The Grave Tattoo

After heavy summer rains expose a strangely tattooed body on a Lake District hillside, an old local legend becomes disturbingly credible. For centuries, residents have told stories that Fletcher Christian orchestrated the massacre on Pitcairn Island so he could return home, where he shared his account with his schoolmate William Wordsworth. Wordsworth allegedly transformed the story into a long narrative poem that was kept hidden to protect him from legal consequences for sheltering a fugitive. Jane Gresham, a Wordsworth scholar and Lake District native, becomes determined to establish whether this manuscript ever existed—and if it survives today. As she investigates each lead, she finds herself in danger. Jane discovers she is caught in the center of a 200-year-old mystery with deadly consequences, set against the backdrop of England's Lake District. At stake is a bounty worth millions.