The Scratch on the Ming Vase has all the makings of a good mystery adventure story. Protagonist Nicki Haddon (a.k.a. Fu Yin) is a 16-year-old kung fu champion and modern-day Nancy Drew in the making. Abandoned in China as a baby but adopted by ridiculously wealthy Canadian hoteliers, she has been raised as the privileged but somewhat neglected only child of workaholics.

Fiercely independent, Nicki leaves her part-time home in Hawaii to return to the family’s other base in Toronto, where she is set to train with David Kahana, a kung fu grand master. But upon arriving at the Chinatown walk-up where the martial arts academy is located, she discovers that Kahana has been stabbed. In his semi-consious state, he mumbles something about a Ming vase, thrusting Nicki into a mystery that pits her against a host of baddies she must outwit, outfight, and outmanoeuvre.

In the hands of veteran author Caroline Stellings, these elements should come together nicely. The reality, unfortunately, is that this book simply doesn’t live up to its promise. Along with shallow characters, abrupt scene changes, and implausible plot details, the book suffers from pacing issues. Rather than tagging along on a fast-moving adventure, the reader is catapulted through a storyline that barely takes the time to clarify important elements in the mystery Nicki is supposed to be solving.

Therein lies another problem. While Nancy Drew was a keen detective who often kept her big discoveries to herself until the perfect moment, her thought processes were transparent and clues to the mysteries’ resolutions were dropped along the narrative path, keeping the reader guessing but still engaged. Nicki is much less forthcoming, and when the climax arrives, the reader is left wondering how the hell our girl detective got from point A to point B. One can only hope the author addresses these issues in subsequent instalments of this new series.