The Grave Tattoo

The Grave Tattoo
Val McDermid

The award-winning and Number One bestselling Val McDermid crafts an electrifying psychological suspense thriller that mixes history, heritage and heinous crimes.A 200 year-old-secret is now a matter of life and death.And it could be worth a fortune.It's summer in the Lake District and heavy rain over the fells has uncovered a bizarrely tattooed body. Could it be linked to the old rumour that Fletcher Christian, mutinous First Mate on the Bounty, had secretly returned to England?Scholar Jane Gresham wants to find out. She believes that the Lakeland poet William Wordsworth, a friend of Christian's, may have sheltered the fugitive and turned his tale into an epic poem – which has since disappeared.But as she follows each lead, death is hard on her heels. The centuries-old mystery is putting lives at risk. And it isn't just the truth that is waiting to be discovered, but a bounty worth millions …

VAL McDERMID

The Grave Tattoo

For Kelly – my blossom of snow

O Reader! had you in your mind

Such stores as silent thought can bring,

O gentle Reader! you would find

A tale in every thing.

William Wordsworth, Simon Lee

Table of Contents

Epigraph (#udd03b4d4-dc9f-54ca-81b7-173ed82e4426)

The Prelude (#u128fc373-6d4e-561c-8fc1-462bee47dde7)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_f3dd6014-36e5-5ed4-9142-9f0942335e3c)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_3d8c0d30-e99c-5810-aff3-f6a0343a8acf)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_15b4c664-747d-5e7b-9a39-d6ef19b5ab14)

Chapter 4 (#ulink_b19b8320-f14e-5f66-bab3-f11f459a89ee)

Chapter 5 (#ulink_e81cf566-a9cb-5448-b8c9-7d2b3c3117f4)

Chapter 6 (#ulink_17416526-7fd0-54cd-836a-8c710fed3375)

Chapter 7 (#ulink_1e7bc9cf-8927-524f-b803-6d31e39b9719)

Chapter 8 (#ulink_63b66c21-3d5d-5e54-bd2f-dd85609dc4af)

Chapter 9 (#ulink_28bfecaa-ac9a-5880-b4d3-eb6daed56840)

Chapter 10 (#ulink_dabb5f1b-00bb-5550-be6c-f2a0ecbf1d6b)

Chapter 11 (#ulink_01ce738b-db6d-5a95-a518-677e477980e8)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo)