The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid

Review by Gloria Feit

 

The Grave Tattoo represents something of a departure for Val McDermid, although admittedly this reader hasn't read everything this author has written.  If memory serves, however, Ms. McDermid's prior works are quite a bit darker than her newest novel, which deals with murders past and present, tho the murders take place off stage.  The former is a body discovered in a bog which apparently is 200 years old, nicknamed Pirate Peat for its location and the fact that the body showed signs of tattoos typical  of the South Sea Islands and thought by some to be that of Fletcher Christian, of Mutiny on the Bounty fame, or infamy.  Christian was known to have had relatives in the area whe re the body, or what was left of it, was found.  More intriguing still is the fact that it appears possible that when he returned to the Lake District of England, he told his tale of what had transpired on that fateful journal to his friend, William Wordsworth, who in turn may have committed that tale to a long narrative poem which, if it truly exists, would be worth a fortune, both in money and scholarly fame.  At least that is the line of thought being followed by Jane Gresham, a native of the Lake District herself and a Wordsworth specialist, who is tantalized by such a possibility.  After the body's discovery, Jane takes a study break from her university seminars [and her part-time waitressing job] in London to follow up the possibilities of the existence of such a document.  But when she starts seeking out and interviewing the descendants of the last person known to have had the putative papers, someone appears to be murdering them, though the police are none too sure the deaths are murders as the victims are all quite elderly and their deaths might easily be from natural causes, albeit suspiciously coincidental.  But when attempts are made on Jane's life, that certainly seems to indicate that there is a murderer about.

 

The Grave Tattoo is more of a historical novel than one expects from Ms. McDermid, and a genre this reader generally shies away from.  But the quality of the writing is exactly what one expects from this author, and I soon found myself caught up in the mystery of the long-ago murder victim, a section of whose writings appears before each chapter, as well as the present mystery, and the suspense builds up to the solution of both at the very satisfying conclusion.