Synopsis
A SHOCKING DEATH
A lawyer is found dead in a Peak District cave, his face ribboned with scratches.
A SINISTER MESSAGE
Amidst rumours of a local curse, DI Meg Dalton is convinced this is cold-blooded murder. There’s just one catch – chiselled into the cave wall above the body is an image of the grim reaper and the dead man’s initials, and it’s been there for over a century.
A DEADLY GAME
As Meg battles to solve the increasingly disturbing case, it’s clear someone knows her secrets. The murderer is playing games with Meg – and the dice are loaded…
My Review
If there’s one thing that this Ginger Book Geek likes, it’s discovering a new writer, or at least a writer new to me. I read the synopsis of ‘The Devil’s Dice’ and it appealed to me in a few different ways . My first thought on finishing the book was ‘Wow, just wow’ as I absolutely LOVED it but more about that in a bit.
I absolutely love the character of DI Meg Dalton. The book finds her with a recent promotion and she is just getting used to her new rank. It’s obvious that something has happened in her recent past that still affects her to this day. At first you don’t know just what it is but the author drops little hints throughout the book. Despite the scars from her past, Meg tries not to let them affect her present more than they have to. Meg is a strong, feisty, ambitious, sensitive lady. She loves her police career and she has worked darn hard to get where she is today. Meg is sympathetic to the victims of crime and does what she can to achieve justice for the victims of crime and their families. Meg is also blinking hard working and quite often does more than her fair share of the workload. She feels that she has got to prove herself if that makes sense and show that her promotion was justified. She has the respect of most of her colleagues although there was one of her co-workers that I could have quite cheerfully slapped around the chops with a wet flip flop and that is DS Craig Cooper. He is quite snide about Meg and because I liked her so much, I felt defensive of her. Cooper is one of those stereotypical misogynistic, racist, homophobic police officer dinosaurs from the last century and quite frankly that’s where he belongs. Cooper also sees to have a chip (or maybe a whole bag of chips) on his shoulder about the fact that he thinks he should have been promoted instead of Meg, he can’t accept that not only has a woman (shock horror) got the rank of Inspector before him, he actually has to work for her to boot. Cooper intimidates Meg somewhat although she tries her hardest not to react.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my review I absolutely loved reading ‘The Devil’s Dice’. The story started in such a memorable way that it had grabbed my attention from the first page onwards and ensures that the story stays in my mind for a heck of a long time to come. The nature of the crime is unusual and not exactly something you come across every day. Once I started reading, I found that I became addicted to the story and I had to get my next fix of just one page, just one more chapter and well you get the picture. The page numbers and the time just flew past at speed and before I knew it I was halfway through the book, but because I was so ‘into’ the story I hadn’t realised how I far I had got. The book is so well written that I had a hard time of believing that ‘The Devil’s Dice’ is a debut novel, as the writing is so polished and so confident. I loved the setting of Derbyshire as I have family down there and I loved recognising place names and landmarks. I loved the strong female character of DI Meg Dalton. Reading ‘The Devil’s Dice’ was a lot like being on a very unpredictable rollercoaster with lots of twists, turns, moments where you feel your heart rate increase and you hold your breath because you genuinely fear what is going to happen next.
In short I absolutely, totally and utterly 100 % loved reading ‘The Devil’s Dice’ and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to other readers. It’s certainly a brilliant book, which is sure to be a hit. I can’t wait to read what comes next from this hugely talented if slightly twisted author. Here’s hoping that there isn’t too long a wait in store. Roz Watkins has shot up onto my list of most favourite and must read authors and ‘The Devil’s Dice’ has to be one of my favourite books of 2018. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a well deserved 5* out of 5*.
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