Alison Belsham - The Tattoo Thief

Tattoo artist Marni Mullins has lived a life and it's written on her skin in blue and black ink. Divorced from Thierry Mullins, she lives and works in Brighton, where she feels happy and safe. Until the moment she discovers a dead body in a dumpster behind the Pavilion. Marni has reasons to be fearful of the police. She doesn't want to get involved and hopes that an anonymous call to tell them of the body will be enough.
Newly-promoted Detective Inspector Francis Sullivan is assigned to the job. He's not the usual cynical, drink-addled divorcee-he's young, fiercely ambitious and he goes to church every Sunday. But it's his first case and his new team doesn't reckon he's got what it takes.
The two of them form an unlikely partnership that has a chemistry all of its own. Can they catch a killer who is wielding a curved blade through the work of the top tattoo artists in the world? Marni knows their work like the back of her hand so she knows which artist might be next on the Tanner's list. But will she be the final victim?

Comment: I saw this book at the library and the original blurb made me curious so that is pretty much why I've decided to give it a go.

In this story someone is killing people who have tattoos, and it just happens that it's a tattoo artist who finds the first victim the police can identify. Marni Mullins doesn't want anything to do with the police again, but she couldn't be silent and her actions place her in the middle of a disturbing investigation...

Newly promoted detective Francis Sullivan has to prove his worth and he thinks the victims are linked but his boss isn't of the same opinion. As he goes on attempting to find common ground, Marni is often whom he asks for help, to uncover the tattoos' mysteries. But is the killer not aware of this? Or has Marni always been an intended target?

I was mostly convinced to read this book because of the tattoos angle. I mean, it's not that I'm that curious about them myself - no needles, thank you - but I was curious to see what kind of interest they would be towards the plot. Well, a lot, since the the killer in this book collects tattoos and wants to preserve them by curing the skin. It was certainly educative to learn how this can be done and how similar human and animal skins are in terms of process, which the author clearly researched, but it was also a little icky.

Thankfully, the story isn't focused on this element alone nor on all the stages of creating a tattoo - although we do have some information on this which, complemented with some episodes of Ink Master on TV or some similar show, were enough for me to understand some of what was being shared when it comes to techniques and styles - and this allowed me to like what was being said, to appreciate the information and the details, but it wasn't overwhelming nor boring.

A big chunk of the story is related to the police investigation and this isn't the first book in the genre I read so my expectations weren't that high but also not too low. In this regard, I should say that I've read this was the author's first book, and perhaps the sort of choppy transitions between situations/scenes can be justified by that. It's not that things are badly done but it does show the author isn't smoothly sequencing some things or might not have way to do that. 

The writing is fitting and the overall feel of the plot is engaging, so this is a compelling story in the big scheme of things. However, some plot decisions were a little too convenient and sometimes feel rushed (like how and at what point the killer is apprehended). Nevertheless, to my personal taste, the biggest issue here is the characterization. Since this is the first of a trilogy, I can assume more/better development will come at some stage, but in this book the characters weren't properly layered and their personalities not deep enough to convince me.

I was also a little disappointed by the main characters, Marni and Francis. They act as a team here and there and this is fine but she is too focused on keeping up her secrets and he is too naive for a police officer - I don't mean in regards to his actual work, but in how he deals with co-workers and hierarchies - which means they feel rather unsteady in how they can be seen by others. This isn't a deal breaker but sometimes a scene or a sentence would put me off about them.

I think this was a good enough story despite my preferences. If I see the other installments at the library, i'll likely request them to finish the overall arc.

Grade: 6/10