Ink: A Novel

Beauty is skin deep. A tattoo travels all the way to the soul . . .

That’s Eddy Gruber’s motto. Bound by the miseries of inner-city life and his mother’s unrelenting cruelty, a troubled boy finds refuge inside a most peculiar place—the neighborhood tattoo parlor. There, he meets Hatch, the parlor’s lecherous tattoo artist, and a dangerous kinship forms. Through Hatch’s twisted guidance, he learns the craft and cultivates his hunger for beauty, power, and perfection. Then Eddy’s brilliant young mind sets a diabolical plan in motion, securing his deadly calling for the future.
Baltimore Homicide’s Alex Ryder and Jimmy Hansen are opposites, as ice is to fire. Alex, the stern but witty senior detective and the dry but detailed Jimmy are the top cops in the biz. When a Jane Doe is found dead in the heart of the warehouse district, her entire body camouflaged in fresh ink, the detectives are plunged into the toughest serial murder case of their careers and the ultimate test of their partnership.
Blind to the tattoo subculture, the detectives seek the advice of an expert and enlist local artist, Kat Barton, to help. Alex can’t deny the inexplicable connection that exists between them and his attraction to her is immediate. But with little evidence pointing to the suspect and the body count rising, the trio is forced to tread a perilous riptide of lies and deception, where Alex and Kat’s desire for each other could pull them all under permanently.
Get immersed in Beth Ann Luna’s first thriller, Ink: A Novel, and you just may be inspired to run to your neighborhood tattoo parlor and get your own permanent ink.