and your nights to be disturbed as our breakthrough crime author of 2018 weaves her dark web of mystery. Perfect for fans of Sarah A. Denzil, LJ Ross and Denzil Meyrick. 

About the author 

Joy Ellis is not your ordinary newcomer to crime fiction. She started work in the 1960s as an apprentice florist in Covent Garden before opening her own flower shop in Lincolnshire. Later in life, she began to consider a career change towards crime writing and attended a workshop in Greece led by Sue Townsend, author of Adrian Mole. Ellis has now left the flowers behind and dedicates her life to writing gritty crime thrillers set in the Fens, where she lives with her police officer partner. 

About the narrator 

Richard Armitage is a British actor known for his vast array of film, television and theatre work, including The Hobbit, Spooks and The Crucible. His trademark baritone voice has earned him recognition, too, through his performance on many notable audiobooks as well as in TV and radio show narration. 

His audiobook credits include The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde featured in The Monster Collection, David Copperfield, and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, and this experience shines through in Armitage's gripping performance of Their Lost Daughters

©2017 Joy Ellis (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

What the critics say

"If you’re a crime fiction fanatic, Their Lost Daughters could well be your next obsession." (Digital Spy)

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What listeners say about Their Lost Daughters

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Amazing!

I was looking for something in the same vein after reading Lethal White and found this. Was so well done I read it in almost one day. And anything Richard Armitage reads is worth listening to just for his voice. But this is well paced beautifully written.

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17 people found this helpful

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Excellent performance

Richard Armitage’s narration drew me into the content immediately and was a perfect introduction to the world of Jackman and Evans. I’m looking forward to exploring more of Joy Ellis’ work - hopefully with Richard Armitage at the mic - and I’d recommend this book for anyone who is a fan of crime drama. #Audible1

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10 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Good Start!

The voice actor was very good and was able to separate all the characters with different voices, which was impressive. I liked both main characters because they weren't reckless like often happens in these types of books. I will definitely read the next book when available. #audible1

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7 people found this helpful

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Short, but engrossing.

Good, unpredictable and strange mystery story. The protagonists are such believable characters that I was sorry to end the book. The narrator was excellent and really helped the book come to life. I'll definitely read more of the series as I want to know how my 'new friends' are doing and what mysteries they are unravelling

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5 people found this helpful

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  • Yom
  • 2019-12-05

Amazing!

Has a real old-crime thriller vibe. The narrator is AMAZING. the story is thrilling. Cant complain. The ending was a bit bland but I suppose most real world crime endings are. Regardless amazing book and narrator experience.

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2 people found this helpful

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Great book

One of the best books i have read in some time. This book kept me guessing. Great plot, and memorable characters. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a great detective novel.

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Excellent who dunit.

At times I felt there were too many characters but all were needed for this intertwined storyline.

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1 person found this helpful

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I could not stop listening

I loved every part of this book. This Author had me intrigued the whole time and fabulous work done by the Narrator.
This is a must listen to book.

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Best story and fabulous narrator

This story draws you in and keeps you on your toes throughout. The narrator is wonderful and truly adds to the story presentation. Well done. I will be looking for more by this writer for sure.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Richard Armitage Could Narrate the Back of a Shampoo Bottle ...

... and I'd be enraptured. By the way, great story, too ;) love the sleuth work and characterization.

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  • Wild Horses Flying
  • 2018-09-29

Disappointed

I have really liked Ellis's Fens series with Nikki Galena and crew - good plots, characters with depth. This one, "Their Lost Daughters" doesn't have much plot but is more just a fleshed out animation of the awfulness of kidnap, abuse and killing but WORST is that Ellis has gone off the deep end with overblown emotionalism - like a soap opera. If you like soap opera you'll probably like this. If she'd had an editor other than Audible - the editor would probably have pointed this out to Ellis or just not published it. None of the Fens books bulged out this way - they contained and expressed strong emotion but kept it contained within the body of the whole - so it was very effective and an important contributing element. Neither Jackman nor Evans are interesting.
Audible has made much ado about Armitage's sexy deep resonant voice - which it IS and I'm sure he IS a good actor but in this reading he uses his voice to only further the over-done emotionalism. He also puts pauses in his pacing which, on stage, are exactly right but which in reading a book are distracting and irritating.
I don't know what Ellis was thinking . . . but, for her sake, I don't think this book should have been published.

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69 people found this helpful

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  • Wayne
  • 2018-06-16

Author Joy Ellis never disappoints!!

THEIR LOST DAUGHTERS is the 10th novel by Joy Ellis I have listened to and reviewed at Audible. Joy Ellis is lauded as "Audible's breakthrough crime author of 2018". I hope Audible is correct and this wonderful author now gets the attention the quality of her work deserves. For those familiar with her DI Nikki Galena eight novel series this novel is set in the Fens, an area on the east coast of England about 50 miles northeast of London that was reclaimed from the sea and marshes several centuries ago, like Ellis' other modern detective novels. The plot is an excellent one with two new protagonists (Jackman and Evans) introduced. Narration by Richard Armitage is excellent but not quite as good in my opinion as that of Henrietta Meire who narrated the Nikki Galena series. The next two audio books in the Jackman and Evans series will be released by Audible October.

Highly recommended!

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43 people found this helpful

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  • Lia
  • 2019-02-14

Really Good

This is my first foray into Joy Ellis territory and I must admit that THEIR LOST DAUGHTERS is a novel that demonstrates her ability to provide character rich and atmospheric crime fiction that places her reader smack in the center of the action.

Set in and around the Lincolnshire fens (an area in England that sounds amazingly like the Louisiana/Mississippi River delta in the United States) DAUGHTERS is a chilling book filled with unusual plot twists and deception that literally compels you to keep reading.

Featuring the overworked team of officers of the Fenland police department and their simultaneous investigation of two different cases, there are as many story lines and personalities at work here as the threads in a fine tapestry. Evil abounds in this tale and revealing even a portion of the story line might reduce the enjoyment of potential readers and ruin the surprises generated by Ms. Ellis’s creative and inventive writing skills.

Richard Armitage was amazing with the delivery of the story

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27 people found this helpful

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  • Janna Wong Healy
  • 2018-07-09

Dreary and Predictable

In a word: meh. I wanted to like this mystery but the best part of it was Richard Armitage's narration. I found the story to be sometimes diverting but mostly, it was dreary and predictable. I was not surprised by any of the twists or turns and the writing was pedestrian and lacking in insight.

Most importantly, I never got a chance to know the two detectives -- they went through their paces and did a good job of uncovering the crimes but without any hint at their personalities or knowledge of their private lives, there was no sense of satisfaction when they solved the crimes successfully.

Richard Armitage is, as usual, phenomenal. He is such a wonderful narrator. I would listen to him read the phone book. Really.

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24 people found this helpful

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  • Molly
  • 2018-07-18

Awful story, good characters, great performance

The narrator is great with wonderful, accurate accents. The author has good, well rounded main characters, but the plot and story is utterly implausible and ridiculous.

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  • 🌿🌸Susynne🌸🌿
  • 2018-06-16

Well written, excellent performance

Well written and performed. This deep twisted tale wound its way through a maze of clues and histories to expertly weave an intriguing spell upon the listener.

Taking place in the U.K. it did throw this American girl for a loop here and there... but nothing that took away from the expertly crafted experience.

Heat Factor totally non existent, although the subject matter was frankly a tad shocking and only sort of graphic.

Creditworthy? Heavens yes!

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  • Ruth Nielsen
  • 2019-02-02

Excellent Introduction to a New British Detective Series

I really enjoy a well-written British police procedural as the good ones are focused on solving a mystery without all the guns, car chases and gratuitous sex that saturate the American crime stories. I was happy to stumble on this series by Joy Ellis. The main characters are decent people who are trying to do a difficult job. The mystery is complex and well developed. The narrator is fabulous and brings each character to life. A five star listen for me and I’ll be ordering the rest of the series hoping they are equally good.

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  • Katinka
  • 2018-06-28

Don't understand all the hype.

The only thing that made me finish this book was the narration. I found the book boring and my mind wandered often. If I have to hear Jackman tell his team to "get to bed and rest because things are going to get worse" one more time...

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  • alma
  • 2018-06-14

A Psychological Thriller

The story is well written and flows. It incorporates elements of drama, mystery, action, and paranoia. The police officers interactions with the public and politics within their own division is integrated with a very interesting story. Richard Armitage does stellar work in transitioning his voices from narrator and all the characters. His storytelling is flawless and the listener is hooked from the start.

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13 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Missy
  • 2018-08-06

OK but not all that

I started listening to this book because of the hype that was around it, however it isn't all as its hyped up to be.

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12 people found this helpful

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  • Marie-Helene Pigott
  • 2021-05-11

Average thriller

The detective work and plot are tedious, answers expected from the questions. No indepth as to the detectives psychologies. I was never in it.

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  • drum
  • 2019-02-07

Correct mais sans plus...

Et pourtant, je trouve habituellement que la narration de Richard Armitage est parfaite. Ce n'est pas que ce n'est pas le cas ici, mais j'ai eu un mal fou à rentrer dans l'histoire et à y rester. Peut-être que je ne suis pas fan des romans policiers et que les différents accents n'aident pas (c'est sûr que je ne suis pas du tout du Lincolnshire) mais je n'ai pas trouvé cela beaucoup mieux qu'une "anale" série policière. J'ai quand même acheté la suite, pour la voix, mais il me reste à l'écouter...

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