Lady Joker, Volume 1

his black umbrella, which was being trampled by the canvas shoes of the girl sitting next to him. A wet and withered piece of newspaper was stuck to the cloth of the umbrella. His eyes caught the words Superior Quality, 100 Years in the Making. Hinode Lager in an ad printed on the page before he shook it off.
     Beside him, the girl had begun stamping her feet again and wringing from her throat her version of the word, Start, start! It was the beginning of the ninth race, a six-furlong race for three-year-old colts and fillies. As Monoi raised his head to witness the start of the race he had not bet on, he wondered if the smell of blood wafting from the girl was only in his imagination. He unconsciously turned his neck so that the right half of his face was positioned toward the racecourse. He had suffered an accident as a child that had cost him most of the vision in his left eye when he came of age and now, in his late sixties, that side had gone completely dark.
     The overcast weather darkened the racecourse, and the horses that took off from across the infield looked as if they were swimming into a stormy sea with jockeys in tow. In November the turf track still bore shades of green, but perhaps from the color of the rain or the sky, the entire course was dulled to an inky darkness, and the dirt track to the inside of the one on which the horses now ran looked like a black sash, frothy with mud. A live feed of the ground s surface was displayed on the jumbotron located directly across from the grandstand.
     Monoi was looking at the dirt track because the next race the tenth, and the one he planned to bet on would be run on this course. As was always the case, imagining the weight of the horses hooves, he was consumed by an inexplicable restlessness that made his

feeling of intimidation quickly wanes as Takamura proceeds to weave her epic, post-World War II tale of crime and social injustice . . . One which definitely rewards the effort.
Hank Wagner, Mystery Scene

For those wanting a page-turning thriller in the vein of Hideo Yokoyama s Six Four, there s plenty of police procedure, smoky backrooms, tense press conferences and angry superiors slamming things on desks. But there is also social commentary, history and a comprehensive account of how Japan s corporate, political and criminal worlds coexist in an uneasy, toxic relationship. Like all great fiction, Lady Joker informs and entertains.
The Japan Times

It is well worth the wait for anyone interested in a panoramic portrait of modern Japanese society, including its dark corners, as well as fans of intelligent mysteries.
The Nikkei

Mysterious and multilayered, [Lady Joker] gives readers extortion and kidnapping as it critiques the dark corners of Japanese society and the human experience.
Ms. Magazine

A novel that portrays with devastating immensity how those on the dark fringes of society can be consumed by the darkness of their own hearts.
Yoko Ogawa, author of The Memory Police

A swarm of characters, an unorthodox structure, and slow-moving, ultimately irresistible suspense distinguish Lady Joker . . . Like some novels by James Ellroy and Marlon James, Lady Joker is wildly ambitious in scope.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An immense and extraordinary feat of writing and translation that has been long-awaited in English, Lady Joker is at once a thriller and a sweeping cultural history of Japan, a love story and a work of poignant social commentary.
BookRiot

Lady Joker reads like Don DeLillo s Underworld rewritten by James Ellroy, or perhaps LA Confidential rewritten by Don DeLillo? What I m trying to say here is, Lady Joker is EPIC.
CrimeReads

Impressive, very large-scale crime(-and-more) novel of post-war Japan . . . Lady Joker is anything but your usual mystery.
The Complete Review

Through the working class, and executives, the police force and media, author Kaoru Takamura brings to her readers a Japan which is complicated and often corrupt. The disenfranchised working class who commit a crime seem no better (or worse) than the corporate executives who commit crimes in their own, more subtle, ways.
Dolce Belleza

Excellent . . . Takamura shows why she s one of Japan s most prominent mystery novelists.
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Takamura s challenging, genre-confounding epic offers a sweeping view of contemporary Japan in all its complexity.
Kirkus Reviews

Centered around an extortion case involving a beer company, Lady Joker would ordinarily be categorized in the crime or mystery novel genre, yet the book deserves to be called an exemplary literary work that depicts contemporary society . . . A magnum opus . . . It requires extraordinary skill to fully depict the ambivalence of Japanese society, in all its detail. Reading Lady Joker together with James Ellroy s American Tabloid and the drama behind the Kennedy assassination serves as an intriguing comparison. Viewing a society through the lens of a crime is like examining a disease or a corpse to get at the person: it exposes the foundations of human existence.
Yomiuri Newspaper

Using the relationship between individuals and institutions as its axis, Lady Joker attempts to depict the contemporary era in its entirety. The effort is so reckless as to be almost quixotic, but with her formidable literary talents, Kaoru Takamura accomplishes her goal to a handsome degree . . . Lady Joker is a multilayered novel that allows for many interpretations, yet its structure places it firmly within the framework of a social-awareness mystery.
Shosetsu Subaru Literary Magazine

A superb suspense novel with depth.
Shukan Bunshun (The Literary Weekly)

Takamura s eye for detail and storytelling prowess are astonishing . . . It s possible to read Lady Joker in various ways as a mystery novel, a police procedural, or a cautionary tale of corporate risk management. I read it as an exploration of the original sin of human existence . . . The depth of empathy readers will feel for this book s characters directly corresponds with the author s insight on the intersections of human existence.
Ushio Magazine

An ambitious work of carefully plotted crime fiction with a deep social conscience.
Crime Fiction Lover