The Dying Light

Detective Matt Ballard Series, Book 3

By: Joy Ellis

Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies

Length: 9 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

Whisper Fen Holds Dark Secrets 

As the mists roll over the fens and enigmatic lights twinkle in the distance, only the locals know their way along the hidden paths through the mysterious watery terrain of one of England's most beautiful and sometimes dangerous places. 

Detective Matt Ballard may have retired but there's still plenty going on in the fens to keep him busy. 

Someone trashes an old lady's garden and daubs her isolated cottage with hateful graffiti. Emilia Swain seems to be totally harmless, so why is she being targeted? 

Matt's best friend Will and his wife Kate moved to Holland House to put their past behind them. But Kate's mental state is deteriorating and she's obsessed with the tragic history of the house and an old doll she finds in the garden.

And why is Kate suddenly friends with a loner who haunts the fens? Has the dreadful past come back to haunt the present owners?

Former detectives Matt and Liz want to help their friends and neighbors. But how can you help people who don't want to be helped?

©2020 Joy Ellis (P)2020 Tantor

Not Like Joy Ellis

The books of Joy Ellis are usually well developed and very interesting. This one was just flat out strange and hard to believe. It’s like it was written by someone else. The narrator is excellent, but the story is very odd. It’s a stretch.

I love Joy Ellis but this was disappointing

This is nothing like her other books. There is no mystery here, no drama, just some neighbors who need help and two retired detectives. Listening to the tale of the mentally ill woman declining is just very sad. The story really goes nowhere.

Not one of Joy Ellis’ best stories.

I normally enjoy all of Joy’s different series but this storyline was too drawn out and not her usual style of course detective mystery . I persisted cause I wanted to see how it ended but it was not as interesting as her previous books.

it's as bad as reviews show

Sometimes I wonder, "how bad can it be? when one of my favorite authors release a book and the reviews are not so great. Turns out, it can be pretty bad. This particular book was an all around waste of time. It's agonizingly slow and the ending doesn't make up for the lack of plot. I can get my credit back but I certainly can't get those hours of listening back

dull story

severe patronizing tones in all relatioships within the novel. i think the story itself made me dislike the narrator. snooze

Good, but a few annoying details

I like Joy Ellis overall, but I had a hard time accepting that all of these folks went along for so long with NOT getting a very sick woman professional help — especially two mental health professionals. The other thing was when help was sought all of this FREE private mental health services - like right, that happens.

Very distressing. Poor quality for this author.

I feel like every storyline in this book left you feeling hopeless. Every professional let all of the characters they were supposed to help down. All I could say at the end was, "are you kidding me!" Joy Ellis has let me down with this one.

Disappointed

More like a Miss Marple than Joy Ellis. I have loved all her other books but this one was very disappointing. Narrator’s hung ho style didn’t help. I kept waiting for it to improve but it never did.

The dying light

Not a bad book but not one of the best. Narration was good was OK

brilliant and super scary

One of Joy Ellis' best. Really great plot, very griping and well read too - highly recommended.

The performer’s accent work is awful.

The story is good and enjoyable, but the every time the performer has to do an accent it is atrocious! It spoils the book quite a lot, which is a shame as I love Joy Ellis’ work.

Best I have listened to in ages.

This story has been terrific not surprised as the author Joy Ellis has a history of writing great books. As it was Just after Christmas I gave myself the whole day listening to it being lay in my onesie. The Narrator always brilliant also.

Very disappointing

Not up to Joy's usual standard. Slow & laboured. It was very dificult to get into and embrace the charactures. All very negative and depressing.

dull

really struggled to get through this book, it was very dull and slow. skipped forward a lot but very uninteresting.

Depressing

I have enjoyed all of the other books by this Author, but not this one. I was constantly checking to see how much longer there was left to listen to because I wanted the book to finish. I was thoroughly depressed by the ending and am now scouring Audible for an uplifting, cheerful treat