Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Friday, 27 June 2025

"The flower arranger" by J. J. Ellis

An aesthetic male flower arranger watches girls and steals flowers.

Holly Bain, a bisexual English woman working in Tokyo as a journalist covering teen culture, wants to cover more serious stories. She plays guitar in a band. Detective Tanackar (American father; brought up by a single mother) finds her skills useful when a 17 y.o. French girl, Marie-Louise disappears. Her father finally admits he's been to hostess bars. A Swedish girl had disappeared earlier. Her body is found in a rubbish tip, maybe drained of blood, with a flower in her mouth. Holly's girlfriend Haruka is a hostess.

The Swedish girl worked for 2 nights in a hostess bar before disappearing, having become friendly with 2 men. The bars may be infiltrated by gangs (Yagasa?). A policeman in Tanacker's team might know more about the club than he should.

Holly's girlfriend Haruka is a hostess. She knows someone who worked in the Swedish girl's hostess bar, and gives Holly info that lets her write a headline story. But Tanacker is angry that she didn't tell him first.

The French girl had asked for a long-term job at one of the schoolgirl-themed bars, which is strange because her father said they were in Japan only for a few days, having won a fashion competition.

There's CCTV footage of a man stealing flowers. He wore sunglasses, like a man seen at a bar. He models himself on Roy Orbison.

The flower arranger has a shrine to his mother, who killed hersef by draining her blood. His father shot himself. When police search his house they find a secret cellar containing the French girl alive.

Holly receives a 3rd cryptic message through the post, this time a death threat. She finds out that he's left for a tropical island to pick an orchid. She follows him though she knows it's a trap, and is choroformed, added to a flower arrangement and bled to get a pale complexion. The police follow, finding his lair while she's still alive. It's protected by snakes. We learn about the flower arranger's past - how his foster mother was killed in a typhoon. He kills himself. Holly is saved. Blane is Tanacker's daughter-substitute - his died young. Tanaker's deputy realises he was the flower arranger's adoptive brother. We learn that Holly is an orphan.

The plot details and coincidences are far-fetched.

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