The Tattoosday Book Review: Driven to Ink, A Tattoo Shop Mystery

Earlier this week, author Karen E. Olson released the third installment of her Tattoo Shop Mystery series, Driven To Ink.

For those readers who may not be familiar with Ms. Olson's series, you can check out my reviews of the first two books, here (The Missing Ink) and here (Pretty in Ink).

The series features Brett Kavanaugh, a Las Vegas-based tattoo artist, and a cast of supporting characters, from her police officer brother Tim, to fellow artist and competitor Jeff Coleman, owner of the shop Murder Ink. Kavanaugh's staff at The Painted Lady, a high-end tattoo shop at the Venetian Hotel and Casino, also offers up some memorable characters, including Bitsy, the diminuitive shop manager.

Driven To Ink, like its predecessors, has an "only in Las Vegas" feel, with a well-crafted narrative that, this time around, revolves around a drive-thru wedding chapel called "That's Amore" that features a handful of Dean Martin doppelgängers crooning, you guessed it, "That's Amore".

Olson has once again spun a riveting tale, which finds Brett Kavanaugh discovering a dead Dean Martin imperspnator in her trunk, with a tattoo machine's clip cord around the victim's neck. She had just lent her car, a Mustang Bullitt, to Jeff Coleman's octogenarian mother, Sylvia, so she could get married in style at the That's Amore chapel.

What I love about Karen Olson's books is that tattoos are seen above and beyond base clues in a murder mystery. She treats the vocation with utter respect, explaining things to the reader as if they were new to a tattoo studio. Tattoos may serve as clues, but they are not regarded as these huge totems that define their owners.

Brett Kavanaugh is an enjoyable protagonist, not without faults, and the author let's the reader tag along on her adventures that start off innocently enough, but pull her into deeper and deeper water. It's no surprise that one of the recurring characters is an Emergency Room doctor, as medical attention seems to be needed from time to time, making this mystery series ring truer than one in which the hero (or heroine) dances through their adventure unscathed.

Olson's first book in the series was a novelty. A new mystery with tattoos at the center of the narrative. After three volumes, Brett Kavanaugh seems more real, more human, than ever before.

A word to the skeptics, those tattoo snobs who may scoff at the light-hearted appearance of these books: Karen Olsen has given a gift to the tattoo community in the form of Brett Kavanaugh. Driven To Ink is another great mystery, with a respectful and honest portrayal of one artist/sleuth who just happens to be a tattoo shop owner.

I have enjoyed every one of Ms. Olson's books and Driven To Ink is yet another chapter in the fascinating life of Brett Kavanaugh. I'm looking forward to her next installment which, I am led to believe, is tentatively called Ink Flamingos.

Check out Karen talking about her first Tattoo Shop Mystery here:

The Tattoosday Book Review: Pretty In Ink

Last year, when Karen E. Olson released The Missing Ink, I didn't know what to expect.

Here was a mystery writer presenting us with a novel in which the main character was a female tattoo artist who owns her own shop, The Painted Lady, in Las Vegas' famous Venetian Hotel and Casino.

Brett Cavanaugh, the creation at the center of Ms. Olson's universe, is certainly a compelling character. She is a business owner, living with her police officer brother, and working with several memorable characters.

I wanted to like the first book and I wasn't disappointed. It's a fun read and does a nice job of keeping the reader interested. The fact that it is tattoo-centered only made it that much more enjoyable. For those of you who missed it, my review of the first book is here.

So it was with much anticipation that I awaited the arrival of the second volume of the "Tattoo Shop Mystery," Pretty in Ink. As a punster, I appreciate the titles as well.

The sophomore effort in the series finds our heroine, several months after the first book concludes, at a performance of drag queens. The comic potential in the performers' names alone makes the opening scene memorable, with the chaos of an unknown assailant popping a champagne cork directly into the chest of one Miss Britney Brassieres

What ensues is a murder mystery in which a tattoo, this time of a Queen of Hearts playing card, plays an integral role.

I love it, of course, because the book explores the tattoo beyond the symbol - there is a whole reality spinning out from behind the symbolic nature of the piece.

Olson's Brett Cavanaugh is surrounded by the supporting cast we met in the first book. Back is Bitsy, the diminutive "little person" who is the shop manager, as well as Tim, Brett's cop brother, who is also her roommate. Also back are Jeff and Sylvia Coleman, the "old-school" mother-and-son artists on the Strip, and the robust Joel Sloane, a shop artist who is weight-challenged and a confidante of our heroine.

Of course, there is more, with sexual ambiguity, Las Vegas politics, homeland security issues, a new potential love interest, and lots of tattoo talk.

I must admit I liked Ms. Olsen's second book in the series more than the first. Perhaps it is the familiarity of the characters, but I feel it is more than that. Olsen has hit a groove and is running at full speed.

If you're looking for a quick, fun read and want to be entertained by a cast of fictional characters in the tattoo industry, you should certainly give this series a try. Olsen knows her stuff, and has created a clever literary world at The Painted Lady with Brett Kavanaugh. She's certainly my first choice in the world of fictional tattoo artists.

The Tattoosday Book Review: The Missing Ink

As tattooing has skyrocketed in popularity, the number of ink-related books hitting the shelves has multiplied like rabbits. I picked up a copy of Kat Von D.'s book at Borders the other day (read my review here) and was astonished to see it was in its eighth printing.

A fresh tattoo-related title emerged earlier this year, and it wasn't in the Health/Beauty/Appearance category, as you would expect. Rather, it's jumping out in the Mystery category.


Karen E. Olson released The Missing Ink, introducing a new protagonist to the literary world. Brett Kavanaugh is a Las Vegas-based tattoo artist who gets caught up in a murder mystery. Behold: a new series is born.

Ms. Olson is currently at work on book three in the series. The second title, Pretty in Ink, is due out in March.


And I can hardly wait.

All judging of books by their covers jokes aside, don't let the art gracing The Missing Ink fool you: this is not "chick lit". Brett Kavanaugh is not looking for love, Manolo Blahniks, or the man of her dreams. She's a career-driven tattooist committed to her art and running her business respectably, as much as can be expected in a Vegas casino.

I'm not saying it doesn't have a feminine touch, Brett is still a beautiful woman, with a soft spot for nice clothing and a blazing crush on one of the mysterious characters in the narrative, but she also wolfs down In-N-Out burgers and doesn't back down from her role in a profession that has been traditionally male-dominated. There are notable exceptions to this, of course, but it has only been in the last ten years that we have seen the elevation of the female tattoo artist joining the ranks of their male peers as acknowledged masters of the art form.

What The Missing Ink has is a plot that keeps us interested, with characters that are believable and entertaining. Her hefty sidekick, Joel, and diminutive employee, Bitsy, are just two of my favorite characters who are a pleasure to behold on the page.

The story wends its way through a maze of a murder that links Brett by virtue of a tattoo she designed but never inked. We get a taste of Vegas that takes us behind the scenes at a casino and even brings us to a wonderfully evocative setting of an Elvis karaoke bar.

I can see tattoo purists rolling their eyes at this book because it is a whimsical murder mystery that doesn't necessarily put the art at the forefront of the action. But it's not intended to. Ink is discussed and we often see Bret at work, but the plot often pulls her away from the job.

But this, after all, is fiction: a creation of the author that has been carefully researched and presented respectfully in regard to the tattoo industry. For more realism, I'd recommend Jeff Johnson's Tattoo Machine: Tall Tales, True Stories, and My Life in Ink, which also came out this summer (a review is forthcoming).

It's fun to dive into a murder mystery every so often and even more fun to do so when you're interested in ink and the main character is an artist. It's refreshing to read a work of fiction that is centered around the modern tattoo industry and just doesn't use tattoos as clues or signifiers on a character's body.

Ms. Olson has created a character that is believable and entertaining. Although I am unlikely to fly off to Vegas and seek out a tattoo at the hotel, I certainly look forward to the Spring when Bret Kavanaugh returns to further grace us with her presence!

Here's another review, and another, if you'd like some more opinions.