Overall, ‘Lady Joker’ is a fascinating, multilayered novel that clearly deserves its designation as a modern classic of Japanese literature. Using the relationship between individuals and institutions as its axis, Lady Joker attempts to depict the contemporary era in its entirety.

Lady Joker, Volume 2 by Kaoru Takamura | Goodreads Lady Joker, Volume 2 by Kaoru Takamura | Goodreads

King uses the phrase keeping it on the down-low in a way that suggests he probably doesn’t understand how this phrase is currently used—and has been used for quite a while.

At the center is a moral reckoning for Shiroyama, who’s forced to reevaluate his life and corporate tenure, eventually seeing the synergy in the personal, social, and political. There are long passages where the characters are reflecting on their lives and the decisions they have made. Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan’s largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company’s corrupt financiers.

LADY JOKER, VOLUME 1 | Kirkus Reviews LADY JOKER, VOLUME 1 | Kirkus Reviews

A fast and engaging development of characters (glad the book includes the characters list on the front page) but not really on the plot building; the exposition was too slow and bit draggy except in part 3 which excites me a bit with its in depth perspectives from the media and police who involves personally in covering and investigating the case. Kaoru Takamura created this work back in 1997 in Japan but it’s only been recently (2021 and 2022) where us English speaking folks have our own translated version to enjoy.

Takamura’s explosive novel, based on actual events that are well known in Japan, persuasively depicts corruption at the heart of Japanese society in the late 20th century. Volume 1 sets up everything with deep, fascinating character studies and intricate descriptions of the mechanism for the corporate crime around which the plot revolves. Chief Inspector of First Investigation Hidetsugu Kanzaki has just briefed the press about a poison gas attack on the subway perpetrated by a religious cult and evasively parried questions about Lady Joker, the crime group that had earlier kidnapped and released Kyosuke Shiroyama, president and CEO of the unscrupulous Hinode Beer. The second half of Takamura’s compelling crime epic—following Lady Joker, Volume 1 (2021)—plumbs the connections between corporate malfeasance and social immorality. It is a tale of the dark murky depths of corruption, extortion and evil that live in the shadows of that society.

Lady Joker, Volume 2 by Kaoru Takamura, Paperback | Barnes

Lady Joker, Volume 1" by Kaoru Takamura is a hefty six hundred page crime mystery that masterfully describes a kidnapping with the goal of milking beer manufacturer Hinode Beer, however, it is so much more. But once it moved away from the “Lady Joker” group who commit the crime and focused on the victim of the crime, the press, and the police - it just became very boring and moved painfully slow. This book would make no sense if you outlined it, but as an artifact in it's entirety its an indisputable masterpiece.Takamura's female characters are wives, secretaries, nieces, daughters and they have no point of view of their own in her telling of the story.