It is a welcome joy to have Kaoru Takamura’s two-volume magnum opus, "Lady Joker," available in English language translation. A complicated, challenging, genre-confounding novel that weaves the police, the working class, the media, and corporate exectives into an epic portrait of contemporary Japan. Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida's translation shines... truly an extraordinary feat. Highly recommended for public libraries.

My review was published in the Japan Times: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2021/07/11/books/book-reviews/lady-joker-volume-one/

Finally available in English! Thrilled I was able to spotlight this title in the spring Thrills and Chills roundup, my list of notable new crime and mystery titles for Zoomer magazine’s Club Zed book section.

Lovely prose with a lacking plot. Is that a beautifully wrapped unwanted present, or a shabbily-wrapped gold nugget? I think the former - ultimately I was not satisfied at the amount of reading required, even if it was the writing from the pen of an acclaimed master. Lyrical but unengaging, deep but hollow. I won't be looking for Volume 2, unfortunately.

Two and a half stars.

Sincere thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the free digital ARC.

"Hinode Beer had generally valued its employees." After World War II, however, "as long as beer remained under the Price Control Ordinance and with no prospect of a quick recovery...it was clear that there would soon be a surplus of equipment and manpower...the provisional solicitation for voluntary resignation began suddenly...40 employees left-each citing a family issue, an illness or vague reason for leaving." "For the briefest of moments, Katsuichi Noguchi- like [Seiji Okamura] and many others had dreamt of prosperity in a company called Hinode." Noguchi was born in a buraku village, a segregated community.

In 1947, Seiji Okamura wrote a letter to Hinode Beer describing unfair termination of employment. Okamura, like many other "resigned employees" was destitute. "My body always remembered poverty...I am sensitive to sounds and smells...when I inhale...they seep through me...settling in my empty stomach...a futile and unchanging past...". Okamura's threatening letter from half a century ago would resurface. Was the 1947 letter still relevant in the 1990's? Was Hinode Beer compliant with any sinister criminal behavior? Were there deeply buried secrets?

1995-Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchu. Every Sunday, five men from different walks of life, bet on the horses. "For the simple lack of money, [he] had lived a life untouched by quiet spiritual satisfaction...with his meager income...he had the constant feeling that he was gradually being left behind...he threw his empty [beer] can into the road, where it was swiftly crushed beneath the tires of an uncoming truck...that's me, right there...it was not about happiness or lack there of- just that each person led their own fragile life".

"A fortune had been amassed from every last drop wrung from the have-nots and the guileless". Five men- a pharmacy owner, a truck driver, a lathe operator, a credit union employee, and a disgraced police officer decide to "milk money out of a big corporation...squeezing money out of Hinode Beer...the money was there for the taking...compared to what moneylenders do everyday, shaking down a company is nothing...when attacked on a matter that concerns their reputation and credibility a company will generally pay-up". A fail-safe plan was hatched to kidnap the CEO of Hinode Beer.

"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. In intricate detail, a cast of twenty seven characters is revealed. The inner workings of the corporate-criminal world is explored as the Hinode Beer Corporation tries to shed its criminal connections. The Violent Crime/ White Collar Crime Units come out in full force and the reader is privy to their operations. Journalists and news organizations arrive like scavengers ready to pounce on the latest information. We are introduced to Assistant Police Inspector Yuichiro Goda who will play a prominent role in Lady Joker Volume II which will be released in 2022. I can hardly wait!

Thank you Soho Crime and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.