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Title: The Grave Tattoo
ISBN: 0786295716
Author:
Val McDermid
Publicate Date: 2007-06-07
Publish: 2007-06-07
List Price: $31.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $31.95
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $16.50
Amazon Merchant Price: $31.95
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1: The mystery that was Fletcher Christian
Every now and then, a favorite author undertakes a change in focus and invites us along for the ride. In this case, Val McDermid has taken a break from her three series (the most beloved of which is probably the Hill/Jordan chain that spawned the British "Wire in the Blood" television dramas). She takes a scholarly approach in re-examining the story of the "Mutiny on the Bounty" and, more specifically, the notion that Fletcher Christian did not die on Pitcairn Island but instead returned to England and evaded detection until his much-later genuine death. The story is told through the activities of a modern literary scholar named Jane Gresham, whose specialty is the works of William Wordsworth, who was actually a contemporary of Fletcher Christian at the Cockermouth Free School in Cumbria. McDermid uses this relationship as a nifty vehicle where Wordsworth speaks to and about Christian in flashback vignettes that are staggered through the book. As the book progresses, Gresham becomes increasingly convinced that she's on the track not only of a Fletcher Christian who was in close communication with his old friend Wordsworth, but also of an epic poem written by Wordsworth to explain the mutiny in new and shocking terms intended to exculpate Christian.
As you might expect from McDermid, there is a great deal of tension in the story with the requisite betrayals in the academic community and the truly nasty world of antiquities auctions. Some of these folks were almost too cartoonlike and it felt like perhaps some ancient scores were being settled with the characterizations. Truly the most interesting character in the book is Tenille, a 13-year-old tenement child with a love of Romantic literature and a mouth like a sea dog. She is mesmerizing and the book comes to a special plateau when she is in the room.
This is a good-but-not-great McDermid but I have to give her credit for attempting such a diversion from her usual fare. I think that the pacing was a little thick for such a tome and one or two subplots might have been abandoned in service of a smoother read, but this is small stuff. It was a very interesting approach to the mystery that was Fletcher Christian.
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2: Engrossing, But Weak
This was my first McDermid book and I enjoyed it enough to read more of her works. And I take at face value remarks by other reviewers that this wasn't her best work, so I hope I will be pleased with the others. This book had a fascinating premise -- the search for a Wordsworth poem based on the thesis that his old school pal Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty fame had returned to England and whose bones were found in a present-day peat bog. But, I felt that the plot was not strong enough to support all the killing and intrigue that ensued. I found the ending weak, if not predictible. I found some of the characters unbelieveable. On the other hand, I found the book engrossing and I learned a lot about Wordsworth and the fabled Lake District. A good, but not a great read.
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3: Not Bad, But Not The Best From This Author
Scholar, Jane Gresham, returns to her native Lake District, in Northern England, to search for a missing poem, that she believes exists, written by William Wordsworth. The words of this poem suggest that his friend, Fletcher Christian of HMS Bounty fame, had returned to his native England, years after the mutiny, that had occurred onboard that ship.
However, she is not the only person on the trail of the missing poem, and someone else, is willing to kill, in order to get their hands on it.
I felt this book was quite slow moving, for the first couple of hundred pages, and I thought the main character Jane Gresham, living in a small, high rise flat, in a very rough, built up area of London, as being a bit unrealistic, as she is clearly not only middle class, but from the rural area of the Lake District, as well. Another important character, the poetry loving teenager, Tenille, did not ring true for me, either.
However, allowing for all of the above, the story does improve as the book progresses, and wasn't too bad a read, overall. If you are new to this author I would recommend the 'Torment Of Others', or 'A Place Of Execution', ahead of this book.
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4: Kathy in St Louis
This is my first experience reading a McDermid book. As such, I did not know what to expect but was very pleasantly surprised by the plot and sub-plots of the book.
The Grave Tatoo is a take off from the traditional mystery as described by other reviewers but I enjoyed that interesting change from the typical "who done it."
McDermid's story holds up throughout the book. It is a solid read and well worth your time reading it.
I look forward to reading more of her work.
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5: Good writing, Rich vocabulary.
Have never read a book by this author before. I will again. Like the way she constructs sentences, uses rich vocabulary (it is the English version of English). There does appear to have been a great amount of research on literature of Wordsworth and his biography; Fletcher Christian and his life history, geneology, and medical ways in which to murder someone in an undetected way and in how to conduct autopsies. However, it is true, as other reviewers have said, that the ending isn't wholly satisfactory and too easy an out; the revelation of the "bad guy" also seems to be constructed soley to meet the requirement of having an anti-hero. There are too many sub-plots and the story might have been better if she had given these extra characters either far more story or far less, but they hit the middle ground. We learn enough about them to get the ball rolling and then their stories plateau and the ball comes to a standstill with no bearing of real importance to the main story or real ending to the sub-story either. In fact, in the end, only Jane herself-is truly integral to the telling of the story. Everyone else becomes somewhat peripheral, even if their part would be classified as "main character," they really aren't. Also, the tattoos advertised on the cover, really don't hold a highly prominent place in the story. In the end, I would describe this as a comfortable book. It is nice to curl up to, but it won't cause you any lost sleep because you can't keep from turning the next page till morning.
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