The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid

When torrential summer rains uncover a bizarrely tattooed body on a hillside in England's Lake District, locals are convinced it is the corpse of Fletcher Christian, infamous mutineer on the Bounty. Though history records that Christian died in a massacre on Pitcairn Island, Lakelanders have long maintained that he returned home-where his old friend and schoolmate, William Wordsworth, risked facing the gallows by harbouring the fugitive. It was rumoured that the poet had written an epic verse recounting Christian's version of events, only to hide it away for fear its publication would result in his arrest. For the Wordsworth scholar Jane Gresham, the missing manuscript-if indeed it ever existed-is the ultimate prize. But on her trail is someone with a more than academic interest in the 200-year-old text, someone who will kill to get their hands on a bounty worth millions. Editorial Reviews The Barnes & Noble Review Blending psychological suspense with compelling historical fiction, Scottish crime writer Val McDermid's The Grave Tattoo revolves around a 200-year-old mystery involving the infamous Fletcher Christian (leader of the 1789 mutiny aboard the British Royal Navy ship Bounty) and a lost masterwork from English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. When an unusually rainy summer uncovers a body in the bog in England's Lake District, struggling Wordsworth scholar Jane Gresham is drawn into the mystery surrounding the 200-year-old, tattooed body. Part-time barmaid Gresham investigates, only to uncover information that could confirm the rumor that the legendary mutineer Christian didn't die in a massacre on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific as thought but eventually made his way back to England, where he lived out the rest of his days in virtual anonymity. When Gresham begins to link her findings to a lost epic poem by Wordsworth -- Christian and the poet were contemporaries at the same school -- she suddenly finds herself in mortal danger... Reminiscent of other historically based literary mysteries like Matthew Pearl's The Poe Shadow and The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, McDermid's novel has been compared to Dan Brown's monolithic The Da Vinci Code for good reason. Readers will find themselves enthralled throughout, entangled in the early-19th-century mystery surrounding Christian and Wordsworth -- highly recommended. Paul Goat Allen - An intriguing, 200-year-old mystery propels this multilayered stand-alone from British author McDermid set in England's Lake District. Scholar Jane Gresham pursues her theory that HMS Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian returned secretly from exile to his homeland in the late 18th century. A shriveled body found in a bog seems to bear resemblance to this dashing hero, right down to the South Sea tattoos that blacken his buttocks. Jane searches relentlessly for a lost manuscript by the poet Wordsworth that relates Christian's tale in tantalizing excerpts between chapters. Various subplots complicate her quest, including a fraught friendship with precocious 13-year-old Tenille, a lonely, mixed-race girl who also loves Romantic poetry. With a feminist, socially conscious spin, McDermid (The Distant Echo) vividly contrasts marginal subsistence in London's dismal Marshpool neighborhood with the Lake District's bucolic lifestyle. Boasting blurbs from such notable authors as Harlan Coben, Tess Gerritsen and Joseph Finder, this could be McDermid's break-out book. 100,000 printing; author tour. (Feb.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - Publishers Weekly McDermid's (The Torment of Others) latest novel begins with the discovery in a Lake District bog of an old body bearing distinctive Polynesian tattoos from the 1800s. Jane Gresham, a William Wordsworth scholar who was raised near where the body is found, has always been intrigued by the local legend that Fletcher Christian wasn't killed on Pitcairn Island and wonders whether the body could be his. She knows that Christian and Wordsworth were schoolmates and has found a letter pointing to a secret manuscript Wordsworth may have written that she hypothesizes may tell the story of the mutiny on the Bounty from Christian's viewpoint. However, Jane is not the only one interested in the existence of the manuscript-and someone may be willing to kill for it. McDermid is the winner of numerous mystery/detective book awards, and her latest effort is sure to please her fans, although new readers may be disappointed that the novel is less about the historical characters than the modern ones. Recommended.-Lisa O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnepeg Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - Library Journal Adult/High School During an English summer of record-breaking rains, a peat bog in the Lake District opens to reveal a 200-year-old body bearing South Pacific island tattoos. The area, home to Romantic poets, is where Jane Gresham, Wordsworth scholar, grew up, and she finds her interest piqued by the news. She has long believed that Fletcher Christian, HMS Bounty mutineer, didn't die on Pitcairn Island but returned to England. She has theorized that Christian recounted his adventures to his old schoolmate Wordsworth, who wrote them down, and those documents and a related poem, now worth millions, lay forgotten in a local home. In the race to retrieve the valuable manuscripts, Jane finds herself competing against sinister forces that would stop at nothing, including murder, to reach them first. The suspenseful story and its subplots, which include Jane's friendship with 13-year-old poetry-loving Tenille, who lives in Jane's London public housing project, create an absorbing thriller. McDermid establishes a strong sense of place in the atmospheric and pastoral Lake District that contrasts sharply with the sprawling housing project. Historical and literary references to Wordsworth's life and work and to the South Pacific adventures of the Bounty mutineers all help to make this novel come alive. Teens will enjoy the lively characters, brisk pace, and careful unraveling of the centuries-old mystery with its satisfactory conclusion. -Susanne BardelsonCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal An ambitious reworking of the demi-historical mode of Possession with a mutiny substituting for one love story and a series of murders taking the place of the other. Ever since her childhood days in the Lake Country hamlet of Fellhead, Jane Gresham has wondered about the rumor that Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian escaped the slaughter at Pitcairn Island and returned to England with a tale that gave his old schoolmate William Wordsworth material for a lost epic poem. When a corpse that could be Christian's is found in a Fellhead peat bog, Jane talks her boss into giving her two weeks off to see if she can locate any trace of a Wordsworthian Mutiny on the Bounty. Despite her inside track on the connection between the sailor and the poet, however, there are some important things Jane doesn't know. She doesn't know that she's racing her unscrupulous ex-lover Jake Hartnell and her brother Matthew, a resentful local schoolmaster, for the poem. She doesn't know that Tenille Cole, a tough kid she befriended in London, has come running after her with the police in hot pursuit. And she doesn't know that one of the people competing with her for the prize doesn't mind killing to get it. The criminal is obvious and Tenille's behavior incredible. But McDermid (The Torment of Others, 2005, etc.) handles the interplay between past and present with masterful and infectious conviction. First printing of 100,000 - Kirkus Reviews Exciting...wildly beautiful -The New York Times Book Review An old-fashioned detective yarn with enough modern touches to keep a reader on her toes. -Salon.com Extraordinary. -The Boston Globe A world-class crime novelist at the top of her game. -George Pelecanos, author of Hard Revolution Val McDermid at her very best. -Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Company Man It is difficult to find words to capture the masterful achievement that is Val McDermid's The Grave Tattoo. -Laura Lippman If you haven't discovered her genius yet, you are in for a rare treat. -Harlan Coben, New York Times bestselling author of The Innocent Absorbing modern mystery...McDermid's mix of historical and literary clues with modern detection is handled with panache. -The Times (London) One of our most accomplished crime writers...compelling. -Glasgow Herald An irresistible combination of contemporary psychological thriller and historical mystery filled with the moody atmosphere of the Lake District. -Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of Harvest I've been a Val McDermid fan forever...like all her work, The Grave Tattoo is an experience...a visceral entertainment that leaves you panting right up to the shattering climax . -Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kingdom Keepers - From the Publisher I've been a Val McDermid fan forever...like all her work, The Grave Tattoo is an experience...a visceral entertainment that leaves you panting right up to the shattering climax . - New York Times bestselling author of The Kingdom K Ridley Pearson As an audiobook production, THE GRAVE TATTOO is wonderfully managed. Kate Reading (a narrator who's mastered Jane Austen and Patricia Cornwell) combines history and mystery while performing spot-on voicing and accents‚ this time capturing the characters of Northern England. McDermid's novel is ambitious-modern-day researchers are racing to make a link between a body discovered in a bog and Fletcher Christian, one of the mutineers who took part in the Mutiny on THE BOUNTY. At times, some of the plot points seem stretched. Particularly odd is the subplot about a teenaged mixed-race woman with a penchant for William Wordsworth. Though well written and well told, readers may still wish some of the story lines were more clearly focused. R.W.S. AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine - JUN/JUL 07 - AudioFile