Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This one took me quite a while to get into - I’m not sure it that was down to my lack of knowledge about Japan, my mood or the book itself. At times I found myself a bit confused, with the odd Japanese word thrown in without explanation and the cultural references were a little distracting from the main crime plot itself.

I liked how the crime played out and the killer was on cool, collected character!! A unique storyline, it just felt a bit too over dominated by the Japanese references for me.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have
decided to stop reading this book
and state that this book just wasn't for me.

Thank you Agora Books and Netgalley for this advanced copy.
A debut novel which for once was different. This is set in Japan and gives something about the culture. It is interesting, full of facts and a good story which kept me interested until the end.

Definitely recommend.

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.

Holly Blain is a tenacious reporter working the showbiz beat. She yearns for more. She knows she's got what it takes but being a female in Japanese society she isn't taken too seriously. Her knowledge of the teen fashion scene finally gets her an in to a coveted crime story.

Inspector Tetsu Tanaka is working a case where young tourists have been disappearing. The evidence points to an awkward Roy Orbison look alike who has a penchant for the art of Ikebana. In this Japanese style of flower arranging the negative space speaks volumes to the designer's intent. Unfortunately for the missing girls it is exactly how this "man in black" decides to fill the void that may be the very death of them.

<b>The Flower Arranger</b> is JJ Ellis's debut. Although it took me some time to get into the book, I came to enjoy the dynamic between Blain and Tanaka. I look forward to reading the upcoming series featuring the pair.

<i>Special thanks to NetGalley, Agora Books and JJ Ellis for access to this book.</i>

Well written thriller very interesting characters a young female journalist Moves to Japan wanting to cover serious stories teams up with a head detective.to investigates series of women beingmurdered.A. Very creepy serial killer made me keep turning the pages.Looking forward to ore by this author..#netgalley#agorabooks

Loved this debut novel, set in Japan, It is full of culture and really interesting facts about Japan. There is a real ' whodunnit' feel abut it. It kept me hooked right to the very end.

Plucky reporter trope done to extremes. Identity crisis and substitute family tropes felt super boring. Solid crime plot but it felt rushed, not fleshed out enough.

The Flower Arranger takes places in Japan where reporter Holly Blain and police detective Tetsu Tanaka must race to catch a suspected killer before a girl becomes part of a twisted flower arrangement.

Taking place against the backdrop of the sakura season, Ellis creates a fantastic story of cat-and-mouse where the killer always feels just out of reach. I couldn't get enough of this book and raced through it, desperate to catch the killer as well as learn more about the characters.

The inclusion of an LGBTQ+ character was an added bonus that I very much appreciated.

I hope that there will be more books following Blain and Tanaka soon!

The Flower Arranger is wholly unique, new in a sea of mysteries, and certainly worth reading. Although the antagonist is quite creepy, (as is the case in most mysteries, I suppose), his creepiness certainly has a depth of meaning, which, although tragically heartbreaking, makes sense toward the end of the novel. I enjoyed reading the well structured plot; it truly is extraordinary. I fully enjoyed getting a taste of Japan, as well. The story takes place in various venues in Japan, from big city Tokyo to remote seaside villages. I give The Flower Arranger the highest marks.

Holly Blain is quite new to Tokyo and wants to make her mark as a crime reporter. Covering the entertainment wasn’t exactly what she envisioned when she thought about her reporting ambitions.

She is delighted when she is introduced to Inspector Tetsu Tanaka from Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police’s Gaikoku-Jin unit. He could be her way to gain the scoop to further her career.

Tanaka isn’t so sure about Holly and keeps her at arm’s length.

Wow…. just wow.

The Flower Arranger is the debut novel from JJ Ellis but it won’t be the last I read from this author.

Told from the point of view of Tanaka, Holly and the killer, this book pulled me in from the moment I picked it up. I found it compelling and quite frankly unputdownable.

I had what I call itchy book fingers when I was forced to put it down. I just wanted to pick it up and continue reading.

The setting is so vivid. I have never visited Japan but I could see myself walking the streets with the characters. I felt totally emerged.

Tanaka is a strong and believable character. He’s an honourable policeman and wants to do his due diligence. He is one for the rules and his reaction to Holly was an interesting one. His relationship with her has a fascinating arc to it and I certainly want to see these two together in another novel.

Holly was more of an enigma to me. Not a lot is given away about where she’s come from and what has happened before she reached Tokyo. This is a book in itself I think and one that I would also read. There is certainly more to Holly than we see here. She and Tanaka are total opposites but they work.

It took me a few pages to get my head around who everyone was. Not a bad thing, just me.

I found this novel to be a wonderfully engrossing novel full of mystery and twists. I didn’t know, even when reaching the last few pages, how it was going to end. I was transfixed.

Bravo to the author. This has joined the list of one of my favourite books from this year. A great crime debut and the making of a spellbinding crime solving duo.

If I had tried to read this book before I visited Japan I'm sure I would have had to look up references, places and Japanese words. The characters names would have been unfamiliar to me. Armed with the benefit of having visited most of the places in the book and having learnt the basics of greetings etc and a possessing a smattering of appreciation of Japanese culture, I was able to fully concentrate on the book itself and appreciate it more.

A slow start to the book, but once it got going I was hooked and had to finish it as fast as I could. The killer and his motive would only really work in Japan and that is the great hook of the novel.

An interesting angle was the English reporter Holly who is working solely in show business reporting and the J-pop world wants to branch out into crime reporting. She has a few things holding her back, she is female in what is still a mainly a male dominated society and a foreigner. None of this however deters her. I loved her strong character, even if at times I was on the edge of my seat willing her to maybe not be so headstrong.

This book is written by an English author and the difference I found in this book from others set in Japan and translated from Japanese, is the phrasing. Some of the words I don't think the Japanese people would use, they are rather the equivalent in English. So for me occasionally this dialogue rang less than true. However, the locations described in the book and the journeys undertaken were so accurate it took me right back to my time in Japan. It was the closest thing to being back there in person.

It appears that there will be more books featuring the Inspector and Holly and I will be eager to read those too.

I am giving the book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.

I had mixed feelings about this. but this is in no means a negative review. I loved the fact that it was set in Japan - one of the many places that are on my list to visit, even though some of the Japanese names were hard to pronounce in my head! The characters were great as standalone and the storyline was great, it kept you twisting and turning until the very end. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a thriller!

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.

It took me a while to get into the space of this story. Set in Japan, the workings of a young journalist and the police force were at play here. That part of the story telling was just the same as any other. There were places in the mind set of the murderer or pursuer of the young girls who were his victims that was the hard part to fathom.

Two young women, one Swedish one French go missing. The Swedish girl's body is found. No violation, but just a small wound on her neck which indicates the blood drained out of her body systematically. The why of it could only be explained by the attacker himself in alternate chapters and this was the part that was culturally different. He wanted someone to be replicated by the image he had of his mother who used to make up as a geisha in chalk white make up and he was always on the look out for girls who were very pale who could be made to look paler and paler.

When Blain starts her pursuit of the story successfully and publishes her findings, it upsets the Japanese detective put in charge of the case. Foreigners involved make it more delicate and the subject is one that has to be handled with kid gloves. Alternating between Inspector Tanaka and Blain and the attacker the story goes on quietly but forcefully towards an end.

"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!

3 for neutral. I was very sad, because so many loved this book and I thought I would as well, but was just not able to get into it and enjoy enough to finish. Will update if able to read and enjoy at a later date.

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.

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!