Indelible Ink

Assassin Deena Riordan works not with knives or guns but with shadow energy, a tattoo-like stain on her skin that turns her body into a weapon. When she uses it, it temporarily knocks years off her physical age. After a routine job de-ages her from her 20s to adolescence, she decides she’s had enough. But her employer, Mr. Marsh, won’t let her go easily, and he holds the life of Deena’s equally criminal (but less supernatural) sister, Harper, in his hands. Betts’s horror caper has its charms, including the portrayal of Deena’s changing mind-set as she grows younger and then older again, and a sniper whose hallucinations of his mother, mentor, and childhood teddy bear constantly berate and insult him. But most characters are lightly sketched caricatures, and other details, such as a murky link between Deena’s powers and a secret military experiment, distract from and weaken the central story of Deena and Harper’s tortured relationship. (Aug.)