All the elements of great noir

After taking some time off from work due to stress, DI Meg Dalton transfers from Manchester back to her home territory. Set in the Peak district, the brooding landscape, riddled with caves and secrets, establishes the tone beautifully for this story. Meg, still not fully recovered, finds herself having to cope with a grumpy boss, one who’s liable to throw the odd cactus when angry. Plus, a misogynistic sergeant who feels he should’ve had her job. Fortunately, she finds a loyal sidekick in the form of DS Jai Sanghera. Not long after she arrives, a body is discovered in an eerie cave. Is it suicide or murder? Beside the body lies a food wrapper, smelling suspiciously of bitter almonds. On a dank wall, overgrown with moss, Meg and Jai uncover a depiction of the Grim Reaper, along with the initials of the victim. Ms Watkins, skilfully and sensitively, deals with a highly emotive subject as she sends the reader, and her protagonist, through a dark labyrinth of deception, madness and fear, in search of the truth. Caro Clarke's narration is excellent.

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2 people found this helpful

Superb - looking forward to more in this series

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is a gripping story, with the sparky DI Meg Dalton as the very likeable lead character.

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5 people found this helpful

Very good

Absolutely loved it! Got my interest from the first minute. Gripping story, beautifully narrated, real pleasure to listen.

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2 people found this helpful

A generous 3 stars

Narration was very good and probably enabled me to get to the end of a very silly storyline. I got this book based on the reviews and am now of the firm belief that I must have been listening to something totally different from most other reviewers. Meg Dalton is a DI in the police force. I am not, but any, or indeed all mention of her job and how she does it seemed to show a definite lack of understanding of the job description or how the police work. Other snippets of information we are fed (probability theory, genetic disease, dark web, assisted suicide etc etc) seemed to be integrated into the plot line in a way that could have been so, so much better. I kept thinking the author had a potentially great idea but couldn't be bothered to undertake anything but the most basic research, and I use that term very loosely, to inform the reader and, of course, herself to write the book. Very disappointing.

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4 people found this helpful

Had to skip chapters with this one

Too drawn out for me, had to skip to last few chapters, I did not find it a page turner.

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2 people found this helpful

An entertaining tale.

Not your usual police procedural so if that's what you're expecting then maybe pass on this one, it's marvellous, do not get me wrong, but Meg is a flawed character (like most of us) and the characters in the story are all flawed characters too so it reflects reality far more than some tales of ex SAS turned Police Inspector I could mention but won't.

The story is a convoluted minefield revolving around around curses, sickness and assisted dying, it has a strong hold on reality at the end of the day, it's depressing but a great story, I love Meg as a character, flaws and all.

I had fun listening to this just now for the second time, after writing my review of Meg's second adventure which is just as great, so get them both if the above sounds interesting to you.

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1 person found this helpful

A load of old tosh

Travelling in France I was attracted by the promise of a twisty plot and the Peak District location
11 hours later I couldn’t believe what I had endured. A heroine with so many mental and physical ailments it’s amazing she ever managed to become a police inspector, a plot derived from a number of topical themes all mashed up to try to amplify the effect, writing so plodding it made you sigh and a narrator so downbeat and lacking in expression as to induce narcolepsy. Endless cups of tea, phone calls and “I’m going in..” Someone will pick this up for an ITV three part drama starring Caroline Quentin.

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4 people found this helpful

Going to return it

I've given this a good try, I've got about an hour into it. The narration is good but the rest of it is just quite silly. The dialogue is childish and unconvincing. After I'd cringed for the nth time I decided to move on to a better book.

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2 people found this helpful

Dreadful waste of time

The storyline was poor and the characters so totally unbelievable as to be comic. I couldn't bring myself to care what happened to any of them and so had to abandon it. Very disappointing.

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1 person found this helpful

Utter, unmitigated tosh

Really wanted to like this as I had been recommended it by a good friend....let's just say she won't be getting the fancy bottle of gin I had in mind for her for Christmas......she'll be getting the Primark socks. Her judgement is so off she'll never notice the downgrade!

Pretty awful on all levels.

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1 person found this helpful