The Fourth Friend

By: Joy Ellis

Narrated by: Richard Armitage

Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

Crimebusting duo DI Jackman and DS Evans are back, solving another crime that will make your skin crawl.

Police detective Carter McLean is the only survivor of a plane crash that kills his four best friends. He returns to work, but he is left full of guilt and terrible flashbacks. So for each of his four friends, he decides to complete something that they left unfinished.

Eighteen months before the crash, Suzanne Holland disappeared, leaving a room with traces of blood but no other leads. Suzanne was the wife of one of Carter’s four best friends. Adding to the pressure, the boss’ niece has a stalker. Due to the sensitivity of the Holland case, Carter is put on this investigation.

DS Marie Evans is the only person Carter can confide in. But even she begins to doubt whether he can really cope and whether he is actually losing his mind. DI Jackman and DS Evans of the Fenland police face a battle to untangle three mysteries, and can they really believe their friend and colleague Carter?

©2017 Joy Ellis (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

Ellis/Armitage knocks it out of the park again!

Wow! Joy Ellis never disappoints. Her attention to character development and details is superb. Her attention to police investigative techniques and forensics adds to the richness of her stories that grabs you from the start. Richard Armitage makes Ellis's stories a living, breathing story that cannot fully be described. You are transported as if you are standing right next to each person and inside each scene. He electrifies all five of your senses and holds your attention where you cannot stop listening. You have to know what happens next.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Joy Ellis thriller with a change of pace

Once again Richard Armitage takes a good plot and makes it better with his performance. Great character writing from Ellis.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Nah

This was a let down after how much I enjoyed "Their Lost Duaghters". The narrator is one of my favorites but this story fell flat for me. There was simply no flow and I found it difficult to figure out where the focus was intended. Was it the crash, the missing wife, the fued with the super, the dead guys? None of it panned out and how it was all explained was weak, making the end predicable and a bit absurd. I wouldn't suggest this book to a friend and I don't think it's any where close to as good as other books I've read by Joy Ellis.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Highly Recommended

A bit different from the previous titles in the series, so open your miiiind... The plot was not what I expected. Once I stopped trying to make the story fit my expectations, I was immersed in Joy Ellis' wonderful writing. The characters are very human so it was easy to connect with them. Richard Armitage paints the story with expert narration in a sinfully talented voice. Overall, a five star listen.

Ellis Gets Into The Groove!

In cricketing parlance Ellis is like an expert with the bat, she's settled in, maybe had one or two very minor scratchy moments but now she's established her rhythm and is starting to stroke the ball around the ground with some elegance. She has shown extremely fine judgement with this book having built a very likeable pair in Jackman and Evans. This is more psychologically oriented and to allow her story freedom to breathe and grow organically she knows when to let her leads step back and let other characters have their moments in the limelight.

Jackman and particularly Evans are extremely human characters, perhaps more caring than your average fictional detectives and this does give an additional angle to some of the plotlines. The Fourth Friend is about a colleague who is particularly vulnerable and some of the relationships between the characters such as him and Evans and an old friend of his were carried off to near perfection. Although the book starts quite literally with a crash there is no great action in it at all after that and so it was those relationships and personal traumas that kept me engrossed from start to finish.

Of course such a story is brilliantly suited to Armitage's very considered narration. He is one of the smoothest narrators I think I've heard which put together with the story makes The Fourth Friend a very compelling package and this series is now firmly ensconced on my Must Read list!

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

An enticing mystery!

My favourite of the Jackman and Evans thrillers, from the clues, the conversations and conclusions I was hooked on this book more so than the last two and I'll definitely be listening to this one again.

Loved it

This is the third Jackman and Evans book I've listened to and I love Richard Armatige as the Narrator. I've just finished this and Im not sure I've ever cried at a book but I did at this.
cant wait to listen to more.

Gripping, brilliant

Really love these books, compulsive listening! Can’t wait for another! Keep writing please Joy Ellis!

fourth friend

this book is brilliant I couldn't wait to find out the ending .narration was perfect really enjoyed it .

I wonder what is going to happen in this book

I have just got into the series and I am hooked on the characters and there stories

2 of 4 people found this review helpful