MISSING IN TOKYO

Adam’s older sister Charlotte—Charlie—is on an around-the-world trip with her best buddy Alice when Alice calls to say that Charlie’s been kidnapped in Tokyo. Adam, an easygoing blond Londoner, who is the only family member who knew Charlie was in Japan, decides he must go there to find her. What follows is a vividly portrayed movie of Tokyo as seen by a sophisticated young man in his late teens. How Adam tries to track Charlie down makes sense, and Marks is at pains to show how what Adam does is possible, even logical. The female characters come off rather badly: Readers never actually see Charlie; Alice turns out to be the bad guy; Adam’s girlfriend at home is flat and Aiko, his beauteous Japanese sex toy, is a dream fantasy. It’s a genuine teen page-turner however, and the sex, while mostly offstage, is hot. So what do you call chick-lit for boys? (Fiction. YA)