cover image Tattoo

Tattoo

Bryan Boswell. Piatkus (IPG, dist.), $12.95 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-7499-4214-4

Fans of action-packed revenge fiction who don’t mind contrivances and stock situations will best appreciate former reporter Boswell’s thriller debut. SAS Capt. Simon Tabor’s life changed after his 15-year-old sister, Emma, disappeared on a backpacking trip in Morocco. While Simon succeeded in tracing her to Spain, he was unable to save her life. Two years later, London Det. Chief Insp. Alan Landon tells Simon that several recent murder victims bear the same flower tattoo as Emma had before she died and persuades him to unofficially aid the police by going to Spain to pursue the tattoos’ origin. In Spain, Simon joins forces with the standard attractive female bent on the same mission, Romanian Anca Aron. While the secret behind the kidnapping ring is something new, not much else is, including a bad guy who considerately puts a deathtrap on time-delay so that Simon and Anca have time to plot an escape. (Nov.)