Reading XXIII

[faustus]

XXIII: Val McDermid, The Grave Tattoo (2005) [London: HarperCollins, 2006]

A stand alone novel, and not one of her better ones, alas. A body has been found in the Lake District, and there is a rumour that it is Fletcher Christian who had somehow made it back from Pitcairn before dying. Wordsworth scholar Jane Gresham is sure this suggests there is a lost manuscript about the mutiny on the Bounty, and she not the only one who wants to find it.

This would be enough in itself, but another hundred pages is added by a contemporary subplot which serves to crack up the tension in Jane's life and helps expose a number of deaths as murders. I guess it's there to have the contemporary world break in on what might be an old fashioned tale, but it smacks of PC and equal opportunities.


Strip Jack next.

Comments

[buffysquirrel.livejournal.com]

I read this a while back, and didn't like it at all. The motivation behind the killings seemed so thin.

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

The Obvious Suspect was clear Just Bad and Rotten and Had Dumped Her (or whatever). The actual murderer? Yes, you're right, it's not really there and it isn't established. And if they were the person who drove a car at Gresham, why didn't she recognise the car? (Lights in darkness out of nowhere, I guess)