Review: Pretty in Ink by Karen E. Olson

If your name is Britney Brassieres, being taken down by a tsunami of champagne might seem only fitting.

One minute she was belting out "Oops! . . . I Did It Again," the next she was on the floor, her arms flailing as the Moët - not the really expensive kind, but that White Star you can get at discount if you look hard enough - showered her. [pg 1]

Pretty in Ink by Karen E. Olson
Obsidian Mystery, 2010
Crime Fiction; 299 pgs

I did a little happy dance when I received Karen E. Olson's second book of the Tattoo Shop mystery series in the mail last month. I loved the first book in the series, The Missing Ink, and was excited to see what Brett and friends were up to now.

In this particular novel, readers step into the Las Vegas drag queen scene where one such drag queen, Britney Brassieres, is struck by a champagne cork--on purpose--at the premiere of the Nylons and Tattoos show. Brett Kavanaugh, owner and tattoo artist at the Painted Lady, and her staff had drawn the tattoos that the drag queens are sporting and were invited to the big event. Brett is the only one who sees the cork shooter, and, while she is unable to identify him by his face, she does get a good look at the tattoo on his arm. When the queen dies mysteriously a few days later, the situation grows all the more suspicious--and complicated. One of Brett's own employees is missing and seemingly in trouble. Brett is determined to do her own investigating both to help her friend and to solve a murder, placing herself in the path of danger.

I had a lot of fun reading Pretty in Ink. I fell into the rhythm of the novel almost immediately. The book is fast-paced both in tone and action. There were comic moments, as can be expected. I love Brett's dry sense of humor. And her friends are a real hoot. Joel is one of my favorite characters. He reminds me a lot of a former coworker who was large and imposing size-wise, but was really a big teddy bear, cuddly and kind-hearted. He also loved to eat. Jeff Coleman, owner and tattoo artist of a competing tattoo business, is ever present. I wasn't sure what to think of him in the first book of the series, but he's growing on me. There's certainly more to him than meets the eye. And that Bitsy is a spitfire. She may be small, but like many of us who are short know, you shouldn't be quick to underestimate us.

This series is fast becoming a comfort read for me. It is not a series that should be taken too seriously. It has just the right amount of suspense and comedy to keep me entertained while I am reading. I cannot really think of anything I did not like about the novel. Readers interested in getting to know Brett would probably be better off starting with the first book in the series as her character is more fully developed there, although the mystery in Pretty in Ink stands on its own.

Upon completion of the book, I actually read the excerpt for the upcoming book, Driven to Ink, something I never do. I read introductions, acknowledgments, glossaries, appendices, and the dedication, but never the excerpt to the next book. And yet I did with this one. I wasn't quite ready to let go of Brett just yet come the end of the book.

Rating: (Very Good)

You can learn more about Karen E. Olson and her books on the author's website. You can also find Karen at the First Offenders blog.


Source: My copy of Pretty in Ink was provided by the author for review.

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