Marni Mullins is minding her own business, taking a break from tattooing people at a convention in her home town of Brighton when she stumbles across a dead body - the last thing she needs to see, or try and deal with. Not keen to get tangled up with the Police, Marni makes an anonymous call to alert them to the body and then disappears back into her work. She should have known that wouldn't keep her off the radar - especially with a newly promoted Detective Inspector leasing the case. When DI Francis Sullivan tracks Marni down he is almost hostile, demanding her help and threatening her if she doesn't. Already in a fragile state from finding the body, his demands for help almost push her over the edge - until they come to an uneasy truce when he asks her for help.
Helping the Police after what has happened in the past is not easy for Marni, but she is a connection to world of tattoos and tattooing for the very fresh faced and straight laced DI Sullivan. When another body is found with the skin cut off it starts to feel like a serial murder case, and DI Sullivan and his team are put under pressure to solve the case. Being the new kid on the block is always hard, especially when you've stepped over one of the longer serving members of your team, and Sullivan has to push his ideas onto a boss that doesn't want to hear them. As the case heats up, Sullivan and Marni reach the conclusion that there is a connection to the tattooing world, that the person dubbed the Tattoo Thief by the media is working on a deadly collection. Can they solve the case before someone Marni knows falls under the killers deadly blade?
As someone who has tattoos this book was both a fascinating and horrifying idea - though my discreet tattoos would not attract the attention of the killer, I do know people who have tattoos that would certainly make a collection happy. I entered the story with some trepidation, but was soon thoroughly absorbed by the story which is well written and seems to accurately reflect Police practice and procedure (as much as you can pick up from watching TV series and reading books). Marni is an interesting character complete with flaws and weaknesses that make her seem 100% genuine, and it is hard not to recognise the somewhat cliché character of the earnest young Police officer trying to prove himself in the young DI Sullivan. The story was well teased out and well paced - there were little bread crumbs to follow, and it was nice to have my suspicions tested along the way.
The tattoo thief is a well written and perfectly paced thriller, different enough to have a unique voice in the crime/thriller market, but familiar enough to be an easy to follow read. I look forward to reading more from this author.
If you like this book then try:
- Sticks and stones by Katherine Firkin
- Sweet little lies by Caz Frear
- The vanishing season by Joanna Schaffhausen
- Killing trail by Margaret Mizushima
- Safe by S.K. Barnett
- The nowhere child by Christian White
- Good me bad me by Ali Land
- The coast to coast murders by James Patterson and J.D.Barker
- Eeny meeny by M.J. Arlidge
- Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza
- The better sister by Alafair Burke
- Gathering dark by Candice Fox
- Spare me the truth by C.J. Carver
Reviewed by Brilla
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