Sugihara had then looked into the family and found: "there was an issue with the father's family register, so Sugihara had told his daughter he wouldn't allow it". For me, the book shined when its focus was on the band of five disillusioned men who came together for a united cause.

Lady Joker is inspired by the true life crime kidnapping an extortion by “the monster with the 21 faces” in the early 1980s which saw a targeted campaign against confectionery companies where the perpetrator(s) were never discovered. At times, these internal thoughts and observations offer important insights into the motives behind someone's actions, but too often they come across as unnecessary. The excellent weaving between the story of each character and the suspense created through their interactions both direct and indirect was unfortunately diluted though an overabundance of elaboration and ponderous introspection.

Takamura's female characters are wives, secretaries, nieces, daughters and they have no point of view of their own in her telling of the story.

The premise sounded so good - a plan to extort money out of a beer corporation - and I was glued to the book for about the first third of it.With the success of Joker, it's likely the folks at DC are hedging their bets on its follow-up, what with the string of issues the studio has had lately including the axed Batgirl and The Flash stuck in limbo. Those who aren’t keen on delayed gratification may prefer to wait a while – or, since the first volume runs to a wrist-spraining 576 pages, may need to get reading right away. It is slow (and apparently there are four volumes) and much of this first book is leading up to the events that form the end section of this volume and set up the next.