--- description: Find out why 'Lady Joker' by Kaoru Takamura made the list. title: Lady Joker: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcdcd4f4c60d87b2/698a407b47ca3849c63bb23e/LadyJoker.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # Lady Joker by Kaoru Takamura by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  In her native Japan, Kaoru Takamura has won nearly every major mystery award, sold over one million copies of her cerebral and sophisticated books, and had her work adapted for film and TV. In 1993, she was honored with the Mystery Writers of Japan Award. But it wasn’t until 2021 that _Lady Joker_, her magnum opus, was released in English for the first time, with a translation by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida. Based on a real-life corporate kidnapping case, the 1997 crime novel follows a ragtag group of five conspirators who are fed up with corporate greed and the cards they’ve been dealt in life. They abduct the president of a prominent beer company and hold him for ransom, forcing corrupt financiers to finally pay up. The kaleidoscopic heist story spans across two volumes in its English translation and serves as a psychological study, capitalistic critique, and social commentary all in one. —_Meg Zukin_ **Buy Now:** _Lady Joker, Volume 1_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781641293945 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3Eexc0b "undefined") | _L_ _ady Joker, Volume 2_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781641290296 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3RHITol rel= "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309200/lady-joker/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309200/lady-joker/"},"headline":"Lady Joker","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:50:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:20:23.026Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309200/lady-joker/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcdcd4f4c60d87b2/698a407b47ca3849c63bb23e/LadyJoker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcdcd4f4c60d87b2/698a407b47ca3849c63bb23e/LadyJoker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309200/lady-joker/","name":"Lady Joker"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time","description":"Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. There are books from 15 different countries, and no author appears on the list more than once.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bNzuDcsg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-10-02T16:54:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNzuDcsg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309200/lady-joker/","duration":"PT1M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309200/lady-joker/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```