“The Scratch on the Ming Vase” is stars a 16-year old girl, Nikki Haddon, who was born in China and adopted by a wealthy Canadian family. She is a kung fu champ and is about to begin training with a grand master of kung fu in Toronto, but upon arriving at his studio she discovers he has been stabbed and spends the next seven days trying to fulfill his request to locate a priceless Ming vase and return it to its rightful owner.

The book is clearly the first in a planned series, with Nikki as a sort of modern Nancy Drew. It’s really meant for tweens and teens and it’s basically a cozy mystery – not much blood and gore here. Nikki’s Asian heritage is a key part of the book, and also an unusual element, as there are not too many YA mysteries out there with Asian protagonists. The plot is fairly sound; although there are some places where a serious suspension of disbelief is required there are enough plot twists to keep it fairly interesting. The book moves along quickly but the problem is that the rapid pacing results in somewhat superficial characterization; I found Nikki rather shallow and think that her character could definitely be fleshed out and developed more. Perhaps this will happen in later books. Overall, though, I think this will appeal to tweens and younger teens – there’s enough action to satisfy and enough mystery to hold their interest.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.