THE GRAVE TATTOO

As an audiobook production, THE GRAVE TATTOO is wonderfully managed. Kate Reading (a narrator who's mastered Jane Austen and Patricia Cornwell) combines history and mystery while performing spot-on voicing and accents? this time capturing the characters of Northern England. McDermid's novel is ambitious--modern-day researchers are racing to make a link between a body discovered in a bog and Fletcher Christian, one of the mutineers who took part in the Mutiny on THE BOUNTY. At times, some of the plot points seem stretched. Particularly odd is the subplot about a teenaged mixed-race woman with a penchant for William Wordsworth. Though well written and well told, readers may still wish some of the story lines were more clearly focused. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 07]