This is the third book featuring DI Meg Dalton. I haven’t read the others in the series and this stands alone.

The central mystery become really interesting. Social media and Queen of bikini BBQing, Violet Armstrong goes missing. Animal rights campaigners are the prime suspect but things take a gruesome twist when blood is discovered in a pig through and it becomes a distinct possibility that Violet has been killed and fed to the pigs.

As Dalton and her team start to investigate there is a clear sense that there is more to the village of Gritton than it appears. Local folk lore tales of a Pale Child appearing during times of drought, former residents who refuse to go back and very strained relationships.

Why is a beautiful teenage social media star working in an abattoir in a Derbyshire village in the first place?

As the investigation deepens and the secrets are revealed this story takes you down some shocking paths and while you may have suspicions as to who is involved I guarantee you won’t suspect how. There are some very strange and sinister things going on behind Gritton’s cottage doors.

Meg Dalton is an interesting character. She has her own back story and tragic past. She’s a workaholic fighting her feelings for her coworker.

At times I found the subplots based around relationships between the team of police a little distracting. They didn’t really add much to the story and seemed to be there to go off and ring Dalton with information that was needed to move the investigation along. Girlfriends and wives appearing to ask Dalton to intervene in the relationships did not seem necessary.

I really liked the stories of the Pale Child which were really connected to the Peak District landscape and the history of the village. These added an extra dimension to the story.

I enjoyed this book and would definitely read more in the series. If you like British police crime thrillers I think you will like Roz Watkins.

A strange and shocking case of a young missing girl with clues that her remains had been fed to pigs. The girl is high profile engaged in advertising for meat industry and working for Abattoir that serves the local pig farms. The case entwines with the personal lives of the investigating team as the case becomes political with involvement of Animal rights and possible conflicts of interest because the DI in change is Vegetarian. As the location is at a small village with a close community and plagued by stories of ghosts and mysterious deaths in the past the investigating team is bemused by all the different conflicting leads that appear. What really happened to the missing girl and how all the ends gets tied makes a most fascinating and unusual detective story that throws a light on the meat industry and animal welfare.

I enjoyed this story very much. It covers many issues! DI Meg Dalton has a varied team working for her. They are good detectives, but all, including Meg, have family issues, and some have problems with each other. The story begins with an investigation into a missing girl, semi-famous because of the u-tube videos she makes. At the time she goes missing she has an evening job cleaning in an abattoir. When one of the day staff arrives they find her car parked in a different place than normal, but no sign of Violet. There are however, signs of violence, and gruesome theories about how Violet has been killed.

The story has links with an event that happened many years previously, but the people involved are not talking, and as the story progresses it seems that they are gradually being picked off by a killer. We see actions and reactions by a couple of animal rights groups, some of which are extremely gruesome and do their causes no favours at all. The police work steadily to a conclusion, but with the many twists and turns in the story they don’t come to the correct conclusion, although they are close! The twist at the end is really quite shocking, however does mirror real-life events that we have all read about, so not terribly far-fetched!

An absorbing book that makes you think about many issues. Very well worth reading. I received a copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, and am delighted to write an honest review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked up this book but it definitely wasn’t this. There’s a creepy abattoir, a legend about a ghost that kills you if you see it’s face, a village that’s fighting over meat, human blood in a pig trough and a missing girl. It really was a great read. The peak district setting added to the creepiness.

There were a few suspects suggested and I really didn’t have a clue. The reality was so much darker than I expected. I mean what an ending. Unfortunately, it was a bit slow in places which is why I dropped a star. I haven’t read the other books but I will definitely be picking them up to find out more about Meg because I did like her character.

I received a copy of the ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

It's the first book I read in this series and won't surely be the last because I loved it.
It's an excellent thriller, gripping and entertaining, that kept me hooked till the end and turning pages very fast.
I loved Meg, she's a great and well rounded characters, as much as I loved the storytelling and the character development.
I can't wait to read the next instalment.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Cut to the Bone is the third book in the Detective Inspector (DI) Meg Dalton series but is fine to be read as a standalone.

The story is set in the village of Gritton in the Peak District, which is rather creepy and unwelcoming and no one seems to want to either visit or leave the place. The Derbyshire village has railings and cameras everywhere to keep the locals in check and sinister child-shaped bollards and painted fake sinkholes to scare off visitors!

When nearby Ladybower Reservoir was created in the 1940s, several villages were submerged by it and the residents were forced to move to Gritton. Over the last 30 years, there have been sightings of a mysterious girl, the Pale Child, who is rumoured to be the ghost of a murdered child who lived in the manor house in the former village.

Social media star, Violet Armstrong, aged 18, who barbecues burgers in a bikini, has gone missing from her summer job at Gritton Abattoir, where she works night shifts doing cleaning. DI Meg Dalton and Detective Sergeant (DS) Jai Sanghera are sent to investigate Violet’s disappearance and they speak to the owner of the abattoir, Anna Finchley, and her brother, Gary, and a man called Daniel Twigg, who also both work there.

With the help of Violet, Anna set up a website called The Great Meat Debate, with videos and posts on ethical meat producing and this has made them the target of an animal rights group called the Animal Vigilantes. The group wear horrible meat-patterned clothing and have made threats against Violet and the others involved in the website, including Kirsty Nightingale, who owns a pig farm. Her father, Tony, is also a pig farmer.

Set in two time periods, the book switches from Violet’s disappearance in the present day to August–October 1999, where we meet Bex who is visiting her dad, Tony Nightingale, and sister, Kirsty, in Gritton for a month. Their mum, Nina, left when Bex was three and headed back to her home country of Ukraine and Bex was sent to live with her Aunt Janet in Southampton.

Violet’s parents are on holiday in New Zealand and we learn that she was adopted and has headed to Gritton to find out more about her biological parents, who she believes have connections to the village.

When traces of human blood and hair are discovered in a pig trough at the abattoir, it appears that the worst has happened and Violet has been murdered and fed to the pigs.

As the police investigate further, it seems that there is more to the case than meets the eye and they discover that the whole village seems to be keeping secrets. DI Meg Dalton and DS Jai Sanghera struggle to crack the case and can’t get a break. Things take an even more sinister turn when the Justice for Violet group is formed and causes trouble and the police have to do battle with both activist groups which attack Meg online and in person.

Poor Meg is still struggling after the recent death of her gran and she has a lot to deal with, including a visit from her estranged father who seems to be acting suspiciously and being far too friendly. She has a good relationship and banter with her colleague, Jai, and I liked the way they work together, and I loved her cat, Hamlet!

This was a dark and engaging police procedural and I raced through it trying to work out who Violet’s killer was. There were several untrustworthy suspects but the plot actually turned out to be a lot more layered and complex than I expected and I hadn’t guessed how things were going to turn out at all! A gripping read and rather chilling, despite the intense, claustrophobic heat!

Overall, I really enjoyed this twisty and disturbing tale, which had a cleverly written storyline and kept me entertained throughout. There was lots of tension and some shocking moments.

I haven’t read the other books in the series, The Devil’s Dice and Dead Man’s Daughter, and although there were a few mentions of past events, I didn’t feel at a disadvantage. I have both books on my Kindle so will be checking them out to find out more about DI Meg Dalton’s history and discover what happened to her family members.

The Pale Child is a ghost if you let her see your face, you would be next to die. What started as a missing girl changed into murder with connection to the abattoir. What is the connection to the pigs and animal vigilantes. Is this just a smoke screen and the real secret lies in the sinister village of Gritton. There will be plenty of twists and turns to the very last page in this thrilling story.
I was given an arc of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Cut To The Bone is the third book featuring DI Meg Dalton and I am really enjoying this series. Meg Dalton is a likable character, strong, smart, relatable, even funny at times. She has a complicated family history, a rough past that sometime still sneaks up on her, and she is surrounded by a team of mostly likable detectives (there is a bad apple in every group).

In this new novel, DI Meg Dalton is investigating the sudden disappearance of Violet, an eighteen-year-old vlogger famous for videoing herself in bikini while she cooks meat and she has quite a following of fans and even a few haters. Violet’s disappearance triggers a social media war between groups of activists and when the war goes beyond simple insults on Facebook, DI Meg Dalton and her team need to find Violet before things get much worse.

Cut To The Bone takes place in the Peak District village of Gritton, a place that everyone seems to want to stay away from, surrounded by a gothic and claustrophobic atmosphere that gave me the chills just reading about it. Making things more sinister is the myth of the Pale Child, the ghost of a murdered child wandering around the village.

The story is brilliant, twisty and very-well-written. I love that it is told in first person from Meg’s point of view because, as I mentioned, she is a fantastic character and, as a reader, I enjoy being inside her head. This series just keeps getting better and better and I will certainly keep reading it (I am already looking forward to book number 4!). If you enjoy a good chilling police thriller, this one is for you. A fantastic read!

Violet Armstrong, an internet celebrity, famed for promoting meat, barbecuing wearing little more than just a bikini, has disappeared. She had been volunteering at the local abattoir, but disappears during the nightshift. Her car was still there but as for her – well, there are some very hungry pigs on site, ideal for disposing of a body without much of a trace…

DI Meg Dalton has her own worries – her grandmother has recently died, her father has come back into her life while her mother is planning a trip to El Salvador – but soon the case has to become her number one priority. With animal rights vigilantes on the rampage, and a murderer whose plans are far from over, Meg will find that secrets will always come to the surface, no matter deep they are buried…

Book three of the Meg Dalton series – following The Devil’s Dice and Dead Man’s Daughter – but I don’t think you have to read them in order, but to get the full force of the various traumas in Meg’s life, you possibly should. And that’s the only negative I’ve got about this one, something that often bugs me. There’s another event that happens in this one that I haven’t intimated at, but let’s hope for a bit of light in her life next time round.

Putting that to one side, Roz Watkins continues to astound me with her ability to juggle seemingly disparate plot strands into a coherent whole. Oh, I didn’t mention the Pale Child, a local spirit (?) who if you see it, basically you’re doomed. Violet saw it shortly before her disappearance. Oh, and she was searching for her mother, a woman who denies she ever had a child. And as for her father…

Anyway, the plot ricochets all over the place until we get to the tense finale, and again it’s a sign of the quality of the writing and the plotting that one aspect of the finale which had to potential to come across as a touch on the silly side, doesn’t due to the fact that everything to justify it had been put in place earlier in the tale. It’s like introducing the gun in chapter one that’s going to be fired in chapter three. Only with… well, that would be a spoiler.

The other thing worth noting, given the subject matter, is that the text never gets preachy in the vegetarian-vs-omnivore debate, laying both sides of the argument for the reader to make a judgement, should they care to.

So, another first rate mystery-thriller in this series. But let’s hope for a little light in Meg’s personal life next time.

Cut To The Bone is out tomorrow – June 25th – in the UK. Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the review copy.

I found this to be an intriguing and fascinating read with twists and turns thrown in. Well written, plotted and researched. I found that I got into this book straight from the start and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

DI Meg Dalton is called in to locate an eighteen year old girl, Violet Armstrong, when she disappears from the local abattoir, near the village of Gritton. Her car is still there, they find her watch with some blood on it and some of her blood in the troughs. Plus the pigs haven’t eaten all their food.

Meg gets police officers to question the villagers, as they try to find who was the last person to see Violet alive. Her friend Izzy lets them know she may have found some information concerning her real dad, her real mum was dead. That was why she was in Gritton. It then turns out she had been at Tony Nightingale’s farm on her last night. When they question him, he says, ‘she reckons she was my granddaughter!’ He then explained that he had a daughter Bex Smith but she didn’t have a baby although she had been living with his sister. She was now dead.

In 1999, Bex returned to the farm for a month to see her dad and sister, Kirstie. They were a bit like chalk and cheese. With Kirstie, she didn’t always know how to take her moods. It was the same with her dad. Perhaps she shouldn’t have come back. Kirstie liked being in control so she decided that Bex would have a leaving party and she would invite the crowd. Bex got on with them. They had the party in a field, with booze and Bex drank too much. Then she thought she saw the pale face in the woods. She was going to die according to the myth. The others chased the pale face and Bex stayed there, next thing she knew, someone was on top of her...who was it? They were the father of her baby. Bex and her aunt decided to adopt the baby, it was for the best.

This was a book with lots going on and very involved but when you get to the end, it will all be worth it. The ending was such a curveball I didn’t see it coming but it was fantastic.

DI Meg Dalton #3

A young woman is missing and Meg and her partner DS Jai Sanghera are investigating. Violet had been a social media star. Thenrace is on to find Violet before online threats explode into real life. But then the blood and hair of a woman are found in a pig through at the local abattoir where Violet works. Violets car is found outside in the car park at the abattoir. Violets social media posts angered local animal rights activists.

I did not k ow that this was the third book in a series when I requested the book but it does read well as a standalone. Thenstory is told in two timelines, 1999 and the present day. There's plenty of twists and sub plots. This is a fast paced and atmospheric read. I was hooked from the beginning. I couldn't read this book quick enough.

I would like to thank NetGalley, HQ and the author of Roz Watkins for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really good read. There is a lot of twists to the plot. The ending was a shock to me. I had guessed a few endings and they were not even close to the actual ending.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Another great read in the Meg Dalton series.
When a teenager goes missing Meg and the team are called to her place of work, which is where her car has been left. The abattoir is a strange place for a teenage girl to work but she was trying to find her family in the local area.
Violet was searching for her dad as she’d been told her mum had died but family can be a strange thing and as the story unwinds we realise the lengths people will go to to keep things hidden.
Meg is targeted by some animal rights people and whilst it was too obvious to be them killing and abducting people, they give the Police plenty to do.
This is a good crime thriller that kept me hooked throughout.
Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Overall opinion of the book:

Cut to the Bone is the third book in the DI Meg Dalton series. When I requested to be a part of the blog tour, I hadn’t realised this wasn’t a stand alone book (I later realised that I own the first book in the series – Devil’s Dice, which I definitely need to read now!). Although this is the third book, you can absolutely read it before reading the first two as each book focuses on a different investigation. There are references to the first and second books when referring to Meg’s personal life, but nothing that impacts the readers knowledge of the main plot.

There’s so much to unpack in this book, it was jam packed with many twists and turns. The story not only covers the disappearance of Violet, it also touches upon the strange case of the Pale Child and uncovers the past of many characters in the town of Gritton. Gritton is home to a pig abattoir and has a past of many deaths. Sightings of the Pale Child have been linked to the deaths and the storyline of the mystery behind this intrigued me so much.

Living in Wales, I live near a reservoir that is home to a flooded village. Similarly to the book, when we experience particularly warm weather, the church steeple can be seen above the water. The concept of there being a village underneath the water has always equally fascinated and terrified me. When I began reading this in the book I was hooked and found the storyline interesting and also creepy! I read some of Cut to the Bone late in the evening and I would be lying if I said it didn’t give me nightmares!

There were so many layers to the investigation and Watkins had me second guessing every character. You know a thriller is a good one, when you don’t fully guess what will happen. I had my suspicions, but nothing prepared me for the second half of the book and the ending in particular. I don’t want to give too much away, but Watkins tied everything up very well and I didn’t expect it at all.

As you can see from the trigger warnings above, this book isn’t for the faint hearted, and you’ll definitely need a strong stomach to read some of its content, but if you like books that are quite gory and a little bit disturbing, this will be right up your street!

I liked that the main detective was a woman. This is only the second detective book I’ve read where the main detective is female. Dalton is a headstrong and likeable character. The way in which she handles the situations she’s placed in is brilliant and she’s not afraid to stand up to her male counterparts. I wasn’t so keen with her feelings for a particular character in Gritton as I prefer character’s feelings to blossom over time. It did make some aspects of the book more interesting, but I personally wasn’t keen on the character she grew to like very much. Her relationship with Jai is interesting though and I want to know what will happen with them next!

I particularly enjoyed that there was constant action in Cut to the Bone, when there was a break in the investigation discussions, there was plenty of things happening in Dalton’s personal life that kept the book continuously interesting.

The story switches from past to present, focusing on Meg Dalton in the present and giving an insight to Bex, Violet’s mother, in the past. This was a brilliant technique as it gives the readers more of an insight to the characters living in Gritton when Bex was a teenager and adds further detail to the plot. It also allows the reader to understand Bex and some of the key character’s actions better.

The writing is fantastic, Watkins is a very talented writer. The plot was interesting throughout and the writing flowed well and was easy to follow. All of the conversations felt very natural and the writing didn’t feel forced at any point. I’d love to read more by Watkins in the future and will certainly be reading the first two books in the series and continuing with the series in the future.

The only niggle I had with the plot was that the Animal Rights activists were very vocal at the start of the novel and involved significantly, but as the book progresses, they’re not mentioned as much. I would have liked to have found out what they thought about the outcome of the investigation and also what Anna and other villagers in Gritton thought. I also wanted to find out who was responsible for what nearly happened to Hamlet as I don’t recall the person being responsible named.

There is lesbian, disability rep and also a brief mention of a transgender character in the book. Meg Dalton is a strong female character that knows her own mind and isn’t afraid to question the opinions of those around her. I liked that the author included a cat called Hamlet that appears in the story on more than one occasion. This is a lovely nod to her being a cat lover and I’m sure those who love cats as much as I do loved Hamlet just as much!

Final thoughts:

This was a brilliant thriller overall, it was haunting and kept me on my toes from beginning to end. The writing was brilliant and the plot was intricate and brilliantly thought out. It focuses on the idea of whether pigs can and will eat human remains. This idea for a book may not be to everyone’s tastes, but if you’re a horror fan or someone that likes to read particularly gruesome books, then this is probably something that’s crossed your mind in the past and is particularly intriguing as it is gruesome. Watkins has written a fantastic book and although some of the content is certainly not for the faint hearted, this is a must read for many. I can’t wait to read more books by Roz in the future!

#CuttotheBone #NetGalley This is the third in the DI Meg Dalton series and whilst reading the previous books gives you a better perspective of the main characters it is certainly more than capable of being read as a stand alone. Plenty of action this story starts of with a bang and plenty of gore! Easy to read with plenty of twists and turns and with an ending that was completely unexpected! I really like the character of Meg and I look forward to reading more in this series.

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. Even though this is book three in the series it is the first I have read. Before I even got 50 pages in I was kicking myself for not reading the earlier books. I loved the writing, the setting and the characters. I want to know more about all of this police team in Derbyshire.

If you read a lot of crime fiction like I do you probably struggle to find something original and I was pleased that everything about this book was. The investigation was one that I had never read anything similar to before, and even though Meg has some personal problems they were also different. Concerning parents rather than failed relationships. I enjoyed her relationship with her friend Hannah and her devotion to her cat Hamlet ( great name for a cat). And even though I would like to visit Ladybower reservoir I will go out of my way to avoid anywhere that looks like Gritton.

It is quite a gory read at times, not just with the crimes that are committed but also the everyday procedures at the abattoir. I will certainly be looking more closely at the meat products I buy in the future.

Violet came to work at a Derbyshire pig farm /abattoir whilst searching for her biological parents. Now she has disappeared and DI Meg Dalton is tasked with finding out what happened. Violet has appeared online barbecuing in a bikini. So has she become the target of animal rights activists or has something more sinister taken place? With suspicion centred on the pigs or the waste disposal contractors the tale takes on a split time line. Another disappearance occurred in 1999 linked to the appearance of The Pale Child. When the local reservoir level drops to reveal parts of the drowned village local legend has it that The Pale Child appears and presages a death.
Roz Watkins blends modern day farming methods and local beliefs. I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book but I did. Don't let initial revulsion put you off reading it. This is an author worth keeping an eye on.

'Cut To The Bone' is the third book in the best selling series featuring Detective Inspector Meg Dalton. I have followed the series from the start and I absolutely loved the first two books in the series. When I heard that Roz was due to release another book in the series, I just knew that I had to grab a copy as soon as I could and squirrel myself away until I had finished reading it. Oh boy, I thought that the first two books in the series were good but 'Cut To The Bone' is even better! I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Cut To The Bone' but more about that in a bit.
What can I say about Detective Inspector Meg Dalton? I warmed to her again from the start and it didn't take long before I felt as though I had reunited with an old friend. Meg's personal life isn't exactly straightforward. Meg's Grandma passed away after an illness and Meg carries a lot of personal guilt around with her. It's as if she is punishing herself. Meg is still grieving for her Grandma, which is understandable. Meg's work life is also slightly problematic but not to do with anything she has or hasn't done but a personality clash between certain members of her team. Meg is like a referee in a child's football match. Meg is a feisty detective, who goes above and beyond what you would normally expect of a police officer. If she is handed a case then you can guarantee that she will give 110% to the investigation and that she will not be satisfied until she has solved the case and apprehended the perpetrators (if there are any). Meg is kind, compassionate, sensitive, tough and tenacious.
Oh my flipping word, 'Cut To The Bone' was another amazing read from the hugely talented and twisted Roz Watkins. It didn't take me long at all to get into this story. In fact by the time I got to the end of the first page, that was it- I just knew that I wasn't going to be able to put the book down at all. I must be psychic because that's exactly what happened. The book wasn't exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me. I couldn't bear to miss a single second of the story for fear of missing a vital clue or a crucial development in the case. I read 'Cut To The Bone' is one long reading binge. I was so focussed on the story that I lost track of time and I didn't realise just how quickly I was reading the book until I looked up to check and I was staggered to realise that I had read almost a third of the book in one go. All too quickly I got to the end of the story and I had to say a temporary farewell to Detective Inspector Meg Dalton.
'Cut To The Bone' is superbly written but then I wouldn't expect anything else from Roz Watkins. I must say that the story certainly started with a bang, it hit the ground running and maintained the fairly fast pace throughout. I cannot honestly think of another book that has started in the same sort of way that 'Cut To The Bone' did- with the apparent disappearance of a young lass from an abattoir. What a way to get your attention!! Once Roz has your attention she will not let you have it back until the moment you read the last word on the last page. The story takes place using two different timelines- events as they happened in the recent past (I'm talking years ago) and the other timeline details things as they happen in the modern day. 'Cut To The Bone' is superbly plotted with so many twists and turns that I lost count. I think that the story is a bit like a parcel in a game of 'Pass The Parcel'- unwrap the top layer and half a dozen more layers emerge. I really did feel as though I was part of the story myself and another member of Meg's team, which is all thanks to Roz's very vivid and realistic storytelling.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Cut To The Bone'. As I indicated above, I thought that the first two books in the series were good but 'Cut To The Bone' is even better. The series featuring Detective Inspector Meg Dalton just goes from strength to strength and gets better and better. I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Roz's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

A young woman goes missing whilst working at an abattoir in the middle of a heat wave. The sleepy Derbyshire village of Gritton is shocked and disturbed by not only the act but by the police presence searching for her. In the scorching heat tempers flare and two opposing factions come together with appalling consequences. The Great Meat Debate has been active around the abattoir trying to disrupt its business, and on the back of Violet going missing a group of vigilantes called Justice For Violet are demanding the police do more to find her. A separate thread to the tale adds a ghostly White Girl vision who is said brings bad luck to those who see her face. Heat, ghostly sightings, fighting factions and bloody remains give Meg one hell of a nightmarish time as she tries to unravel all that is going on. Megs tenaciousness will not let her rest until the truth behind the missing girl is solved to her satisfaction, someone knows what happened to her and no amount of misdirection will throw her totally off the scent.

A book i enjoyed immensely , one that had many different threads pulling you all over the place . Stitch by stitch they came to together to complete the canvas of words. A picture of family secrets, murder, rape and insanity is slowly unveiled.A varied cast of characters brought together on a foundation that was once strong is now crumbling as Meg digs deeper and deeper into the past. The tension heats up in the book just as the weather does, its heavy , its suffocating and relentless. The build up brings all the main players together to deliver one of the most unexpected endings i have read so far this year. It was dark, it was insane and brilliantly done. So if a slow building tense book with a insanely brilliant realisation of an ending then give this book a read.

A family tragedy and how it affects the family relationships twenty years later - a fantastic read which keeps throwing u in different directions - it’s a complicated read which keeps u wanting for read more