Book: Diana Renn’s Tokyo Heist, published June 14, 2012
Plot: Manga-loving Japanophile Violet is planning to spend the summer living with her spacy painter father in Seattle when she’s unexpectedly caught up in an international art heist involving his wealthy Japanese patrons, the Yamadas, who recently had a valuable Van Gogh sketch stolen from their well-appointed mansion. The mystery tendrils outward from there, and soon the yakuza is involved, holding the sketches for ransom in exchange for a much more valuable (and fictional) Van Gogh painting the Yamadas are linked to, which has been missing for decades. In the book’s second part, the action shifts to Tokyo, where Violet’s dad has been commissioned to paint a mural for the Yamada Corporation while Violet assists in the company’s art-preservation branch and works on the manga she’s drawing—when she isn’t trying to solve the mystery of the missing Van Gogh. Things get progressively more complicated and dangerous from there (while remaining resolutely PG), eventually culminating in a series of close calls at the Gion Festival in Kyoto.
Read Full Article »
