Brief Mention: Volume Two of LADY JOKER from Kaoru Takamura Has Released

Were you (are you still?) a Godfather fan as all the books came out? Do you love long novels that probe history, culture, and crime? Have a special interest in Japan, with its sharp differences from Western life?

Great! LADY JOKER by Kaoru Takamura is meant for you ... and will keep your bedside table occupied for months ahead.

The first volume of this sprawling epic, which Takamura builds from a real unsolved kidnapping case that took over Japanese news for two years, was released in the US by Soho Press in May 2021 under its Soho Crime imprint. At 576 pages, in small type with narrow page margins, it marked a return to "long publishing" intended for committed readers. The characters and plot twists are compelling -- so Volume 2, which came out a couple of weeks ago (588 pages!), provides the delight and relief of bringing the story to its cynical and thrilling conclusion.

Here's a sample from Goda's investigation in Volume 2:

He didn't feel like hearing Hirase's voice, so Goda jotted down on a blank report—Attn: Sergeant Hirase. Anonymous tip-off call to my residence at 11:50 p.m. Male caller. "I'm giving you the telephone number being used for contact between Hinode and LJ." The number reported is as follows: 3751-921 ... Signed, Goda—and faxed it to Special Investigation Headquarters.

Only after he looked back at the page that he had just sent did Goda realize that he recognized the 3751 exchange because it fell within his precinct's jurisdiction.

Or this, from the viewpoint of Monoi:

He gazed at the girl's peaceful face muscles relaxed in sleep. The fiend was still murmuring inside his belly, but even that gradually came to sound more like the meaningless chant of a sutra, and Monoi tried convincing himself at last—I no longer need an escape. Now I would rather stay a fiend until I die. I must remain a fiend.

As you can see, translators Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell do a masterful job of bringing the novel into English, without losing the flavor of Japan. Mark off time to read this pair ... or spend your entire winter walking with the crime and investigation in all their haunting flavor.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Brief Mention: LADY JOKER, Volume 1 of Kaoru Takamura's Japanese Crime Epic

LADY JOKER came out in mid April with many thoughtful reviews. At 576 pages, it's far from beach reading. Even the reviews have been on the long side -- really, they have to be. One of the most enjoyable articles on the book's release from Soho Press is this interview with editor and publisher (and author) Juliet Grames, full of its own twists. From the true-crime basis of the three-volume epic (the Glico-Morinaga case of the 1980s) to the challenges of translation, the interview itself is compelling.

Though LADY JOKER is a suspense novel and came out under the Soho Crime imprint, it also fits two other notable descriptions: It's obviously the Japanese version of the Godfather series, rich with the frictions of Japan's own caste system and the criminal temptations of corporate greed and advantage, framed around a high-stakes kidnapping. And it's a scorching indictment of capitalist manipulations of both government and society—one that could as easily apply to America or today's Russia as it does to Japan. If the love of money is the root of evil, Kaoru Takamura's portrait of the postwar profiteering and manipulations of the Hinode Beer Co. shows five decades of festering injustice, evil, and eventually manipulative and ruthless violence.

This book requires slow, persistent reading, as it's not constructed with "thriller" props or passionate emotions. But for those who savor the view of our global perils through the lens of all-too-human history, it's a dark treasure well worth the time for reading.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.