“Readers need not be conversant with “street flash” or other industry terms to enjoy the setting and follow Brett down a trail of needles and gloves to the dramatic finale.” – Publishers Weekly
THE MISSING INK
A Tattoo Shop Mystery
By Karen E. Olson
The first in a brand new mystery series from Karen E. Olson, featuring Las Vegas tattoo artist Brett Kavanaugh.
Six-feet tall, red-headed, and covered in tattoos, Brett has heads turning every time she walks into a room—even in a city as freakish as Las Vegas. She’s been hooked on tattoos since college, leaving her tattooing apprenticeship in New Jersey to move in with her cop brother, Tim, in the City of Sin, and start out on her own. Now she owns a high-end Vegas tattoo shop called the Painted Lady, which caters to a select and often high-profile group of clients. The quirky staff never fail to add some drama to Brett’s days: Betsy, the Little Person who manages the shop; Joel, the gay, 300-pound tattoo veteran; Ace, a frustrated artist with an imaginary girlfriend; and Charlotte, a young talent with stars in her eyes.
When rich girl Kelly Masters comes into the Painted Lady sporting a diamond ring the size of a softball and requests a “devotion tattoo” of her fiancé Matthew’s name, Brett is surprised: Kelly doesn’t seem like the tattooing type. But that’s the last anyone sees of Kelly—whose real name, as Brett finds out from the evening news, is actually Elise Lyon, fiancé to son of corporate bank CEO Bruce Henderson. And Elise’s fiancé’s real name is Chip. So who’s Matthew? Brett can’t help feeling responsible for the runaway, and decides to do a little digging… but when a man named Matthew Thomas shows up dead—his body also covered in tattoos—Brett finds herself in an ink-load of trouble.
Praise for Karen E. Olson:
"Olson knows exactly how to blend an appealing heroine, an intricate plot, and inventive humor."
- Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Karen E. Olson knows this beat like the back of her hand."
- Michael Connelly
“Olson writes with great good humor.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Like an alchemist, Karen E. Olson blends together wildly disparate elements into pure gold."
-Reed Farrel Coleman, Shamus Award-winning author of The James Deans
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen E. Olson was a reporter and editor at newspapers throughout Connecticut for 20 years before retiring to write fiction and edit a medical journal part time at Yale. She lives in a suburb of New Haven, CT with her husband and daughter and is at work on her next Tattoo Shop mystery.
THE MISSING INK
A Tattoo Shop Mystery
By Karen E. Olson
Obsidian Mass Market Original; On sale: July 7, 2009; $6.99
ISBN: 978-0-451-227461
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