The Grave Tattoo, by Val McDermid B-plus.Jane Gresham is a Wordsworth scholar. There has been a rumor that she has heard since childhood that Fletcher Christian, of “Mutiny on the Bounty” fame, made his way back to England, and that Wordsworth aided him in staying hidden and not arrested for the mutiny. The secret remained with Wordsworth through his life because he would have been arrested for aiding a criminal had it been known that he assisted Christian. Wordsworth according to the story, wrote a poem describing the true life of Christian after the mutiny, and he also had notes from Fletcher Christian himself. According to the story, he left these notes and the poem with a trusted servant for safekeeping, and the family allegedly handed it down and kept it hidden. Then a body is uncovered from the bog that is thought to be old enough to possibly be Christian’s body. So Jane decides to go to the town, which is also her home town, and determine once and for all if there is a manuscript. She is only interested in the scholarship of researching the manuscript, but others are interested in how much money it could bring-interested enough to commit murders to keep others from finding the manuscript first. A subplot involves Jane’s neighbor in London, a Black 13-year-old who loves to read and loves poetry but doesn’t bother with school. She visits Jane in her flat to read her books, discuss poetry and get some space from the rest of her life. When her aunt’s boy friend attempts to rape the girl, Jane takes matters into her own hands and informs her father, a well-known gangster. He has the man killed, and the girl is suspected of the murder. Jane has left town already to do her research, and the girl manages to go to Jane’s home town. Jane hides the girl. As usual, Val McDermid writes a good story, but even the length of time it takes to lay out the plot shows what the problem is with this book. Too many things are going on, and it’s distracting. To top it off, we have excerpts throughout of the alleged manuscript. It’s a good story but with too many things thrown in. I would rate some of McDermid’s other books much higher, especially “A Place of Execution”, but I wasn’t tempted to put this one down and not finish it. It held my interest.
This is probably the weakest Val McDermid book that I've read, save for her more deliberately pulpy novels about plucky journalists and private investigators flouting the law to get results (heck, I'd probably read Kate Brannigan again in a second). Admittedly I can't work up the amount of apathy for this as I did for Beneath The Bleeding, the book where she thought her team of serial killer investigators should horn in on a terrorism investigation - a knee jerk reaction to the 7/7 bombings.Still, it's not a very good book. 2 is a bit harsh, but by McDermid's standards it certainly doesn't warrant any higher.What McDermid has produced here, you have to understand, is a dull book. Possibly not dull to everyone's expectations, but to the layperson who doesn't care about Wordsworth or The Mutiny on the Bounty it likely is. McDermid has a not particularly interesting or well incorporated series of plotlines about an undiscovered manuscript, a stalking, an attempted murder, and a fugitive running from a crime she only half committed. They're related but they're tough to care about. Each chapter is bookended by an excerpt from Wordsworth's missing work and there's nothing about it to suggest why the man was a great poet or prose artist.Characterisation is weak, with McDermid giving the hint of interpersonal relationships without going to too much effort to write them. Characters' movements and actions are poorly explained: no adequate reason is given for the fact that Jane is quickly accompanied on her sojourn by the colleague who is supposed to be filling in for her at the university, nor are we allowed to understand why her brother is such a jerk. The less said about the incredibly disparate but most action packed runaway girl segments, the better. Where McDermid falls down hardest is when she realises that she has to raise stakes. She does so by inducing a series of serial killings so contrived that you have to wonder why she even tried. The twist killer is also vastly disappointing, and his motivation is so weak as to be laughable. Of course, McDermid takes the easy way out and ultimately leaves us with an unmemorable story peopled by samey characters. She is a good author, but she can do and has done so much better than this.
What do You think about The Grave Tattoo (2007)?
Here's the thing: I read McDermid's A Place of Execution and thought it was an astoundingly brilliant mystery. I then devoured a few more of her non-series novels ... A Distant Echo was pretty good-ish. Anything else I read failed to make much of an impression. So when I saw this one at the library a few days ago, I knew I probably woudn't love it, but I wanted something not-too-weighty to get me through the weekend. Mission accomplished. This tale of murder in the Lake District isn't the tour de force that Execution was, and I could quibble with the thinly drawn characters (Jake and Matthew seem to exist just to create difficulties for the protagonist, in an effort to make her more likeable, since she isn't tremendously likeable on her own) and with the process-of-elimination solution (who has the knowledge, the opportunity, and is willing to cheat on his boyfriend to further his career? Could he possibly be ... the murderer!!!?!!).
—Trish
Why I read ItVal McDermid has written three different mystery series (crimes investigated by the same characters) and several standalones (not in a series). I have the first book in her biggest series (now a BBC TV show called Wire in the Blood) on order, but until then I have been reading some of the solo efforts. This one was in my local library.The GoodI really like speculative revisionist history with a mystery subplot, and I would guess so do most of you. If you are not sure what I am talking about think Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series (DaVinci Code, etc.). McDermid has taken a well known historical event, Fletcher Christian and the Mutiny on the Bounty, and completely turned it around. I love that stuff.The BadThe whole subplot with the young girl Tenille was a little too superfluous. The pace was a little slow at times but I blame that on reading The Lost Symbol only a week or so before. The structure of this book was very traditional compared to Dan Brown’s hyper style.The Ugly (my opinion)A very fun book and the actual history was quite informative. So if you are not able to wait another five years for Langdon to uncover the deep secrets of conspiring men, this book will be great filler. Not a spoiler unless you are quite familiar with McDermid, but only someone in her position could get away with a bad guy like this one. It is somewhat rare in modern mysteries.
—David Peters
If I were cynical (Cynical? Moi?) I might be tempted to say that The Grave Tattoo was Val McDermid writing a pastiche of Reginald Hill parodying The Da Vinci Code. But that wouldn't be entirely fair. It's true that it's set in Hill's beloved Lake District, like his The Stranger House published a year or so earlier. It's also true that the plot revolves around an academic's search to uncover the secret of a historical conspiracy held in trust by a hapless Lakeland family before she is beaten to it with messy consequences. However, there's a lot more to it than that.The McGuffin in this case is a putative lost epic poem by William Wordsworth, based on the story of Fletcher Christian (a Maryport lad, who went to school with Willie). The literary chase, which leaves a trail of unexplained dead bodies, is a fascinating one with a satisfying resolution. This kind of story is a new departure for McDermid, but I hope it won't be the last she'll do in this field.
—Rosalind
