Whale Tattoo

The secret of the whale tattoo review, then, when I should be wishing you a happy new year and putting myself to bed. 

The boys are helping out at a local carnival hoping to catch pickpockets on behalf of a MR Solo. Fenton has a case where a man, calling himself Black Right, has a missing ivory idol for sale,  that was looted a few years back. Those two cases couldn't possibly be connected... could they?

Indeed they are and when a stuffed blue whale is uncovered on a building site owned by Tony Prito's dad then it seems that some one wants to  stop them from putting two and two together and finding out who the gang on robbers with whale tattoos are. 

The action takes place in Bayport and Mystic Connecticut. There is a nice throw in to cryptozoology too, as the whale was washed up in Montauk where a mystery beast was also found in 2008. The whale, now owned by Tony Prito and Biff Hooper, gets stolen and the boys head out to capture it.

It's not a bad story overall, the Tattoo angle is strange for the point of view these days as the world and their dog seems to have some sort of body art. Back when it was written this was quite different, as only certain types had tatts. 

There is no real differences between the UK and US editions either. All references to carnies and such are gone. It's not as if we don't have these travelling fairs either. And the ending where Cousin Elmer (a long lost cousin and some sort of sailor) comes to stay is changed. But that is it.

You can find the original and the UK versions here. and here.