The prolific Jonathan Maberry returns with another winner, his latest Ink is billed as a standalone novel, but don’t let that fool you, this is strongly connected to his Pine Deep Trilogy (2006-2008) which began with Ghost Road Blues. However, if you haven’t read that earlier work do not fret, Ink, does not provide much in the way of spoilers, instead elusively refers to ‘The Troubles’ and if anything, this is going to make new readers want to read Pine Deep even more. And I can guarantee that is no bad thing.

Down the years I have read a lot of Maberry and there is probably more cross pollination between this and other novels that I flagged. For example, the Sheriff in Ink Malcolm Crow and Sergeant Mark Sweeney both featured in Pine Deep, who in turn mention Joe Ledger (although he does not appear directly) in passing. Anybody who knows anything about Jonathan Maberry, will recognise Ledger as the author’s most famous creation, an indestructible black-ops operative who saves the world on a daily-basis in a ten-book series which started back in 2009. Ink is a different kind of literary beast though, forgoing the smash bang wallop of Ledger for a more thoughtful and character driven work about loss, pain and memories.

However, the most impressive cross-pollination with other Maberry novels is the return of Gerald ‘Monk’ Addison who first appeared in the previous, and rather superb standalone novel, Glimpse (2018). I loved Glimpse and Monk was one of Maberry’s finest creations and I am not surprised he resurrects this tough guy for Ink. Maberry purists may wonder who would win in a tear-up between Monk and Joe Ledger? It is a close call, but something tells me the bad-ass Monk would just edge it. Monk did not star in Glimpse, and although Ink has an ensemble cast and a lot of characters, he steals the show with considerably more page-time than in his previous appearance. He is a private investigator and bail bondsman whose skin is covered with the tattooed faces of murder victims. He is a predator who hunts for killers and has a supernatural connection with the dead, particularly those tattooed on his body. The crux of the story revolves around when one of his most precious tattoos begins to disappear.

In some ways Ink could have been set anywhere, but the action opens when Monk moves to the small Pennsylvanian town of Pine Deep which is widely known as the ‘most haunted town in America’ due to ‘The Troubles’ from the earlier books. Pine Deep is vividly described, almost presented like a character itself and I hope readers who are new to Maberry do not get frustrated with the many indications and pointers to the towns dark history. Also, in the climax, out of the blue something strange happened to Sergeant Sweeney, which might not make much sense unless you had read the other books. However, apart from the location Ink has more in common with Glimpse that Ghost Road Blues, in that dreams and nightmares play a key role in the engrossing plot.

The plot revolves around an intriguing mystery: an unconnected number of Pine Deep locals have tattoos which slowly begin to disappear from their skin and with the loss of the ink, the memory associated with it also begins to fade. The tattoos which disappear always seem to be those which have powerful sentimental or emotional value and losing the image is akin to having a part of their personality wiped. It is compared to a rape. Part of the reason Monk is settling in Pine Deep is because one of his oldest and most precious friends, tattoo-artist Patty Cakes, lives there. After the disappearance of the tattoo Patty has of her dead daughter on her wrist almost vanishes Monk realises that something very sinister is going on, as the emotionally distraught Patty can barely remember she had a child. Monk, who avenged the death of the child, will do everything to bring that memory back.

Many other characters ripple throughout the story, connected to tattoos, such as the medium Dianna, who meets another woman experimenting with her sexuality and who then loses a tattoo which is an important symbol to her identity as a gay woman. Various others have precious memories stolen, as the thief targets the lonely, the disenfranchised, the people who need memories to anchor them to this world, with the result being pain and death or suicide. Until the thief steals a tattoo from Monk Addison. BIG mistake!

I loved this element of the story and it was an interesting change of direction for Maberry, as Ink was not an action novel and was more character driven with the emotional impact of the loss the overarching theme. This had me thinking about my own tattoos, of which my favourites are those which have are the most personal to myself and key periods from my life. I lived in Italy from 1996 to 1999 and followed the football team Lazio, whose symbol is the eagle, I have had this emblem proudly on my arm for over twenty years. I also have a tattoo of the punk band The Dead Kennedys and although the DKs are my no means my favourite band, the tat symbolises my lifelong love for punk rock. So Maberry is correct 100%: tattoos are much more than decorative art.

The bad guy also has a lot of page time in various interludes which are referred to as ‘The Lord of the Flies’ and although he was a nasty piece of work, he did not hold a candle to ‘Doctor Nine’ who was the main villain in Glimpse. For much of the time he lurked in the background, feeding on the memories in tattoos, and for the most part was exceptionally sleazy, not especially threatening. He was also killed off way too easily in an ending that could have had a bigger finish.

Ink is a great addition to Maberry’s outstanding back-catalogue, of which I would also heartily recommend his YA zombie series Rot and Ruin as well as the Dead of Night series and is a quirky change of direction to his recent output. Nobody creates rugged and broken hardmen better than Jonathan Maberry and I hope Monk Addison appears in further novels. If you enjoyed Glimpse, you will most definitely get a kick out of Ink, and if you are a fan of Pine Deep you’ll be overjoyed with this.

Maberry also, very kindly, also provides an extensive musical playlist at the end of the book.