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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly Good!, 25 May 2006
I do like being proven wrong.
I actually went along to the talk and signing of this book by the author at my local library. My two friends had stacks of previous titles they wanted Val to sign, I just went along for something to do.
I have only read one book by Val McDermaid, and because we arrived late into the lecture theatre and missed the beginning, I was quite sure that total would stay at one. Val was talking about the Lake District, Fletcher Christian, Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Bligh, Wordsworth, etc, etc.........I think I had a little snooze at this point, I'd had a long day. Anyway, I revitalised myself slightly when Val was answering questions, (in between great swigs of Stella Artois, [Val, not me, I stuck to the free coffee and gypsy creams.]) and it wasn't a bad evening.
Back to the book - I managed to get hold of a copy to see what all the fuss was about, and knowing that there was some criminal element weaved into the plot, I thought it couldn't be all that bad.
I nearly read it one go. It had everything you would want from a great crime novel, especially if you are a geek, and you get to learn something new. If, like me, you know nothing of the mutiny and Fletcher Christian and Pitcairn, (I bet you're thinking now, 'eh?'), don't worry, its a top read, nice and easy, with beautiful language.
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53 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains", 7 Feb 2007
Fletcher Chistian (1764 - 1793) was a Master's Mate on board the Bounty during William Bligh's fateful voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants and it was Fletcher Christian who seized command of the Bounty from Bligh on April 28th 1789 claiming the crew were suffering from inhuman treatment. Christian ended up living on Pitcairn Island, where he later died along with the other mutineers.
But did Christian really die or was his murder faked? Rumors have persisited for a hundred years that he had indeed left the Island, and that he eventually made it all the way back to England, where he lived out the rest of his life in his birthplace, hidden from justice by his family and friends, safely ensconced in the Cumbria, Lake District area of England.
This legend and the fact that Christian was distantly related to William Wordsworth, he was even an old school friend of the poet, forms the basis for Val McDermid's latest riveting crime thriller, The Grave Tattoo. When a tattooed body is found half preserved in the brackish water of a peat bog just outside of Fellhead, local Wordsworth scholar Jane Gresham jumps at the chance to investigate.
Jane has been living a hand-to-mouth existence in a council flat on the rundown Marshpool Farm Estate in London, a known habitué for drug dealers, pimps and petty criminals, so she sees the discovery of this body as an opportunity to raise herself out of semi-poverty and perhaps prove her long-held theory that indeed Fletcher did return to England and chose to tell his version of events to his old school friend.
Jane is banking on the fact that Wordsworth couldn't have ignored a story as big as this, and that the absence of direct written evidence in William's published work does not mean that the events she pictured did not take place. She's also convinced there was a lost masterpiece, a poem that Wordsworth wrote about the legend of what happened to his friend who ended up being one of the most notorious figures of the eighteenth century.
Whilst Jane travels to her childhood home of Fellhead, her thirteen-year-old friend Tenille - who has a unique gift for interpreting poetry - is stuck back in London, at the mercy of her aunt's obnoxious boyfriend. When a terrible tragedy strikes in the form of a deadly murder and a house fire, Tenille finds herself caught up with her estranged father, a merciless London gangster called the Hammer.
Forced into hiding and on the run from the police, Tenille too travels to the Lake District in order to find Jane, sure that only her friend can help her because of her unique understanding of the way the world works. Meanwhile, reports of a secret manuscript are circulating, rumored to have been entrusted into the care of one of the Wordsworth family servants, a maid called Dorcas Mason, who had actually worked for William Wordsworth and who was perhaps given his undiscovered poem for safekeeping.
Of course, there are other people who have a keen interest invested in obtaining the illusive manuscript: There's Jane's ex-boyfriend Jake Hartnell and his wealthy sugar mum Caroline, a money hungry manuscript dealer who knows how valuable the find could be. She ends up enlisting Jake to go the Midlands to see if he can track the document down.
Jane is also helped on her investigations be her best friend and colleague Dan, who admits that he would also like to reap the benefits of the discovery. And although Jane constantly fights with him, she knows deep down that her brother Matthew - the town's local school principal - is always on her side.
While Jane's investigation becomes ever more convoluted in a developing series of clues, local forensic anthropologist Dr. River Wilde continues to evaluate the bog body, hoping that the tattoos - synonymous with eighteenth century sailors from the South Sea Islands - will eventually shed some light on his identity.
As the complicated mystery disentangles, the action intensifies and this bucolic and isolated setting becomes a noxious battleground, and a deadly cat and mouse game as murder swiftly becomes the name of the game. Obviously Dorcas Mason's past was a secret history as far as her family was concerned, but someone, somewhere has a little treasure trove whose contents have never been thoroughly explored.
When the distant descendants of Dorcas, now in their eighties, start suddenly dying, Jane's suspicions are aroused and she finds herself becoming caught up in an elaborate trap of treachery and complicity, which is eventually compounded with the bitter taste of betrayal. Someone out there is determined to usurp her and find the manuscript before she does, even resorting to killing her to achieve his or her ends.
Edgy and atmospheric, Grave Tattoo is an historian's delight, a fascinating mix of genealogy and genetics, as McDermid's compelling narrative effortlessly hops from the past to present, tossing bits of information around about the legend of Fletcher Christian as she entwines an exciting tale of English history, family secrets and deception lurking in places where you least expect it.
The evidence is suggestive; if nothing else, it's all-circumstantial, but the images of Tenille, of blood and fire, and of smoke chased chaotic montages of her family and friends, spur Jane on in her penultimate journey to discover her favorite poet's long-lost work and hopefully find the real truth behind what happened to the legendary Fletcher Christian.
Full of tension and treachery The Grave Tattoo is McDermid's most accomplished work yet, a taut and tight psychological thriller which shows us what happens when unbridled ambition can get in the way of friendship. Mike Leonard February 07.
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24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Also disappointed, 3 Mar 2007
When I first heard about this book, I though it a fascinating idea that Fletcher Christian may have returned to the Lake District to visit his friend Wordsworth. Unfortunately, from early on in the story, I was very disappointed with it. The integration of the present day story with the Fletcher Christian mystery did not work for me and the written passages supposedly from Fletcher's diary could have been omitted altogether. There were also too many characters and too many sub-plots. Many of the characters were unbelievable and several of the sub-plots were left unresolved. As far as 'whodunnit', it almost seemed as if the writer did not decide until the end who the villain would be - and then glossed over any inconsistencies!
Having read many of Val's books, I expected much more and found this frustrating rather than an enjoyable read.
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