Lady Joker, Volume 2

By: Kaoru Takamura, Allison Markin Powell - translator, Marie Iida - translator

Narrated by: Brian Nishii

"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

This second half of Lady Joker, by Kaoru Takamura, the Grand Dame of Japanese crime fiction, concludes the breathtaking saga introduced in Volume I.

Inspired by the real-life Glico-Morinaga kidnapping, an unsolved case which terrorized Japan for two years, Lady Joker reimagines the circumstances of this watershed episode in modern Japanese history and brings into riveting focus the lives and motivations of the victims, the perpetrators, the heroes and the villains. As the shady networks linking corporations to syndicates are brought to light, the stakes rise, and some of the professionals we have watched try to fight their way through this crisis will lose everything—some even their lives. Will the culprits ever be brought to justice? More importantly—what is justice?

©2022 Kaoru Takamura (P)2022 Recorded Books

long story interesting winding surprise ending.

listened to audible good reader. lots of characters winding story like a 19th century novel. suprise ending.
give the story a chance to unfold a interesting view of 1990's japan.

Enjoyable ending to a novel

This is an enjoyable, detailed crime novel that wraps up the less focused elements from Part 1 into a somewhat more standard police procedural while still maintaining some of the unique, Japanese societal focused items that were the main driver of the first half of the English release.

If you enjoyed the first part, then absolutely this is a must get. If you're looking at Part 2 to decide if you want Part 1, then you need to just be prepared for a slow burn of a novel. Part 2 picks up the pace a good deal but this isn't an edge-of-your-seat type of story. Things happen, as they normally do in real life, bit by bit. There's no "mystery" as you get the perspectives from everyone involved.

I enjoyed it and, oddly, found it fairly relaxing to listen to. It's an odd book to place as it's part police procedural, part corporate intrigue, and part investigative journalist novel. If you are interested in Japanese society then, for me, it was worth the listen.

Won’t Buy Again

I wouldn’t invest this much time in Vol 1 & 2. These aren’t stand-alone books. A knowledge of Japanese culture would make these 2 books more enjoyable to the reader. There is the universal dilemma about corporate vs personal responsibility, morally and ethically however.