Tattoo Blues [Hardcover]

Michael McClelland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2004

Tattoo Blues is a rollicking and playful comic-mystery, featuring runaway rich kid Desiree Dean who discovers her prized tattoo is a fraud - the Chinese character etched on her left breast says "with hot sauce", not "magnificent animal" - and goes after the artist, and in the resulting confrontation accidentally sets his tattoo parlor ablaze. That results in a mysterious explosion that destroys the parlor and leaves the injured Desiree in the care of a lesbian clam pirate and turns the sleepy Florida Gulf Coast fishing village of Cedar Key upside down.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: I Books (April 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743486560
• ISBN-13: 978-0743486569
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,385,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fielder's Choice, July 11, 2005

By 

Charles J. Marr (Cambridge Springs, Pa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tattoo Blues (Hardcover)

Does Hiassen's political humor draw you, or is it the Dorsey wackiness that grabs your attention? McClelland does a little of each and so I am not sure if anyone is finally thrown out in this West Coast Florida twist up. Perhaps he has been caught up in the essential tolerance of Ceday Key and forgives even the bad guys. While Largo to Key West have an overgrowth of kooks and undergrowth of condo developers, Cedar Key has few such folk and so the author invents some characters and plots which do not quite fit into the "Clam Capitol of America." This makes for a sort of silly plot centered around a scheme to develop a casino on the historic dock. There is a feel the author picked up some superficial bits and pieces, but missed much of the essential Cedar Key life. Additionally the novel misses the real sub-tropical beauty of this old seaport. Certainly there is anough grist on the island for an author, yet I confess I may be holding him to a standard of "didn't do." All in all I would read this if I had it to do over, but I would not take it up as enthusiasticaly as before.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun Read, March 23, 2005

By 

Ron Uselton (Sherman, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tattoo Blues (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Mix a hip shooting group of Florida islanders into a lazy island setting with apparitions and tarnished journalists and sooth saying tattoo masters, throw in a sea monster and a pirate or two and a flatulent manatee, and you got exactly the book I want to read as I lie in the sand and feel the sun on my face. It's the next best thing to a frozen drink at sunset. Not as psychotic as Tim Dorsey's creations, or quite as eco-conscious as Hiassen's, the book is a well-written little adventure that's just plain fun!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars off beat humor inside a wacky but fun tale, April 14, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tattoo Blues (Hardcover)

Cedar Key is a small self contained place which has been undiscovered by developers and where nothing much ever happens. When Desiree Dean, a rich college student who left home to live her own life, not the one that is expected by her father. She decides to get a tattoo at Pimlico Phil?s tattoo parlor and she believes she?s getting one that says Golden Dragon but at the strip where she works as a hostess dressed up in a dragon costume, she learns the tattoo means ?with hot sauce?.

She goes over to Phil?s in costume and accidentally sets fire to the place. Both she and Phil disappear and a story in a Florida paper talks about the incident. Robin Chanterelles of the tabloid The Weekly Alarm is sent down to investigate. She becomes involved in the fight to save Cedar Key from a developer who wants a referendum to get the land he owns rezoned so he can build a casino which would destroy the uniqueness of the island.

This zany tale is filled with lots of off beat humor and eccentric characters that make the meandering storyline somehow always come back to the main theme of saving the island from those who would exploit it. Michael McClelland has an original and refreshing writing style that will appeal to the reader who likes to read something different on occasion. The author has the talent to put people in impossible situations and have them find a way to do what is right even if it costs them a boat load of money.

Harriet Klausner