Roz Watkins Books In Order

Publication Order of DI Meg Dalton Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Roz Watkins is the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of mystery and thriller fiction that is best known for the “DI Meg Dalton” series.

She made her debut with the Dagger Award-shortlisted novel “The Devil’s Dice,” which she published in 2018.

She has since become known for penning novels that often explore controversial issues that she has a strong opinion on, such as factory farming and assisted suicide.

Apart from her long-form novels, Roz has been a contributor to anthologies such as the short story collection “Noir from the Bar,” which came out during the pandemic, whose proceeds were donated to the NHS.
Before becoming an author, she went to the University of Cambridge where she graduated with a Natural Sciences and Engineering degree.

Upon graduation, she was a partner in a Derby-based law firm, where she worked for many years as a patent attorney.

While practicing in Derby, she went to the University of Derby, where she got a postgraduate certificate in coaching. She is also an animal trainer and qualified hypnotherapist.
She regularly runs workshops and courses on commercial fiction writing and how to get published.

Watkins has often said that she loved working as a patent attorney but she always felt that there were a ton of things she would have loved to do but never had the energy or time to explore.

At some point, she decided that she needed to follow her interests in writing given that she had just one life. Writing is something she always wanted to do even though never once had she thought she could make it into a career.

After leaving her job as a patent lawyer, she went into a learning frenzy as she studied everything from animal training to psychology. Since she had some money, Roz also bought two-holiday cottages that she renovated and rented out with her partner.
As she was dealing with mortar and troublesome builders, she found her mind turning towards murder. Watkins also found that her long-held dream of one day becoming a fiction author started coming back even stronger.

She had often been told that getting published by mainstream publishers was practically impossible. However, she believed that with a little enthusiasm and talent, she could learn how to write and get published.

Watkins decided to learn by studying published novels and reading books about writing. While she initially believed it would take about five years, she got published within just two years.

Unlike most authors, Roz Watkins did not join an online course but instead decided to join an online writer critique website called “Scribophile.”

She learned a lot from analyzing and reading the writings of other authors and getting other authors to read and comment on what she had written.

Watkins would then make use of the internet to hunt out websites by published authors and literary agents, as she subjected herself to potential humiliation, submitting her synopses and first pages to agents.
Things started looking even better when she joined Kindle Unlimited and got access to a ton of books on writing for only a few dollars.

As for her inspirations, she use to love Dick Francis and Enid Blyton as a child even though during this time, she credits the likes of Kate Atkinson, Sophie Hannah, Lionel Shriver, Agatha Christie, and Tana French.
She currently makes her home in Falmouth where she loves swimming in the sea when the weather is right and sometimes walking in the country looking for murder locations.
Roz also loves eating cake and drinking coffee while she plans her next novel.

“The Devil’s Dice” is the first novel of the “DI Meg Dalton” series of novels by Roz Watkins.

It introduces detective inspector Meg Dalton who has just been transferred to Peak District and her hometown. She asked for the transfer to be closer to her mother and care for her grandmother even as it is also an opportunity for a fresh start.
Soon after her arrival, a lawyer is discovered dead in a famous cave and she has to determine if it was suicide or murder, even though it is certain that he ate some poisoned cake.

They soon learn that the lawyer had changed a few months before his death, even as there are rumors about a haunted house whose residents over the decades died under mysterious circumstances.
Meanwhile, Meg is dealing with private life worries, while her mother is proving to be not so good at taking care of her grandmother.

Roz Watkins’ “Dead Man’s Daughter” continues to follow Detective Inspector Dalton who is a likable character despite all the skeletons in her closet.

These come back to haunt her when she is charged with investigating the case of a 10-year-old that could not be more disturbing.

The kid’s father had been discovered murdered and all the evidence points to Abbie the 10-year-old. The interesting thing is that both father and daughter are afflicted with a genetic condition and both had heart transplants.
The big question is whether it is possible that the child’s heart was reliving the memories of the donor and had taken the personality traits of the donor too.

Things are also made worse by the fact that Abbie is taking anti-rejection drugs that have been exacerbating her aggression. Despite all the evidence, the Detective Inspector believes someone else must be responsible for the murder.
With Jai Sanghera her ally by her side, she dives deep into an investigation in which she is forced to confront some of the darkest facets of human behavior and psychology.

“Cut to the Bone” is the interesting third work of the “DI Meg Dalton” series of novels by Roz Watkins.

The work is set in Peak District Derbyshire which is undergoing a scorching and sweltering heat in addition to drought. But things are about to get worse when Violet Armstrong a beautiful young woman, and controversial vlogger goes missing.
She had made a name for promoting meat consumption but is now suspected to be dead, murdered at the workplace at the Gritton Abattoir.

Meg and her colleagues including Detective Sergeant Craig Cooper and Detective Sergeant Jai Sanghera work on what has to be one of the most twisted and sinister cases.

They have to work under intense pressure from social and traditional media, even as they soon have to confront a vigilante group fighting for animal rights and men in balaclavas who love nothing more than the indiscriminate killing of animals.
Trolled and threatened on social media, there are also aspersions cast on her competence and allegations of bias.