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  • Location: London, The Lake District

The Grave Tattoo

The Grave Tattoo

Why a Booktrail?

2000s and 200 years ago: a 200 year-old-secret is now a matter of life and death.

  • ISBN: 978-0007344604
  • Genre: Crime, Mystery

What you need to know before your trail

Summer in the Lake District. It’s not very sunny however as heavy rain batters the fells. When the rains clear, instead of a rainbow, a bizarrely tattooed body is discovered. Who is it and what do the markings mean?

Some believe in the old legend that Fletcher Christian, mutinous First Mate on the Bounty,must have secretly returned to England after all. Scholar Jane Gresham certainly thinks so. She thinks 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.

Trouble is, whoever discovers the secret may be in line for a bounty or a historic punishment

Travel Guide

Val McDermid goes to The lake District

Wordsworth country comes alive once again in the hands of Val McDermid and the search for a centuries old mystery. Fletcher Christian who lived from 1764 to 1793 was on board HMS Bounty as it sailed to TAhiti. He took control of the ship in 1789 and passed into legend.There have been many rumours as to what happened to him afterwards, although it is said he travelled to Pitcarin islands and set up home there with a few others. Then was he murdered or did he return to England?

If friends with William Wordsworth then a lost document could really be valuable and historically significant. The search by a literary scholar however is  fuelled by her passionate interest in the case.

There is no real proof that this man ever returned to England but Wordworth’s work has been scoured for clues ever since.

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Twitter: @valmcdermid

Facebook:valmcdermid

Web: valmcdermid.com

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