I recently read Lady Joker by Kaoru Takamura, and it’s a novel that left a profound impact on me. The book is a dense and intricate psychological thriller that delves deep into Japanese society, tackling themes of corporate corruption, societal discrimination, and the complexities of personal and professional relationships.

The narrative is expansive, featuring a multitude of characters and perspectives. It’s not a straightforward crime novel; instead, it’s more of a slow-burn story that meticulously builds its plot through detailed character vignettes and a richly woven tapestry of social and political commentary. I found myself captivated by the way Takamura masterfully interweaves the characters’ lives and the overarching mystery, creating a kaleidoscopic view of the societal issues at play.

While the book’s detailed exploration of corporate and criminal ties can be challenging at times, the payoff is well worth the effort. The depth of the characters and the slow, deliberate pacing kept me engaged, even if it wasn’t always easy to follow. This is not a novel for those seeking quick thrills, but rather for readers who appreciate a nuanced and immersive storytelling experience.

The translation by Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell captures the essence of Takamura’s writing, though some cultural references might require additional context for those unfamiliar with Japanese society. Despite these challenges, I found Lady Joker to be a powerful and thought-provoking read that offers a unique insight into Japan’s social fabric.

If you’re looking for a novel that combines psychological depth with a complex, multilayered plot, Lady Joker is a compelling choice. Just be prepared for a read that demands and rewards your full attention.

What a ride, cannot believe that this time is only half of the book… and I don’t think I will read the second instalment. It’s one of those reads where you read and read but you are never quite sure what it’s actually about.

Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder; a demoted detective with a chip on his shoulder; a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for his ethnicity; a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down's syndrome. The fifth man bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson, who has died in suspicious circumstances.

I have been wanting to read this book for a while but it was unavailable for the kindle jntil it was recently released by a different publisher. I have to say that the wait was worth it.

The books follows a group of disgruntled and put upon men who hatch a plan to kidnap and ransom against a brewery. This books follows them up to the time when they demand the ransom, the rest of the story will follow in part 2 which is due later this year.

A very interesting plot, I was curious how much would be in part 1 given the action all happened fairly early but there seems to be a lot of story left in this, the payment and any repercussions. I'm very interested to see where the author goes with this. It is quite different to my previous encounters with both crime and Japanese literature. I don't think I have read a kidnap plot before.

The characters are great, especially the ones behind the titular group. There is a vast cast of characters and it is interesting to see how they combine and interact. I'm expecting fireworks in part 2 between Honda and Gota.

All in all a great read and one thay has plenty of steam left in it. I'm eagerly awaiting part 2 in Autumn.

I purchased both a copy of the Kindle version and audiobook since I received my advance copy. I plan to post a review on both Amazon and Audible of the versions. Excellent narration and enjoyable reading experience. Looking forward to the second part as said above.

Okay, this book is kinda hard for me to review. I personally liked this book. It reminded me of a mix of 'Malice' and 'Jouney under the Midnight Sun' by Keigo Higashino and 'Six Four' by Hideo Yokoyama. My favourite thing about this book is that it is the first book except for Hideo Yokoyamas works that have the views from Japanese reporters and that it also talks about the complex systeme going on behind the scenes. I sadly could not find any background on the author so far for a relationship to the journalistic systeme. What this book does masterfully is the time setting. It mentions events such as the economic bubble, the poiseneous gas attack in Tokyo Metro. It also mentions the chemicals and companies such as Nippon Chisso which were to be the reason for chemical environmental problems, poisening people. I have at least 20 annotations signalizing different events and social structures setting a time. This must have cost a lot of research for the author and I highly appreciated that. But with this also comes my biggest concern: I don't know who I could recommend this book to. This book is very obviously written for the Japanese audience as I often miss actual explanations to Japanese words and structures. I don't think the explanation for the Burakumin was enough, same goes for the Zainichi Korean and especially just having the word kisha club without any explanation at all. The Japanese journalisitic systeme is my main research field at university so I am aware how it works but from the view of somebody having not heard of this I miss an explanation. After stumbling across many words that were just taken from the Japanese I wouldn't even think that in the direct translation such explanations would've been possible. But I wished for a glossary for this book for any reader that is not familiar with all these structures. I just can't recommend this book to friends who aren't either studying in the same field as me, are Japanese or do work in a field related. I personally already understood only half on the book. There was a lot of different information such as on stocks, investment, dentist procedures, stars, golf (it was a bit like the author just dumping information they had for the purpose of showing they have learnt many different things in life and can't use them in conversations. It is not like the time setting information as it would mostly not be relevant). I have no idea on most of them except for the dentist procedure. And as half of the book was talk about stock that I didn't even need to get the gist of the book it was a bit hard to read. Also that book made it extremely slow burn (especially the first half). I think the book could have quite a bit shorter as some information was either repeated or didn't need to be spread over as many pages. But what was nice were the references to other Japanese cultural and literature such as Momotaro. Also to some foreign literature. I am quite torn. I would recommend this book if you either have knowledge on stock or Japanese social structures, politics and systems (in best cases both lol). Otherwise if you've read 'Six Four' by Hideo Yokoyama you might at least understand the press club systeme and might enjoy this book. I liked the second half after the action actually starting a lot more. It's a 4/5 for me as I just missed explanations for others on one end and had to much information on the other.

I tried reading Lady Joker a couple of weeks ago, but struggled to get into but it might have been because my head wasn’t in the right place.

I gave it another go and couldn’t put the book down. I lived in in Tokyo for five years in the early noughties and recognised the Tokyo neighbourhoods and also had an understanding of Japanese corporate culture, Japanese society, the language - which I think was a definite bonus.

It is a complex and dense book starting in post-war Japan with a letter written about the Hinode brewery in post-War Japan, which resurfaces forty years later referencing possible discrimination of burakumin communities. A motley crew of men come together, some of them directly affected by the repercussions of the letter forty years later, and plot to make the Hinode corporation pay.

This is not a relaxing read, but for anyone interested in Japanese literature, or complex crime capers - this is a must-read.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers John Murray Press for making the ARC available to me for a fair and honest review.

It was a fascinating read, a bit slow but gripping nonetheless. It's a depiction of Japanese society and good crime mystery at the same time.
i liked the characters and was fascinated by the plot.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Lady Joker is a world famous and hugely influential Japanese novel, a classic in the real sense of the word, and this is the first English translation. It is clearly a crime novel: murder, kidnapping, extortion, revenge, corporate fraud, persecution and prejudice all feature. It is also a primer in post-war Japanese history, and corporate processes, and sectarianism – not forgetting police procedures. So it’s a heavy read, before taking into consideration it’s nearly 600 pages long and is only the first half of the original book (the second part is due later this year). So what is the plot anyway?
The trigger is a letter written in June 1947 by Seiji Okamura to his former employer, Hinode Beer, hinting at discrimination. The post-war economy is in ruin, of course, but social changes have also been disrupted, particularly the position of the burakumin (untouchable) community, those born in segregated buraku villages. Although the letter appears to have been ignored and produced no impact at the time it returns to bite the company in 1990, by which time it is a major business with subsidiaries and connections throughout Japan, because it might raise a possible investigation into past activities which would have a huge impact on current, less than legal, business practice. Burakumin descendants are now permeated throughout society even at the highest level, but covert prejudice is still extant. Crimes, including murder, circulate around in all of this background but the central story concerns a group of acquaintances who meet, casually but regularly, at horse races. Their personal and connected histories are also examined at some length. They are all employed in low level occupations and have buraka antecedents. Primarily on grounds of revenge they decide to extort money from Hinode, and, incidentally (?) destabilise its stock position, by kidnapping the president and CEO of the company, although the book concentrates more on the characters and rather underplays the planning and execution (Volume two will expand on this initial action) The subsequent police investigation is carried out by Inspector Yuichiro Goda, who is a major character in two earlier novels.
The novel is very complex, particularly for western readers, because it is set in a culture where position in society and “saving face” is much more codified. The translation is extremely well done and it reads as colloquial American (the 1947 section sounds slightly off but I think this is deliberate, to convey the difference in colloquial Japanese at that time). So how many stars, often a tricky question but harder here? It’s an interesting crime story but, so far, it isn’t a mystery story (3*); it repays patient and thoughtful reading (4*); but a lot of the detail is incidental and would, I think, be edited down if this wasn’t such an icon (3*). So 3.3, I guess.

A dark and gritty tale of deceit, greed & murder, a Japanese whodunit originally published in Japan at the end of last century.

Cleverly plotted with enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish and blessed with a vast cast of exquisitely drawn characters, I found this terrific novel riveting and highly entertaining.

An absolute must if you like Japanese crime fiction & a marvellous fictional treat that really deserves to be enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever👍👍

Many thanks to Netgalley and John Murray for this incredible ARC

I did find this a struggle to get into, so it's a book I wouldn't recommend lightly. But for those who love mysteries and translated fiction, I'd recommend it but warn them of the slow very confusing start. It takes a while to get into the rhythm of non-western names and which character is doing what. But once you get into it it's quite enjoyable.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I heard so much good things about this book and was so excited to be able to final read it, but it just didn't meet my expectations. I probably wouldn't have finished it, if it wasn't an ARC. I found it far too detailed and slow. And to make matters worse that detail did nothing to build a picture of the setting or give me much understanding of Japanese culture. Nor was there atmosphere or tension. It just felt like reams and reams of useless information. It was very long and only started to get going about 90% of the way in, which confused me, as I couldn't see how they could wrap up the story. Some how I missed that this was only volume one of the story! I don't think I'll ever find out how this ends.

I do wonder if some of the supposed "brilliance" of this "masterpiece" was lost in translation especially as I noticed some inconsistencies and discrepancies. I'd like hear the opinion of those that have read it in is native form.

I love literature from other countries and cultures so any chance I get to read it I will and I will enjoyed this Japanese crime fiction novel. It is taught in schools and I can see why, it was gripping and engaging and brought up so many themes and questions. I couldnt put this book down from the setting to the charcaters, the story to the unpredictableness of it. I really enjoyed it.

DNF at roughly 150 pages

I understand how important this book is and that it''s included in Japan's school reading syllabus, but ultimately, it didn't work out for me. Although I tend to just not read bigger books, I tried my best with this one--but if I can't get easily through the first 150+ pages, I certainly won't stay for the rest--and part 2 of this chonker. The premise sounded interesting enough and the translation was beautifully executed, but sadly, it just didn't click.

Thank you for allowing me access to a free eARC of this.

This book is a English conversion of a Japanese mystery novel which was very compelling and enticing especially as I love the front cover and the ongoing theme especially as it meets sexual bias with females instead of males.
Loved this overall would reccomend

A Japanese classic!
Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder; a demoted detective with a chip on his shoulder; a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for his ethnicity; a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down syndrome. The fifth man bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson, who has died suspiciously.

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.

Inspired by the unsolved true-crime kidnapping case perpetrated by "the Monster with 21 Faces," Lady Joker has become a cultural touchstone since its 1997 publication, acknowledged as the magnum opus by one of Japan's literary masters, twice adapted for film and TV and often taught in high school and college classrooms.
Well worth a read

I didn’t really know what to expect from this one, (no current cover! No ability to judge a book by said cover!) but I was not disappointed. It is translated from Japanese and there is an eastern feel to the novel without being stilted or awkward.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.