The Tattoo Thief

Author/Guide: Alison Belsham

Why a Booktrail?

2018: There’s a serial killer at large, slicing tattoos from his victims’ bodies while they’re still alive.

ISBN: 978-1409175131
Genre: Crime, Police Procedural

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What you need to know before your trail

When Brighton tattoo artist Marni Mullins discovers a flayed body, newly-promoted DI Francis Sullivan needs her help. There’s a serial killer at large, slicing tattoos from his victims’ bodies while they’re still alive. Marni knows the tattooing world like the back of her hand, but has her own reasons to distrust the police. So when she identifies the killer’s next target, will she tell Sullivan or go after the Tattoo Thief alone?

Locations

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Travel Guide

Brighton

The Lanes

The place to see and find your own tattoo parlour it would seem. It’s where the novel opens and it was once the hub of the old fishing town. Still as lively nowadays but for restaurants and cafes. Not to mention the jewellers and tiny, high-end antiques shops.

To delve into this novel and this area in particular, including Kemp Town, is to go behind the scenes of the tattoo industry – well the darkside at least and it really puts a spin on Brighton’s hidden shops and lanes (fictionally of course!)

Pavillion

“It was a Disney Palace built in Regency Times, a wedding cake concoction of onion domes,spiky towers and pale creamy stucco which always made Marni think of Scheherazade and the One Thousand and One Nights.”

But this is also where a body is found so the contrast is interesting!

Brighton Pier and Beach

It’s deserted when Marni goes there to clear her head and all she can see is the hefty hulk of the pier in front of her. All that is left of it that is.

Silhouetted against the dark sea, it had been left to rot after being gutted by fire. No longer umbilically attached to the shore, it was now an island, haunted by the ghosts of long-forgotten holiday makers and small-time local gangsters.

Streetview Maps

B) Brighton -The Lanes

E) Brighton - Gt College Street

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

I know nothing about the world of tattoos apart from what I see on Tattoo Fixers on the telly. but something about this novel intrigued me as the premise seemed so interesting and new. I don’t understand how someone can willingly undergo a needle just to have a flower or something on their skin. I didn’t even like those billy stampers( Remember them? I feel old)

Anyway, I digress. This is a cracking crime/serial killer which if like me, needles make you shiver, this is going to make you do more than that! As the best thrillers should do. Marni is an interesting character and I was invested in her and her world from the start.

Imagine finding a body in the bin and then be dragged into a serial killer case because you know about tattoos? Imagine someone stealing these tattoos? Made me think of that Roald Dahl story Skin – that made me shiver as this novel does. But in a good way!

I enjoyed the story being told in four voices the events seen through the eyes of four people. Like four eyes tattooed on an arm…..
Francis was a good character but blimey he was thrown under the bus on more than one occasion. Tough as nails though in the stubbornness department so I was rooting for him to get one over on the others and get his case.

Very graphic though this – not sure if I will read anymore of this theme but that’s no fault of the author! I’ll have to practice watching Tattoo Fixers in the meantime to toughen up. I hope her next one involves something softer and nicer like baking cakes 😉