Grave Tattoo

When torrential summer rains uncover a bizarrely tattooed bodyon a Lake District hillside, old wives’ tales come swirling to the surface.For centuries Lakelanders have whispered that Fletcher Christian, infamous Bountymutineer, staged the massacre on Pitcairn Island so he could return home.And there he told his story to an old friend and schoolmate, William Wordsworth,who turned it into a long narrative poemone kept hidden lest it exposeWordsworth to the gallows for harbouring a fugitive.

Wordsworth specialist Jane Gresham, herself a native of the LakeDistrict, feels compelled to discover once and for all if the manuscript everexistedand whether it still exists today. But as she pursues each new lead,death follows hard on her heels. Suddenly Jane is at the heart of a 200-year-oldmystery that continues to put lives on the line. Against the dramatic backdropof England’s Lake District a drama of life and death plays out, its ultimateprize a bounty worth millions.