The Flower Arranger

Holly Blain moved to Tokyo hoping she could move from reporting on fluff pieces to real news. Meeting Tetsu Tanaka, head of Tokyo’s Metropolitan police, seems to be a step on right direction. He’s not so sure, but a recent rash of kidnappings has left the city gripped by terror. In order to keep the women of Tokyo safe, Blain and Tanaka will need to team up. A new story highlights a major new talent

Holly Blain wants to cover real news. The entertainment beat — pop stars and teen trends — was not why she moved to Tokyo. When she meets Inspector Tetsu Tanaka, head of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police’s Gaikoku-jin unit, it might just be her big break.

Tanaka isn’t so sure. Always one to do things by the book, he’s hesitant about bringing this headstrong reporter into his carefully controlled investigation.
But young women keep disappearing and Tanaka is given no choice. He and Blain must trust each other if they are to stop a tormented killer from bringing his twisted plan to its shocking conclusion.

The Flower Arranger was my first literary trip to Japan. In addition to being a well-written thriller, I found myself immersed in the Japanese culture and wanting to do my own research to get a better picture of the places described in the book. I found it to be the perfect virtual vacation and summer read.

The story of Tanaka and Holly is your classic roving reporter-seasoned detective relationship. Holly, a British transplant trying to make it in the male-dominated field of Japanese journalism, has been given the pop-culture beat. An easy news cycle of filled with J-pop and fashion. Holly has no idea how this knowledge will later help solve the case that gives her her big break. Working with Tanaka, a hardened police detective with a deep past, they reluctantly combine forces to solve a string of grisly murders. Someone is kidnapping girls and posing them with intricate flower arrangements. Can Tanaka and Holly work together to save the last missing girl? Or has Holly gotten too close to the story?

The Flower Arranger was a welcome change from your typical thriller. Fast paced, and set in Japan, I would definitely recommend adding the Flower Arranger your TBR!

Absolutely the best part of this book (for me) was the examination of Japanese culture – even though our hero (a journalist who is desperate to be the crime reporter) is perhaps a sub-culture inasmuch as she is pretty much a non-conformist in terms of appearance and friendships and relationships. I have a little knowledge about the culture and was therefore acclimatised to the extreme formality and this certainly added to my enjoyment of this unusual detective story.

The two main characters, the reporter and the detective were interesting even though our relationship with them was limited, a structure perhaps to illustrate the formality. Whatever, it certainly worked for me.

Perhaps I struggled a little when following our avid reporter as she went from one part of the country to another – clearly not helped by struggling with the Japanese names – but that was a small price to pay for the enjoyment the book gave me

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

A thriller set in Japan. A detective meets a journalist/wanna-be-crime-journalist recommended by the owner of the Cafe. And together, with their ups and downs, uncover a flower arranging criminal. With beautiful descriptions of the cherry blossom, the daily/tourist life and how people's backgrounds sometimes catch up to them, this was a book that kept me hooked. Secrets that can change the course of the investigation, and how sometimes even when you know the danger you are in, there are things still worth pursuing.
This is my personal opinion of this book, but I have netgalley to thank for a free review copy.

The Flower Arranger has atmosphere in spades, a beautifully descriptive sense of place, a creepy bad guy and two main protagonists who are very different to each other creating a yin yang feel to proceedings – I thought it was great.

The cultural layers are highly intriguing and very well layered, the mystery element is clever and imaginative and bound to cause the odd shiver or two. More of a whydunnit than whodunnit we also get scenes from the killer which added huge flavour to the overall read.

I liked the nature theme, the flowers, these things of beauty used in a dark dark art and overall this was a tense and considered thriller which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I hope we get more from Holly and Tanaka. A dynamic duo indeed.

Recommended

The premise of this novel really intrigued me. Mainly because I haven't read that many thriller novels set in Japan and it really helped that it had such a cool cover too. I was excited to see where this plot would take me and I was both fairly surprised and excited as to how it played out.

Holly Blain is on her way to work in Japan, sick of covering a certain area of the news that brings her no excitement, she moves here and happens to meet a detective who opens up her world to a criminal case that will soon bring back that much-needed passion for reporting as it's one issue consuming the area.

It was really cool to see two different cultures meet in this novel and how they went about not just dealing with that fact but also Holly's determination to cover this case and find the outcome alongside reluctant Tanaka. It was a really refreshing and interesting blend to see such different people share a unique story in this way and it gripped me from many pages in when the pace picked up.

Thriller novels have a place in my heart and I found this did not disappoint me at all. The pacing, character dynamics, and interesting storyline made me want to keep turning the page and following what the outcome would be between not just these two characters but how the issue they were dealing with would be solved in the first place.

It for sure was a thriller that kept me intrigued with each new chapter opening and I actually finished this read pretty quickly because I was enjoying it that much and excited to see what really was going on in the case Holly was reporting on. I loved each movement and area and really the setting just finished the book off really well.

A really nice read overall, with a cool premise and character/ plot layout, that I will for sure being reading again sometime.

I loved Holly and liked Tanaka and found them a good duo
Really enjoyed the setting of Tokyo and Japan and learning-bits about the culture
The story itself was gripping and enjoyable and all in all a good and unusual read

This was a most unusual book. It is set in Japan, where several young, European girls have disappeared. Then one is found murdered, her body displayed among flowers. Inspector Tanaka is on the case, and becomes involved with Holly Blain, a determined English girl who was working as a reporter on a local newspaper.

I was very unaware of the police procedures in Japan - and the amazing fact that an autopsy is not automatically arranged when there is a suspicious death, but only when the police can prove it is a murder!

The author handles the Japanese terms very well, so foreigners are not confused and the tempo of the story is not lost. Tanaka is a sympathetic hero, with a tragic back story. Holly's history is kept more under wraps - maybe there'll be a sequel and we'll learn more! I do hope so.

Very interesting and enjoyable. I'd love to learn more about Japan through these characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Agora Books for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Immersive, suspenseful, unusual, this book almost defies description. The pride and seeing are sublime, and both foreign, and yet engaging and familiar. The story, though a bit OTT at points was still an incredible read. I found I finished it in only a few days, it was that good. So good that I missed my bedtime, twice!
I will be revisiting the book, and nearsighted author with interest!

The Flower Arranger is an atmospheric novel seeped in layers of Japanese culture. The beautiful imagery transported me into this different world that I knew relatively little about. But amongst the beauty is something dark. Someone is using the pretty flowers to create macabre and unnerving arrangements that they then put on public display. Holly Blain, an ambitious young journalist determined to make a name for herself, and Detective Tetsu Tanaka, are hunting him. But he manages to stay one step ahead and evade capture. As the pressure mounts they know they must get results or heads will roll and the careers they’ve worked so hard for will be damaged.

The two protagonists are an unlikely duo, a yin and yang as it were. Blain will do anything to get her story and to finally realise her ambition of working on the crime team at her newspaper, and while Tanaka finds himself fighting against red tape he’s someone who likes to do things right. As they try to learn to work together these differences often lead to clashes, chaos and battles against each other to get to their man first. They’re also hampered by Japan’s bureaucracy which makes it almost impossible to find out any real information about their suspect. I liked their relationship and thought it made them more interesting to read than if they’d been instant best friends that worked together really well.

The antagonist was sinister and bizarre - a perfect bad guy. I would get shivers down my spine reading his dreadful, creepy and unhinged thoughts and behaviour. The flashbacks gave an interesting insight into his motivations and how he turned out this way.

I really enjoyed this book. The descriptive writing drew me in and gave me an education on a culture I knew relatively little about while keeping me guessing about The Flower Arranger. It started off a little slow but was fascinating from the beginning and soon picked up the pace. I felt Tanaka’s frustration as the suspect slipped through his grasp and I felt Blain’s desperation for that top story. I was on the edge of my seat as we approached the end, fervently hoping for them to succeed and am still recovering from that ending and those haunting final sentences...

I would recommend this book if you enjoy mysteries, thrillers and crime fiction. JJ Ellis has written a tense and chilling debut and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Thank you to Agora Books and Netgalley for my copy of this book.

"And she was his - captured to create a fleeting moment of haunting beauty."

This book is anything but disappointing and dull. This fast-paced, suspenseful, thrilling real page-turner is set in Japan. Thanks to a travel diary I read a couple of months back, I am truly fascinated with Japan and its culture.

Holly Blain, a showbiz journalist, who has moved to Japan aspiring to be a crime journalist, becomes fortunate enough to get acquainted with inspector Tetsu Tanaka. They both end up being entangled in the secrets behind the of a missing French and a Sweden girl and end up by the body of the Sweden girl, traces of flowers around her body. The duo really turned out to be quite perfect to each other even amongst the trials that were thrown in their way, questioning the police/media relationship. The story moves on to find the killer and, how his past and present collide, is also written amidst the chapters.

Even when Holly and Tanaka came off to be opposing forces at certain moments, both are synchronised in uncovering and hunting the killer down. What I really loved about Holly, obviously her obvious aspect, is her determination and willpower. Somewhere in the book, Tanaka thinks about how this strong woman is trying to work really hard to excel amongst the men. Tanaka and the killer are Yin Yang to each other. When the plot moves on, there are wisps of something dark in Holly's past seemingly going unnoticed. In the end, it is pretty much made clear. Thanks to the author's fore note, I got a glimpse into what some words mean and familiarisation of the locations.

This book didn't fail to be absolutely compelling and immersive from the very first page. I regret not having time to finish it in one sitting. I would absolutely love to read more of Holly and Tanaka's adventure! This book definitely needs to be appreciated more. I didn't expect the ending so that is really an incredible thing! The writing comes off precisely and I loved the slight poetic touch to it. Even the book had the essence of a poetical journey and I really admired it! The imagery felt ethereal and creepy, all at once. As someone once said, the true magic lies in the hands of the writer, not the story - this book is the example! Looking forward to more by J.J. Ellis!

Recommended: To Millenium series, The Fall, Silence Of The Lambs fans (Note: Even if it isn't dark as the books I mentioned, it comes near to them in certain aspects of the story and writing) and anyone interested in Japanese Culture blended with a thriller, this book is for you!

Wow. I really really enjoyed this book, particularly the setting. I’m not sure if it was due to the fabulous setting of Japan but this thriller felt fresh and interesting to me. I would definitely recommend reading this book.

I loved this book, one of my favourites of this year. Well-written, thrills and intrigue. As a debut novels go this is one of the best. Recommended.