|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
An intriguing, 200-year-old mystery propels this multilayered stand-alone from British author McDermid set in England's Lake District. Scholar Jane Gresham pursues her theory that HMS Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian returned secretly from exile to his homeland in the late 18th century. A shriveled body found in a bog seems to bear resemblance to this dashing hero, right down to the South Sea tattoos that blacken his buttocks. Jane searches relentlessly for a lost manuscript by the poet Wordsworth that relates Christian's tale in tantalizing excerpts between chapters. Various subplots complicate her quest, including a fraught friendship with precocious 13-year-old Tenille, a lonely, mixed-race girl who also loves Romantic poetry. With a feminist, socially conscious spin, McDermid (The Distant Echo) vividly contrasts marginal subsistence in London's dismal Marshpool neighborhood with the Lake District's bucolic lifestyle. Boasting blurbs from such notable authors as Harlan Coben, Tess Gerritsen and Joseph Finder, this could be McDermid's break-out book. 100,000 printing; author tour. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School—During an English summer of record-breaking rains, a peat bog in the Lake District opens to reveal a 200-year-old body bearing South Pacific island tattoos. The area, home to Romantic poets, is where Jane Gresham, Wordsworth scholar, grew up, and she finds her interest piqued by the news. She has long believed that Fletcher Christian, HMS Bounty mutineer, didn't die on Pitcairn Island but returned to England. She has theorized that Christian recounted his adventures to his old schoolmate Wordsworth, who wrote them down, and those documents and a related poem, now worth millions, lay forgotten in a local home. In the race to retrieve the valuable manuscripts, Jane finds herself competing against sinister forces that would stop at nothing, including murder, to reach them first. The suspenseful story and its subplots, which include Jane's friendship with 13-year-old poetry-loving Tenille, who lives in Jane's London public housing project, create an absorbing thriller. McDermid establishes a strong sense of place in the atmospheric and pastoral Lake District that contrasts sharply with the sprawling housing project. Historical and literary references to Wordsworth's life and work and to the South Pacific adventures of the Bounty mutineers all help to make this novel come alive. Teens will enjoy the lively characters, brisk pace, and careful unraveling of the centuries-old mystery with its satisfactory conclusion.—Susanne Bardelson, Kitsap Regional Library, WA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
PART ENGLISH HISTORY AND PART ENGLISH MYSTERY...,
By
This review is from: The Grave Tattoo (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a beautifully crafted story, part English mystery and part English history. Those who enjoy reading historical fiction, as well as those who like unraveling mysteries, will truly appreciate this well-written book. The author expertly weaves the myths that surround Christian Fletcher, who in the eighteenth century was involved in the mutiny of the Bounty, with the discovery of a mysterious tattooed corpse found in a peat bog, creating an intelligent and erudite page-turner of a book. Add the inclusion of a Wordsworth scholar in search of a missing manuscript by Wordsworth about Christian Fletcher, and let the games begin.The story move back and forth seamlessly between the eighteenth century and the present. The characters are well-drawn and fully fleshed, sacrificing nothing to the complexity of the plot. It is a well-executed, suspenseful novel, making for a satisfying reading experience that will keep the reader turning its pages. I simply could not put it down!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
"The hiddenness of it all",
By
This review is from: The Grave Tattoo (Hardcover)
Wordsworth scholar Jane Gresham is living in a tough London housing project while she turns her thesis into a book. The chance of a lifetime presents itself when a long-buried tattooed body is given up by a peat bog in Jane's Lake District home town - William Wordsworth's territory. HMS Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian grew up in the area and there is a local legend that after his sojourn on Pitcairn Island, Christian returned to the Lakes. Jane has a theory that Christian told his story to Wordsworth who turned it into an epic poem that has never been found. Realizing that the bog body's tattoos suggest a South Seas connection, Jane goes home to the Lakes to pursue her dream of finding a long-missing manuscript.Author Val McDermid moves the action from the crime-ridden London streets to Jane's not-so-tranquil home town. The literary mystery plays itself out satisfyingly, but not in libraries and dusty archives. Real people with their passions for the hunt converge on the scene. McDermid's cast of characters is unusually rich and well-drawn, from the 13-year-old city waif to the sexy forensic anthropologist to the aging-hippie museum curator; their stories intersect plausibly with Jane's. The settings come vividly to life. The Grave Tattoo is a tightly plotted, absorbing read. There may be slightly too much of a good thing here, if that's possible, and while the action moves well, some of the character development could have been sacrificed to a brisker pace. The sections on Wordsworth and Christian are intriguing and more development and resolution of their story would be welcome. Even with those reservations, three cheers and four stars; I plan to read more from this author. Linda Bulger, 2008
4.0 out of 5 stars
I think I'm going to re-read Mutiny on the Bounty!,
By
This review is from: The Grave Tattoo (Mass Market Paperback)
A 200 year old preserved peat body discovered in England's Lake District is covered with South Sea Tattoos of the sort that 18th century British seamen acquired during their travels throughout the far reaches of the British Empire. Wordsworth scholar Jane Gresham, convinced that this body is actually Fletcher Christian, long thought to have died on Pitcairn Island, also believes that Wordsworth composed a final epic poem about Christian and the Bounty saga. Of course, if the poem had been published in Wordsworth's lifetime, Christian would have been apprehended and summarily hanged. So, if the poem and any documentary evidence exists as to its provenance, the Wordsworth family have been keeping it secret for over two centuries.In "The Grave Tattoo", McDermid has created an enjoyable literary mystery that is skillfully blended with an imagined tale of Fletcher Christian's escape from a native uprising on Pitcairn Island and his secret return to the British homeland he so sorely missed. The additional story of Jane's friendship and growing love for a young 13 year old black girl, Tenille Cole (her neighbour in Marshpool, one of London's rundown public housing projects), rounds out the story nicely, adds a tinge of modern day reality, lifts the tale out of the somewhat stuffy world of pure academia and gives "The Grave Tattoo" overall a somewhat more US-centric thriller flavour. Overall, an enjoyable if somewhat lengthy story that I think might have benefitted by a little editorial pruning and stepping up of some pacing. I'm tempted to make a return visit to Nordhoff and Hall's "Mutiny on the Bounty". Paul Weiss
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
