• The Bag of Secrets

  • Detective Matt Ballard Mystery, Book 6
  • By: Joy Ellis
  • Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
  • Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (54 ratings)

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The Bag of Secrets  By  cover art

The Bag of Secrets

By: Joy Ellis
Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
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Publisher's summary

Matt and Liz may have retired from the police, but that doesn't guarantee a quiet life.

An abandoned carpet bag full of mysterious handwritten notes. A body in a marshy lagoon.

Matt is intrigued when his partner Liz brings home an old carpet bag she found dumped in the local library. It contains a pile of mysterious handwritten notes. Liz is convinced the bag belongs to Old Molly, a local woman who lives on the streets.

The following day, a body is discovered in a marshy lagoon. It's Old Molly. Suffocated with an expensive men's handkerchief.

Molly clearly knew something that got her killed. Liz believes she was trying to tell them something important. She calls on her nephew David to help decipher the carpet bag notes.

Meanwhile Matt is hired to find teenage runaway Liam Cooper. Liam has been missing for ten days now, and Matt has a very bad feeling about him. A few days later, a second body is discovered in an old barn out on the fens.

Matt and Liz must piece together the cryptic clues Molly has left for them before more people die. The answers lead to the remote fenland village of Marshdyke-St-Mary—and a series of shocking secrets stretching back many years.

©2023 Joy Ellis (P)2024 Tantor

What listeners say about The Bag of Secrets

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

love the characters

Nothing. Excellent story and wonderful narrator. Love everything Joy Ellis writes. Can't wait for her next one.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent storyline!

Absolutely worth the wait! Excellent storyline that kept me guessing. And LOVED the other characters of the story - hoping that they weave in in future stories! Joy outdid herself - especially despite her not feeling well! Thanks for such an amazing book!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Twists and puzzles

The characters and detailed descriptions of personalities, places and clues. The different atmospheres of the scenes

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Confusing bunch of characters

Disappointed with this installment. Too many characters; confusing storyline, and reader went totally overboard on sing-song accents.
Just not the best overall.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

This is best in the series !

What a great book. It took you through a women’s mysterious life who was once was a woman of great talent and ended up a bag lady to save her life. Matt and Liz are brought in to find out what happened. The series of events and happenings will keep you listening to the very end. The introduction to new characters brings life and vitality into the series. Can not wait for the next book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fun!

Another great mystery/detective story from Joy Ellis, love the characters, it was fun to try to figure out before I got to the end.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Way to long

The story dragged on too long and got boring. I had to force myself to finish it. I will try again with the next in the series as I like the characters

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not as enjoyable as the others

I’ve enjoyed the previous ones more so am a little disappointed with this one. Without being too specific, I think the biggest challenges with this one are:
-so much was wrapped up in the (very long) epilogue. It seems like the book should have been longer or maybe it was but that was edited out in the writing process and we were stuck with all the aha moments in the epilogue
-a lot was left out regarding multiple characters. We are just TOLD facts about the police grandfather, the screwed up families and not allowed to discover through character development. Same with the whole training of the teens. It’s like that was a side element that wasn’t fully flushed out.
I’ll still read any others to come in the series but hope they will be more in keeping with previous books.

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