Monday, 3 September 2018

The Tattoo Thief by Alison Belsham.

Buzz!!! Buzz!!! and the tattoo machine inks another person having given their consent to the tattooist to make their mark. However, there is a thief about who steals tattoos off people, leaving them for dead.


This crime thriller is set around Brighton and in her debut novel, Alison Belsham gives the case to newly promoted DI Francis Sullivan. What is nice about this police procedural, is that there are separate chapters from the point of view of the 4 main characters. DI Francis Sullivan and DS Rory Mackay give their view as the case progresses plus you also get chapters from tattooist Marni Mullins and the bad guy who is stealing the tattoos from the victims.


I enjoyed reading The Tattoo Thief and liked all the bits that Marni told the reader about her job as a tattooist. Most crime thrillers dwell on the job of the police officers and it was very nice to have detail about a very different day job. This gave The Tattoo Thief added value. Characterization of Francis, Rory and Marni was good and I liked the chemistry that built between the 3 of them.


I thought the plot of The Tattoo Thief was okay but found the ending with all it’s racing action disappointing. Getting the location of where the bad guy may be living, chasing there page after page followed by more charging around was rather tiresome and lacked a WOW! factor compared to finding the first victim in the beginning. The final chase for the bad guy did not grab me at all, although the thought of Marni naked did brighten my mood.


I liked The Tattoo Thief and thought the beginning, the structure and the character development and chemistry to be good. For a debut novel Alison Belsham has done very well and I think her book is a GOOD read that gets 4 stars from me.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Orion for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

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