Synopses & Reviews
We Were Liars meets
Heist Society in a riveting debut!
Seventeen-year-old Violets entire life has revolved around one thing: becoming Erica Silverman, an heiress kidnapped at age five and never seen again. Violets father, the best con man in Las Vegas, has a plan, chilling in its very specific precision. Violet shares a blood type with Erica; soon, thanks to surgery and blackmail, she has the same face, body, and DNA. She knows every detail of the Silvermans lives, as well as the PTSD she will have to fake around them. And then, when the time is right, she reappears”Erica Silverman, brought home by some kind of miracle. But she is also Violet, and she has a job: Stay long enough to steal the Silverman Painting, an Old Master legendary in the Vegas crime world. Walking a razors edge, calculating every decision, not sure sometimes who she is or what she is doing it for, Violet is an unforgettable heroine, and Pretending to be Erica is a killer debut.
Review
"Renn keeps the tension high and the pace moving in a modern, unique whodunit."
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"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."
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"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!"
Review
"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."
Review
"Hidden paintings, yakuza assassins, vivid settings, artful intrigue, and a taste of manga make Tokyo Heist an absorbing tale mystery readers will love."
Review
A Summer 2012 Kids' Indie Next Pick
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"This art heist has twists and turns, romance, and the happily-ever-after that many will be rooting for."
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"Fans of mysteries and thrillers will enjoy this just as much as fans of Japanese culture."
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"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."
Review
"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."
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"A fast-paced and engaging mystery with a spunky protagonist."
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"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."
Synopsis
We Were Liars meets
Heist Society in a riveting debut
Seventeen-year-old Violet's entire life has revolved around one thing: becoming Erica Silverman, an heiress kidnapped at age five and never seen again. Violet's father, the best con man in Las Vegas, has a plan, chilling in its very specific precision. Violet shares a blood type with Erica; soon, thanks to surgery and blackmail, she has the same face, body, and DNA. She knows every detail of the Silvermans' lives, as well as the PTSD she will have to fake around them. And then, when the time is right, she "reappears"--Erica Silverman, brought home by some kind of miracle. But she is also Violet, and she has a job: Stay long enough to steal the Silverman Painting, an Old Master legendary in the Vegas crime world. Walking a razor's edge, calculating every decision, not sure sometimes who she is or what she is doing it for, Violet is an unforgettable heroine, and Pretending to be Erica is a killer debut.
Synopsis
The perfect mystery for fans of Ally Carter's
Heist SocietyWhen 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.
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. She has published numerous short stories and essays, and she is also the Fiction Editor at YARN (Young Adult Review Network), an award-winning online magazine featuring short-form writing for teens. She is the author of several ESL textbooks, as well as the YA mystery novels Latitude Zero