I am delighted to be part of the #blogtour for The Tattoo Thief by Alison Belsham and would like to thank Orion for the opportunity to read the book and share my thoughts.
About the book:
A policeman on his first murder case
A tattoo artist with a deadly secret
And a twisted serial killer sharpening his blades to kill again…
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?
About the author: Alison Belsham initially started writing with the ambition of becoming a screenwriter—and in 2000 was commended for her visual storytelling in the Orange Prize for Screenwriting. In 2001 she was shortlisted in a BBC Drama Writer competition. Life and children intervened but, switching to fiction, in 2009 her novel Domino was selected for the prestigious Adventures in Fiction mentoring scheme. In 2016 she pitched her first crime novel, The Tattoo Thief, at the Pitch Perfect event at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival and was judged the winner. She is now working on completing The Tattoo Thief trilogy with Poison Ink and Death’s Needle.
My Review: WOW – This is one gory and gruesome debut and if you have a strong stomach I am pretty sure you will love this book. The Tattoo Thief is the debut novel from Alison Belsham, published by Trapeze and available to buy now and is the first book in a trilogy.
The gory story is narrated through four main characters. The Killer: a really sick and twisted individual who is killing people around Brighton and removing their skin to collect their tattoos; Marni Mullins: a divorced mother who works in Brighton as a tattoo artist and discovers the first victim; Francis Sullivan: a newly promoted Detective Inspector in charge of investigating these horrific crimes and DS Rory Mackay; a slightly disgruntled policeman who was overlooked for the DI position and now has to report to Francis Sullivan.
I personally thought that this was an original and interesting story. Whilst the murders were really graphic and I found myself grimacing every other page, I was utterly engrossed in the fascinating back stories of Francis and Marni as well as the current plotline around catching this sick serial killer.
Without giving away anything, it was great to read about a policeman who had such strong personal beliefs and was thoroughly determined to solve the crime and Marni Mullins – a brilliant, strong and unwavering female lead character with a dark past.
I will definitely be reading the next book Poison Ink when it’s released in Feb 2019.
