Just a quick update today because I am going on a trip for a few days and still need to pack…

Lady Joker, Vol. 1 (1997) by Kaoru Takamura

I knew nothing about this book and picked it up because I needed a nother book for a 3 for 2 offer. The bookseller recommended this one as he enjoyed it. The blurb tells me that this is, apparently, a Japanese crime classic.

While I definitely can see how the book is unusual, and even quirky, and full of suspense, it just didn’t work for me.

I liked the premise of the book: a groupe of people who are discontented for various reasons with a company, a kidnapping, blackmail, history, the question of ethics in corprate governance. I liked that there were so many levels to the book and story.

However, I could not find myself caring for any of the characters. Maybe it was because there are so many of them – 27 – or maybe it was because I could not tell some of them apart, but a lack of interest in what would happen made me disinterested in the book as a whole early on. Reading became a chore.

The only thing that kept me reading in the end was that I wanted to know how the kidnapping was resolved. And guess what? It isn’t. I guess this is addressed in Vol. 2? I don’t now. And I really don’t care any more. After a 500+ page story that meanders all over the place, I expect some kind of solution, not to be strung along for another 500+ pages.

I was disappointed.

2*

One by One They Disappeared (1928) by Moray Dalton

I have really come to look forward to reading a Moray Dalton story. However, this one was disappointing: the plot was convoluted and the main character was a TSTL young woman who kept being patronised by all of the other characters.

This is not what I have come to expect from Dalton’s books, which seem to have rather plucky young main characters – at least in the titles I have read so far.

The ending had a bit of a twist, but it was not enough to salvage the book for me.

This was just another mystery that didn’t work for me.

2*.

Other reviews posted this week:

None

Currently reading:
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works – William Shakespeare (see The Will’s World Project)

The Breaking Point – Daphne Du Maurier

Rebel Writers: Seven Women Who Changed Their World – Celia Brayfield

Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman – Lucy Worsley