BOOK REVIEW - Callie Kazumi's "GREEDY" devours the concept of ethics over a good meal

The core concept of Callie Kazumi’s new novel GREEDY isn’t exactly new; a down-and-out British ex-pat moves to Japan and finds himself in trouble with the Yakuza when he stumbles into the depths of a gambling addiction. Desperate to find a job to provide for his wife and daughter, protagonist Edward Cook answers an ad for a wealthy widow who’s looking for a personal chef at her mysterious mansion. When Cook auditions for the job, he’s introduced to Hazeline Yamamoto, a recently widowed socialite with a checkered past plagued by media scandal, who uses her bottomless bank account to hobnob with the world’s most successful people over the rarest cuts of meat on the market. But from the moment Cook cuts himself with his chef’s knife, and his employer is right there, literally licking his wounds, Kuzami takes a stock premise and turns it into a wildly imaginative story that’s as addictive as a bag of potato chips.

Reading this novel is like the act of eating an unfamiliar dish. Greedy starts with Kazumi’ building masterful mystique around the Yamamoto compound that compels readers to question what her dark secret might be, like taking the first bite and using your taste buds to identify the flavor profiles. Though he discovers Yamamoto’s secrets in her little black recipe book, Cook is painfully oblivious to his employer's scheme; it’s as if you swallowed a satisfying bite, but the aftertaste lingers just a little too long on the tongue. Finally, as Cook’s family becomes unexpectedly involved in Yamamoto’s warped attempt at philanthropy, the end commands your attention with sharpness and totality, like cleansing your palette with a gob of fresh wasabi.

Fans of The Eyes Are The Best Part and Girl Dinner will find a spiritual kinship with the book. But for readers simply looking for a frightening page-turner with expert food writing baked into the narrative, Greedy is the go-to item on the menu. Just don’t read on an empty stomach.

This book review was made possible with an Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley and Ballintine/Random House