GHOSTS IN THE FAMILY

When her mother is killed by a drunk driver, Gabriella, 11, finds herself alone, living with her late mother's best friend. Her father, writing a travel book in Asia, is incommunicado. Two items comfort her: an heirloom ring and an ancestral portrait of a uniformed boy wearing that ring. Gabriella wonders about her wealthy paternal grandmother, who is said to have disinherited her father for marrying a Mexican, Gabriella's mother. When a series of events lead to Gabriella's moving in with her grandmother and Aunt Isabel, the girl learns just how many lies her father told. After the grandmother dies, he returns and inherits everything, while Gabriella decides that her future is with the loving Aunt Isabel. Uncharacteristically for Sachs (Thirteen Going On Seven, 1993, etc.), the complex plot yields almost no suspense, and there are gaps in the storyline (e.g., Gabriella and her mother live in near-poverty while accepting that there is money for her father's lengthy research trips). Gabriella is given to bratty tantrums and the rest of the characters are relatively forgettable. For astute readers and the author's fans, the last straw will be that text and jacket art don't match. (Fiction. 10-14)