Customer Reviews

The Missing Ink: A Tattoo Shop Mystery

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was the first in Karen Olson's Tattoo Shop Mysteries. Another one is in the works, set to be published in April of 2010 (according to the excerpt in the back of this one).

I found this mystery to be an enjoyable read. The chapters were very short, which meant I ended up reading more in one sitting than I normally would, because I could tell myself 'just one more chapter.' I started to care about the well being of the main character Brett, along with her co-workers and friends. The way the characters were written about, I was really able to establish a personality for each of them, which I really like in a book.

The mystery itself was a little confusing, because it deals with the switching of names and other similar ideas, but made sense in the end (thankfully). I really had no idea who was committing the crimes, and was expecting a few individuals to be guilty that weren't.

For awhile it was annoying to me that Brett's detective brother Tim wouldn't tell Brett anything (which is common for a detective, but Brett's speculations were getting old, I wanted facts)! It gets better towards the end once he realizes that she is a big part of the crimes.

I usually don't enjoy reading books part of a series that only have the first book out, because now I have to wait almost a year for the next one, but I did enjoy this one and know I will be looking for "Pretty In Ink" (#2) next spring!

Very much enjoyed this book. No plot synopsis here, but what I loved: the subject of tattoo art, the setting in Vegas & all its craziness (including oxygen bars & Elvis). This book kept me up late reading and almost had me wanting to get a tat myself and had me dreaming about tattoos & thinking what image & where. I'd read the author's previous series (Annie Seymour) and would say Brett Kavanaugh is more likeable than Annie, while still an independent somewhat cynical strong female character. The supporting characters were interesting along with their relationships with Brett. I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Great insight into the world of tattoos!

As a fan of Ms. Olson's Annie Seymour series I was immediately drawn to this new one. I couldn't put it down. The characters were interesting, all from different walks of life. The mystery was excellent and I can't wait for the next installment even though it's a year away. I highly suggest this book for mystery lovers with a sense of humor whether they are tattoo lovers or not. Keep up the good work!!!

If you have ever heard of, watched, or enjoyed the TLC show(s) Miami Ink or L.A. Ink then you'll definitely like this book. The main character, Brett, is a hip, young tattoo artist working in the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. She has her own shop inside the casino shopping area and a few employees that work alongside her - Bitsy, Ace, and Joel. Her brother is her roommate and also a cop on the local police force. Brett finds herself caught up in a mystery when a woman comes in to get a tattoo and ends up missing a few days later; ... was the last person to see her alive. In the typical cozy way, the main character is involved in almost all aspects of the disappearance, instead of leaving detectives to their work. She comes across some less than savory people along the way, and also finds a spot of romance. The author has a great setting and character to work with - the use of the tattoo shop and Vegas give the book a certain 'edge', which was great, but the plot itself could use a lot of tightening. The characters were a bit jumbled up - the storyline didn't flow seamlessly and there was a lot of confusion about the girl who had disappeared and another girl who was involved somehow. The author doesn't clear up a lot of the story until the very end but, by that time, the whole story got a bit confused and hard to follow. There were characters involved in the story that didn't even have a central role in the end result and could have been eliminated. Anyway, I will still read the next one in this series though because the setting is fun and interesting.

There seems to be a huge spurt of theme mysteries lately, but the idea for this book is rather unique enough in comparison to the others in the field. 'A tattoo artist as the main character? This should be awesome!' I thought as I eagerly purchased this at my bookstore job. It ended up not living up to all of the potential.

The book follows tattoo artist Brett as she attempts to discover what exactly happened to the fiancee of a rich & powerful man who just happened to have stopped in for a tattoo before disappearing. While attempting to avoid the bodies that seem to appear before her & trying to keep from falling to the attentions of a suave hotel manager, Brett has to put up with being constantly stalked & harassed by an unknown assailant.

I really did like this book for the most part. It was cute & there were quite a few nice mystery details thrown into the story that I really appreciated. It's just that well... there really wasn't a whole lot to really make it stand above the multitude of theme mysteries that are being poured into the marketplace. Like another reviewer here stated, it's just rather cookie cutter. I also didn't really see some of the chemistry between Brett & Simon- it just felt really forced at times. I'm really hoping that future books either develop the chemistry more or introduces a better fit for Brett.

This book was nice & while I'll be reading the next one, I just don't think I'll be snapping it up quite as quickly. It's more of a "get at the library" type of thing for me. Since this is only the first book though, I'm hopeful that future books will work out the kinks in this first book.

#1 Tattoo Shop mystery featuring Brett Kavanaugh, owner of the Painted Lady tattoo shop in Las Vegas. Brett gets involved in a complex case her brother Tim, a Las Vegas police detective, is investigating when it's determined that a missing girl was last seen in her shop. She'd come in to ask about getting devotion ink with her fiance's name on it, made an appointment to get the tat, then never showed. The odd thing is, her fiance's name was Bruce Manning Jr--son and heir of a wealthy businessman, known as Chip to his friends--but she wanted her tattoo to say Matthew!

Soon the news is splashed with photos of Elise Lyon, missing bride-to-be of Chip Manning--but she had used the name Kelly Masters when she made the appointment at The Painted Lady. When a woman is found shot dead in a car near the airport--and HER name ends up being Kelly Masters, things begin to get really confusing. Soon Brett is in the puzzle up to her pretty little tattooed neck.

I liked this book okay--I've enjoyed all of Olson's books in her other series--but this one wasn't exceptional. I like her writing style--it flows, it's easy to read. But this book was cozier than her other series, and in fact had many of the elements of "just another cookie cutter cozy mystery." You have a main character with a quirky job or hobby, you have a set of slightly freaky friends or secondary characters, and you have the main character doing unbelievable things that no sane person would do which continually puts her in jeopardy. And yes, one of those things was withholding evidence from the police, even though one of the police in question was her brother.

The concept is great! As a tattooed woman, I felt it certainly had promise. I learned some interesting things. But Brett's character just didn't seem to have much depth, and the whole package didn't quite measure up--possibly because Olson's other series IS so good, I had high expectations. I will read the next in series, but I have become very disillusioned with cozies in general and it is going to have to be an improvement over this one, and Brett is going to have to develop some meat to her character and quit doing such dumb things if I'm to continue beyond that.

I just finished this book a couple of days ago, I belong to a book club with some co-workers/friends and we chose this as one of our selections for the month and I'm very glad that we did.

I think it is a great start to a new series and I was intrigued by the tattoo shop setting and I'm looking forward the second in the series Pretty in Ink coming in April 2010.

I only gave it 4 stars because at times I felt the mystery jumped all around but I started to put all the pieces together, and the bigger picture was easy to understand.

The Missing Ink is the first installment in a new series of mysteries by Karen E. Olson, author of the Annie Seymour mysteries. Brett Kavanaugh is the owner of The Painted Lady, a high-end tattoo parlor in Vegas whose lobby sports original art work and orchids rather than the neon we might expect. Brett lands in the middle of a missing persons case when she turns out to be the last person to have seen Elise Lyon before she disappeared. Elise is engaged to the son of a Trump-like Vegas hotel mogul, so the hunt for her quickly becomes national news, attracting the likes of 20/20. The case is far from straightforward, as Brett is the first to recognize: when Elise came to her shop she was using a pseudonym, and the name she wanted tattooed on her chest was not her fiancé's. Intrigued by the mystery, Brett decides to do some amateur sleuthing, and she unwisely elects to keep information from the police--despite that she lives with a representative of the Las Vegas department, her brother, Detective Tim Kavanaugh. (I did have trouble believing that Brett would keep information from the authorities and investigate on her own. Her motive to do so doesn't seem sufficiently strong. But I suppose there's not much of a story to be had from her providing a statement to the police and calling it a night.)

The Missing Ink is a fast read with a seriously intricate plot. You have to have your wits about you to keep the connections between the various characters straight. Brett is reluctantly allied with her competition on the strip, Jeff Coleman, who runs a more traditionally seedy tattoo establishment. And she is helped out by her employees--Bitsy, the efficient dwarf, Joel, who's obese and of indeterminate sexuality, and the self-absorbed Ace. We also encounter, among others, disappeared rich girl Elise and her numerous paramours; suave hotelier and potential love interest Simon Chase; and Kelly Martin, a tattooist with unexpected connections in Vegas.

Olson's previous series was set in New Haven, Connecticut--just down the road from me as well as the author (with whom I'm acquainted)--and the books were steeped in a sense of place. The Missing Ink, not surprisingly since it's not the author's home town, doesn't feel quite as wed to its setting, despite the principals' appearance at an Elvis karaoke bar. This isn't a bad thing; it's merely a noticeable difference between the two series. While I came away from the Annie Seymour books most struck by the series' connection to its setting, this first Tattoo Mystery leaves me most impressed by the complexity of its plot. I'm looking forward to more books in the series: Pretty in Ink is due out in April, 2010.

-- Debra Hamel

In Las Vegas, Brett Kavanaugh owns the Painted Lady tattoo parlor. A girl enters her shop to have a devotion tattoo of her fiancé's name in a heart engraved on her. Brett gives the young girl an appointment but she fails to keep it, which is not unusual as people have second thoughts. Two days later, stoic hard boiled cop Willis shows a picture and asks if Brett seen the girl in the photo; not good with police except her brother Tim, Brett shrugs her shoulders but conceals that is the girl who failed to show up for her appointment.

Tim asks Brett to help investigate the missing girl case because of ties to his sister's artistic profession. She agrees and as she follows the needles as clues Brett soon finds herself involved with homicide, hotel manager Simon Chase, and of course this being Vegas Elvis.

This is a fun amateur sleuth starring a delightful tour guide who escorts readers to another side of Vegas where tattoo parlors come in all levels of quality and are hygienically safe (or not). The story line is fast-paced from the moment the cop arrives at the Painted Lady with Brett's attitude established when she calmly explains this is a tattoo shop not a brothel to his looking for a girl comment. Fans will enjoy THE MISSING INK as Brett tattoos Sin City's underbelly.

Harriet Klausner

Fun! I will probably read more in this series, but I still feel a little disconnected from Brett. Aside from tats, a few obscure artists, and Simon Chase I don't feel like I got to know her interests much... But hey, it was only the first in the series!