In the era of box sets, binge-watching and on-demand entertainment, many assume that patience for the dramatic cliffhanger has dissipated into nostalgia. However, publisher Soho Crime took a gamble with Kaoru Takamura’s sprawling crime thriller “Lady Joker” by splitting the 1,200-page novel into two parts published more than a year apart. It was an unconventional choice to keep readers dangling without completion for so long.
“Lady Joker: Volume One” was released July 2021, and the 15-month wait for “Volume Two,” which will be out Oct. 18, means salient details about the complex, interlocking plot narrated through multiple characters’ perspectives may have faded into the background. Yet, Takamura’s expositional storytelling and the compelling translation by Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell means readers can pick up the threads easily enough without a refresher course.