Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani (review)

Claire Takata’s memories of her deceased father have dimmed over the last ten years, and although she and her Japanese-American family continue to honor him with an annual ritual, her mother has remarried a good man, Claire and her siblings have adjusted well, and the house is always filled with her brothers’ boisterous friends. About the only thing sixteen-year-old Claire has to complain about is everyone’s overprotectiveness, which annoyingly extends to her parents’ reticence to talk about the past, and her brothers’ conniving to limit her to dating only guys they have pre-approved. Her complacency is disturbed when she discovers some hidden family pictures, which reveal that her father and stepfather knew each other years ago, and by following a paper and Internet trail, she learns that her father had once belonged to a yakuza, a Japanese crime syndicate. When confronted with the facts, her parents confirm her suspicions, but Claire’s investigation alerts one of her father’s victims to her whereabouts, and she is targeted for revenge. The mystery itself is neatly plotted, and although the red herrings reek too strongly at times, the slippery identities of several of the main suspects will keep readers involved. The problem here is tone, which shifts uneasily between Nancy Drew wholesomeness and outright violence, delivered in a narrative style that often sounds outdatedly prim. The romance subplot will lure in some readers beyond the mystery set, and any middle-school girl who thinks there are worse problems than a houseful of attentive, parentally approved boys will also be on board.