Strange Ink
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$14.95
Plenty of people have woken up with a tattoo after a hangover, but what if it happened every time you went to sleep? What if those tattoos seemed to be telling you a story, a story of a life you never lived, but are forced to relive in your nightmares? For Harry Hendrick, small-time journalist, tattoos like that lead to a horrific crime, a dangerous foe, and a mystery that might cost him everything.
Strange Ink does a marvelous job of threading the line between traditional mysteries and supernatural thrillers, placing a reasonable character in an unreasonable situation and seeing how it plays out. Harry is neither too naive or too willing to embrace the seemingly impossible, and it really grounds a story that could have seemed silly or flighty in the wrong hands.
The storytelling is patient, building up both Harry’s backstory and the mystery of the tattoos effectively, resulting in a well-constructed, unsettling thriller.
To be fair, there are a few plot-convenient coincidences, as well as some tired genre tropes, but otherwise, the novel lands most of its punches.
Strange Ink deserves better than a “gets under your skin” pun. It stays with you well after the last page is turned.
| Author | Gary Kemble |
|---|---|
| Star Count | 3.5/5 |
| Format | Trade |
| Page Count | 391 pages |
| Publisher | Titan Books |
| Publish Date | 2018-10-09 |
| ISBN | 9781785656439 |
| Bookshop.org | Buy this Book |
| Issue | Mar-19 |
| Category | Horror |
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