Ed Cook is a British immigrant living in Tokyo with his Japanese wife, Sayuri, and their toddler daughter, Kaori. Having been unemployed for six months, Ed spends his days in illegal pachinko parlours or betting on horses. He has squandered their savings and his daughter’s education fund, falling into dangerous debt with the yakuza. While Ed feels he has failed his family, he does little to rectify the situation, preferring to wallow in self-pity. We have little sympathy for Ed.
Everything changes when Ed spots a newspaper advertisement. A high-profile businesswoman requires a private chef and is willing to pay one million yen per day. Despite his surname, Ed Cook is not a chef. His experience is limited to a stint in a hamburger joint and a brief role as a sous-chef. However, the requirements are simple: complete discretion and a signed NDA. Even if he fails the two-day trial, he will be two million yen richer. Ed is naive, but desperation has made him blind to the obvious.
Hazeline Yamamoto is a wealthy, reclusive philanthropist and widow of Japanese and British heritage with a macabre culinary obsession. Ed soon realises that Hazel has very little kitchen knowledge herself – a stroke of luck for a man so severely under-qualified. As he finds his way around Hazel’s high-tech kitchen, his confidence grows and, to his surprise, she offers him a permanent position on her staff.
Ed finds himself catering for the rich and famous, from pop stars to celebrity chefs. These are individuals with limitless wealth and greed to match, driven by a hunger for power and status. Life in Hazel’s mansion provides everything Ed yearns for, but it comes at a significant cost. The narrative forces us to ask: where do you draw the line?
Readers will likely catch on faster than Ed, as the hints regarding Hazel’s tastes are numerous. Perhaps Ed notices them too but chooses to ignore the warning signs to protect his new lifestyle. He overlooks the incinerator in the basement, Hazel’s admiration for the Kalinago tribespeople, and her necklace pendant that looks deceptively like human teeth. Even the orphaned children Hazel supports jokingly refer to her as Yama Uba, the mountain monster of Japanese folklore. She gives these children a chance in life, yet she plays God with their fates.
The wealth and privilege of Hazel and her circle seem to grant them a pass on morality, allowing them to operate outside the ethical codes of society. In a modern climate of high-profile scandals, this exploration of greed and consumption feels particularly relevant. The story poses a chilling question: if we consume animal meat, are we truly superior to those with more transgressive tastes?
British-Japanese writer Callie Kazumi’s second book is a quick, pacy read that lodges itself in your mind – whether you want it to or not. It asks uncomfortable questions and maintains a consistent sense of unease, though the dark humour and culinary references help to balance the horror. The novel is cleverly structured into courses, such as aperitif and main, rather than standard chapters, which adds to its distinct… flavour.
While the plot is somewhat predictable, the continuous tension ensures the pages keep turning. It is the type of story where one cannot look away, no matter how gruesome the topic becomes. If you enjoy crime fiction with a strong horror element, or the work of Sayaka Murata, Greedy will certainly be to your taste!
Also see A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers.
Ballantine
Print/Kindle/iBook
£9.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
