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Bounty
  
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Bounty (Paperback)

by Val Mcdermid (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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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.

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.
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars "The hiddenness of it all", Dec 31 2008
By Linda Bulger (Avon, Maine) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
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
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4.0 out of 5 stars I think I'm going to re-read Mutiny on the Bounty!, Nov 19 2008
By Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
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
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3.0 out of 5 stars The Grave Tattoo, April 21 2006
By Annette Bechamp (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Grave Tattoo (Hardcover)
The Grave Tattoo opens with the discovery of a two hundred plus years body found in a bog in the British Lake district. The body has tattoos similar to those designed in the South Seas during the seafaring days of the Bounty. The villagers believe that the body may belong to Fletcher Christian, returned to England secretly to live out his days. This is the prompt Jane Gresham, a Wordsworth scholar, needs to prove her theories and write her doctoral thesis. Based on a letter found in Wordsworth's effects, Jane believes the poet wrote a poem based on the journals of Christian on the last voyage of the Bounty. The poem could be worth millions today and the journal would be an amazing find.

As Jane gets closer to her goal, she becomes the target of a multiple murderer and a suspect of the police. Added to her challenges, are the problems brought to her doorstep by a troubled thirteen-year-old girl with an aptitude for poetry. Not knowing whom to trust from among those close to her, threatens to derail Jane's progress in her research.

Following a treasure hunt of clues and leaps into the past, the book concludes on a satisfying note. The minor character story threads are sewn up well into the main theme at the end. The author appears to have left the door open for a potential series with the introduction of the budding romance between the medical examiner and the police officer.

The Grave Tattoo is a nicely researched dual timeline mystery. The characters are diverse and well rounded. I found some of the pacing slow but the sound plotting and the progressive storyline kept my interest over any bumps along the way. The result is a well-balanced and enjoyable tale, interesting and well worth reading.

3.5 stars
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