Tokyo Heist [Hardcover]

Diana Renn (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 14, 2012

The perfect mystery for fans of Ally Carter's Heist Society

When sixteen-year-old Violet agrees to spend the summer with her father, an up-and-coming artist in Seattle, she has no idea what she's walking into. Her father's newest clients, the Yamada family, are the victims of a high-profile art robbery: van Gogh sketches have been stolen from their home, and, until they can produce the corresponding painting, everyone's lives are in danger--including Violet's and her father's.

Violet's search for the missing van Gogh takes her from the Seattle Art Museum, to the yakuza-infested streets of Tokyo, to a secluded inn in Kyoto. As the mystery thickens, Violet's not sure whom she can trust. But she knows one thing: she has to solve the mystery--before it's too late.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Renn keeps the tension high and the pace moving in a modern, unique whodunit."

(The L.A. Times)

"A terrific heroine, exciting and unexpected plot twists, and fascinating and beautifully-wrought real-life settings: young adult mysteries do not get better than this."

(Peter Abrahams, author of the Echo Falls Mysteries and Edgar Award winner)

"Tokyo Heist is a fast-paced, exotic reading adventure, a story where The da Vinci Code meets the wildly popular manga genre! Author Diana Renn infuses protagonist Violet with plenty of chikara (power) and Renn's fresh, spot-on author's voice is irresistible. I couldn't put it down!"

(Alane Ferguson, author of the Forensic Mysteries and Edgar Award winner)

"Fly to the coolest city on earth. Hunt for a missing masterpiece. Battle tattooed gangsters while rocking a kimono. And don't forget to try the shibazuke. Adventures don’t get any more thrilling than Tokyo Heist. You'll want to jump right inside this book and live it."

(Kirsten Miller, author of Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City)

"Hidden paintings, yakuza assassins, vivid settings, artful intrigue, and a taste of manga make Tokyo Heist an absorbing tale mystery readers will love."

(Linda Gerber, author of Death by Latte)

A Summer 2012 Kids' Indie Next Pick

(Indiebound)

"This art heist has twists and turns, romance, and the happily-ever-after that many will be rooting for."

(Booklist)

"Fans of mysteries and thrillers will enjoy this just as much as fans of Japanese culture."

(Publishers Weekly)

"Readers will cheer for Violet as she uses her wits and outsmarts the adults. Teens will learn about Japanese culture, and fans of manga and art students will rejoice that they can relate to the protagonist and story."

(School Library Journal)

"A van Gogh heist, a trip to Japan and a yakuza attack: Could there be a better summer? . . . A proficient caper spiced up by Violet's eye for art."

(Kirkus Reviews)

"A fast-paced and engaging mystery with a spunky protagonist."

(VOYA)

"TOKYO HEIST is refreshingly free of most of the standard modern YA-fiction tropes. . . . It's rare for YA heroines to have such specific, developed interests, and Violet filtering her investigation through her passion for manga, art, and Japan makes her seem like a real, relatable teenager."

(A.V. Club)

About the Author

Diana Renn grew up in Seattle and now lives in Boston. She has taught ESL and writing, most recently at Boston University. Her short stories and essays have appeared in various publications, and she is the author of several ESL textbooks. Tokyo Heist is her first novel.

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile (June 14, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670013323
• ISBN-13: 978-0670013326
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diana Renn writes contemporary mysteries for young adults. Her debut novel, TOKYO HEIST, was published by Viking/Penguin in 2012. She grew up in Seattle and now lives outside of Boston with her husband and son.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent summer read June 14, 2012

By Liviania VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

TOKYO HEIST is Diana Renn's first novel. It's a mystery that takes protagonist Violet Rossi from the streets of Seattle to the ryokan of Kyoto. At first, I was very, very worried that I would hate TOKYO HEIST. The press release claims, "[I]t's the Di Vinci Code for the teen generation with an exotic Asian twist." That description made me cringe. Violet doesn't make the best first impression either. This is going to make me sound so old, but her bad work ethic annoyed me.

But the Asian part of TOKYO HEIST is more than an exotic background. The book begins shortly after a set of Van Gogh sketches are stolen from the Yamadas, who are employing Violet's father to paint a mural in their main office in Tokyo, Japan. Once Violet and her father go to Japan, almost all of the other characters are Japanese. Violet's fellow lady sleuth is Reika, a friend who is half-Japanese, half-American, and all happy to have someone she can speak her first language with. Even before the acknowledgements at the end of the novel, it is clear that Renn did her research. She pays attention to cultural detail.

As for Violet, she never realizes that her comic book store boss was normal rather than overbearing. (Seriously, being asked to stock the store and not spend your time doodling or talking with a friend? Totally reasonable. Her former boss even tells her about a comic contest she can enter.) Fortunately, that's a very minor character quibble and most people aren't going to care about it like me. Plus, she proves her mettle in other ways. She's dedicated to solving the mystery and protecting her father. She keeps working on her own comic, Kimono Girl, (including revising!) and helps the Yamadas catalog their art collection.

Kimono Girl often proves helpful to the investigation. As Violet creates a plot loosely based on real-world events, she makes connections she wouldn't have noticed consciously. I am a fan of stories-within-stories, so I liked following along with the fantastical action of Kimono Girl as well as the more realistic TOKYO HEIST.

The book does really get moving once the action moves to Japan. You see, the sketches were stolen, but the painting they were practice for is still missing. It should be somewhere in the Yamadas' possession, but they haven't found it. And a yakuza boss wants the painting - or else. The FBI does what they can to help, but the Yamadas prefer not to involve the police and undercover investigations are illegal in Japan.

The Japan section is also where Violet's love interest drops out of view. Edge is a hipster and filmmaker wannabe who barely shows up. I don't think TOKYO HEIST would've suffered by cutting the obligatory love interest. TOKYO HEIST a mystery, yakuza, and a cool (female) best friend. Who needs a boy?

I thought TOKYO HEIST was fun. It's a good summer read, especially if you have a long plane ride ahead of you. (Just don't start thinking everyone around you is in on an international art heist.) I'm interested in reading whatever Renn does next, because she shows promise.

Crossposted from In Bed With Books

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hobbitsies Reviews: Mystery, culture, art thievery, and a dash of romance June 14, 2012

By Tara Gonzalez

Format:Hardcover

It's no secret how much I've been looking forward to reading Tokyo Heist by Diana Renn - and once I got it, I admit, I held off reading Tokyo Heist for a bit because what if it didn't hold up to my expectations? I would be devastated! (Please tell me I'm not the only one who does crazy things like this.)

Thankfully, Tokyo Heist totally lived up to my expectations. I was immediately sucked in by Violet and her love of manga and art and the cute boy and the MYSTERY. I was a little worried for about 20 pages because I was like DO THEY EVEN GO TO TOKYO I NEED TO KNOW but duh, they do. Silly impatient me.

Okay, let's start with Violet. I know absolutely nothing about Manga, and my knowledge of Japanese culture extends to reading the blog of a girl I know who studied abroad in Japan for a year. So I don't know a lot, basically. But Violet is so into manga and Japanese culture and I kind of loved living vicariously through her as she explored Japan for the first time.

Also, I absolutely loved the way Violet incorporated her real life mystery into the manga she was actually creating as the story went on - Kimono Girl sounds kind of awesome and I would definitely read the manga if it were a real thing!

And, Violet is ballsy. As much as I love to read about mystery, I don't know that I would have the guts to snoop around Seattle and Tokyo when Japanese gangsters are involved, you know?

Another thing I loved about Tokyo Heist is that it wasn't entirely focused on romance. Oh, there's romance alright - and it's MY FAVOURITE KIND - but Violet is way more focused, for the most part, on who stole the bajillion dollar Van Gogh painting and what not, which kind of rocked. It bugs me when books are focused solely on romance, and Tokyo Heist definitely balanced everything very well. Plus, Reika, Violet's friend, played a huge role in the story and I am all about the friendship.

THE CULTURE. I loved the way Diana Renn integrated various Japanese words into Violet's vocabulary and how, as Violet was introduced to important customs in Japan so were we - but not in an overly "I'm teaching you this is how it's done" kind of way, you know?

Plus, the setting was AWESOME. I loved how Diana Renn beautifully described all these different areas of Japan and now I'm officially traveling there. Basically.

And I loved how the art thievery/mystery was set up. All sorts of important details are included throughout Tokyo Heist, and I was able to put them together myself, which I loved - it makes me feel SMART.

Okay, I have fangirl-ed like crazy over Tokyo Heist and over Diana Renn, and in case you couldn't catch my drift - you should go pick Tokyo Heist when it comes out. Tokyo Heist is a fun and thrilling book featuring art thievery, cute boys, foreign settings, and mystery galore.

5.0 out of 5 stars 4.5/5 from Bookworm1858 March 16, 2013

By bookworm1858 VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Source: Received an ARC from Jen Ryland/YA Romantics.

"A Missing van Gogh Painting
A Burglarized Mansion
A Ransom Note
Two Japanese Gangsters on the Loose
Four Destroyed Paintings
An Unexplained Suicide
And Two Girls who must solve the mystery, save the art, and catch the criminals."

This caught my interest for being a YA relatively uninterested in romance as well as for its contemporary Japanese setting. Though there's more to the story, these statements are fairly accurate.

Our main character is Violet and she adores manga, so much so that she is drawing her very own incorporating some of her real-life interests into the art. She plans to continue adding to it over the summer while staying with her father and working at a comic book store. However it seems that her father was unprepared for her arrival, not even telling his girlfriend about Violet's existence! This does not start the holiday off well but the situation picks up when Violet discovers she is going to accompany her father to Japan so he can paint a mural. She also gets to flex her detecting muscles when she learns about a missing van Gogh painting and sketches and the Japanese mobsters who are after her father's patron. Can Violet crack the case?

While writing my summary above, I realized that there are so many little threads in this book (including several I didn't feel like could fit in that already stuffed synopsis). I think that one of my big enjoyments was seeing them all come together especially since they seemed so bewildering in the beginning. Of particular enjoyment to me was Violet's attempts at detection, which she incorporates into a new manga, allowing her to puzzle items out. My disappointment though was that while the drawings are described in depth, they are not included. This is a great example of how artwork could enhance a reading experience and I feel like this was a missed opportunity.

As I mentioned, there are a lot of threads in this book and though most are juggled and brought in well, I would have liked a lot more about two in particular. One was Violet's relationship with her father. He hasn't been very present in her life since she lives with her mom but he also loses himself in his art even when she is around. She is able to challenge him on his disengagement but I wasn't fully satisfied.

The other element was Violet's romance. For a long time, she's been in love with her best friend but is afraid to jeopardize their friendship. Consequently, when there are movements toward romance, it is not swoony and dreamy but is instead based on their solid longstanding but mostly unseen and unfelt by the reader friendship.

Overall: A really fun ride through artwork, deception, and love with an exciting Tokyo/Japan backdrop. Highly recommended!