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Binding: Mass Market PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780061097348 ISBN: 0061097349 Label: HarperTorch Manufacturer: HarperTorch Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 400 Publication Date: 2000-04 Publisher: HarperTorch Release Date: April 04, 2000 Studio: HarperTorch Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Rei Shimura, a twentysomething Japanese American antiques dealer, returns for a third outing in Sujata Massey's series set in Japan (Zen Attitude, The Salaryman's Wife). In The Flower Master, Rei's former boyfriend has left Japan, and her antiques business is only slightly more successful than her love life. Then she's dragooned by her aunt Norie into enrolling at a famous Tokyo ikebana school. Rei's not a natural at the ancient art of flower arranging, but she has a talent for sleuthing, which comes in handy when the head teacher at the Kayama School is found dead--with a pair of flower shears exactly like the ones Norie gave her lodged in her neck. Rei's efforts to find the killer and unravel the secrets entwining her Tokyo family with the Kayamas move the action along, but the real mystery is whether the budding romance between the California girl who can't quite find her place in the tradition-bound society of modern Japan and the handsome environmental activist slated to take over as iemoto (headmaster) of the school will flower into lasting love. Intrigue and multiple murders spice the romance, along with a fascinating explication of ikebana's enduring history. Rei is a lively protagonist who brings the reader along for an entertaining and subtle lesson in Japanese culture as well as in the dangers involved in digging up buried family skeletons. --Jane Adams Product Description: Life in Japan for a transplanted California with a fledging antiques business and a nonexistent love life isn't always fun, but when the flower arranging class Rei Shimura's aunt cajoles her into taking turns into a stage for murder, Rei finds plenty of excitement she's been missing. Unfortunately too many people have a reason for committing the crime--her aunt included. While struggling to adjust to the nuances of Japanese propriety, trying to keep her business afloat, and dealing with veiled massages left under her door, Rei sifts the bones of old skeletons to keep her family name clear--and her own life safe from an enemy with a mysterious agenda. If Rei doesn't want to be crushed like fallen cherry blossoms, she's going to have to walk a perilous line and uncover the killer with a dramatic flare for deadly arrangements. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Comically badThis is the third book from Sujata Massey that I have read, and I realize what a masochist I must be for enduring them so far, hoping that her writing would improve. I guess my interest in Japan (having lived there for a number of years) has, up till now (till I read this book), outweighed the irritation at reading such dreadful prose. But after The Flower Master, I just can't do it anymore. Besides the main character, Rei, all of the other characters are so flat and lifeless as to ... Read More Rating:  - "Flower Master" is Masterful SuspenseThe tenth and final installment of Rei's adventures, "Shimura Trouble", came out this past spring and Amazon is apparently having great trouble getting copies from its British publisher. While you wait for a copy to become available, you will want to revisit this, in my opinion, the strongest entry in the Rei series, both for its completely, affectionately inhabited Tokyo setting, but also for the meticulous (and oddly, for Westerners) compelling descriptions of the classical Japanese art of ikebana. ... Read More Rating: - A Taste of Modern JapanI've spent a lot of time in Japan and find her books very true to what modern Japan feels like. I've heard the cliche, "The Japanese are so polite" so many times from people who have never been to Japan that I could scream. You can pretty much get an idea of the appropriateness of that cliche from Massey's books. It's so much fun to remember the areas she mentions. In this book she mentions the Ocha no Mizu area. This means tea water. When you walk out of the Ocha no Mizu train station ... Read More Rating: - GREAT!This is a great alternative to a standard grocery store mystery novel. She does a good job of showcasing the main female character and revealing slices of Japanese culture. Great and quick read. You'll love it. iKnow Rating: - Great, but missing something....As always Sujata Massey takes us into the world of life in Japan allowing us to learn about a culture so alien to ours through the eyes of a half japanese woman named Rei Shimura. In this volume Rei is caught up in a murder in the world of ikebana - flower arranging. The descriptions of life in Japan, the characters, the situations are all beautifully rendered in words and the book is a fantastic read. Except... I really felt a bit disappointed by the ending. While I don't turn reading ... Read More |
