The Grave Tattoo - Hardcover

McDermid, Val

3.81

9,077 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007142854 ISBN 13: 9780007142859

Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2006

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After torrential summer rains uncover a bizarrely tattooed body on a Lake District hillside, a long-disregarded old wive's tale takes on a chilling new plausibility. For centuries, Lakelanders have whispered that Fletcher Christian, made infamous by Mutiny on the Bounty, staged the massacre on Pitcairn so that he could return home. And once there, what if he could tell his story to an old friend and schoolmate, William Wordsworth, who turned it into a long narrative poem--a poem that remained hidden lest it expose Wordsworth to the gallows for harboring a fugitive. Wordsworth specialist Jane Gresham, herself a native of the Lake District, feels compelled to discover once and for all whether the manuscript ever existed--and whether it still exists today. But as she pursues each new lead, death follows hard on her heels. Suddenly Jane is at the heart of a 200-year-old mystery that still has the power to put lives on the line.

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From the Back Cover:

From bestselling author Val McDermid comes a modern thriller about an ancient murder set on the high seas...

"Exciting...wildly beautiful" ―The New York Times Book Review

After summer rains uncover a corpse bearing tattoos like those of eighteenth-century seafarers, many residents of the English Lake District can't help but wonder whether it's the body of one of the town's most legendary fugitives.

"An old-fashioned detective yarn with enough modern touches to keep a reader on her toes."―Salon.com

Scholar and native Lakelander Jane Gresham feels compelled to finally discover the truth about the myths and buried secrets rooted in her hometown. What she never expected was to find herself at the heart of a 200-year-old mystery that still has the power to put lives on the line. And with each new lead she pursues, death follows hard on her heels....

"Extraordinary."―The Boston Globe

About the Author:

Val McDermid was a journalist for sixteen years and is now a full-time writer living in South Manchester. In 1995, she won the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year. Her novel, A Place of Execution, won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

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