Good story about a half-Japanese, half-American assassin, who falls for the daughter of one of his targets. Great details about Tokyo.

Primo di una serie dedicata a John Rain, ex infiltrato della CIA in Vietnam, divenuto micidiale killer, questo thriller spicca per la sua... normalita'! Senza infamia e senza lode, la lettura scorre via senza particolari sorprese su binari fin troppo lineari. John Rain puo' essere pero' un personaggio interessante in se', e forse gli si puo' dare il beneficio della seconda prova. Nota positiva per l'ambientazione giapponese che fornisce molti dettagli sugli usi e la mentalita' del posto, oltre a una interessante descrizione di Tokyo.

The city is Tokyo, where government, yakuza and construction industry leaders are knit together in a web of corruption. Central character John Rain - a tough guy with scruples - finds himself snared in the deadly tangle, and struggles to understand why his life is suddenly turned upside down. Eisler's novel is scrupulously researched, expertly plotted, generous in detail and rich in color. He has created a torrent of action that transported this reader from cover to cover with timeless celerity.

Synopsis: John Rain is an assassin without a country -- a half-Japanese/half-American pariah in both cultures. When his most recent victim pulls him into an intrigue that reaches the highest levels of Japan's government, John must escape three groups who want him dead while protecting the daughter of the man he just murdered.

Reaction: I'd been getting Barry Eisler recommendations for years. (Fun fact, the protagonist in Blake Crouch's Recursion is named for Barry Eisler.) So, I figured I'd start with the first one.

And it's a great read for a couple of reasons. First, John Rain is a worthy protagonist -- capable, dark, brooding, feels a little sorry for himself, but not willing to let that keep him from kicking ass.

Second, you get a rich sense of Tokyo in this novel - both the Tokyo that is and the Tokyo that we wish for (I'm thinking of one Scotch bar in particular).

And then there's the story. While the "daughter-of-the-man-I-just-killed-is-giving-me-mixed-feelings" is a little overdone, it's handled beautifully here and I loved the ending. Plus, there is a handful of worthy villains.

I will be reading more Barry Eisler.

John Rain is a political assassin in Japan. He is half Japanese (his father) and half American (his mother). He sees himself as a perpetual soldier, a samurai, a warrior loyal to his overlord and carrying out his commands, fighting his battles. Personally, I think John Rain is full of s... er, self-delusion. But then maybe we all are to some degree.

I have a few problems with this book. First of these is, what is the time frame? If we were ever explicitly told, it must have been in a part that I rapidly skimmed over. (There were several such parts.) It is written, though, as if it were a contemporary story and since the book was published in 2002, that would mean 21st century. Now, John Rain is described as a veteran of the Vietnam War trained by the U.S. Special Forces. He was in Vietnam, we are told, for three years. He had lied about his age to join the military when he was 17, but any way you add it up, by 2002, John Rain would be getting a bit long in the tooth for some of the activities described here.

Secondly, Rain is a killer who has spent twenty-five years killing people on assignment for his employer who he thinks is the ruling political party in Japan. He's presented as almost preternaturally intuitive and smart, but he never suspects who is actually behind his orders? Plus, his specialty is killing people in a manner that will make the deaths appear like "natural causes." Judging by the death toll in this one book, over twenty-five years, he must have killed hundreds if not thousands of people, usually with his bare hands, and he never left a trace or a clue? A major suspension of disbelief is required here.

As we meet Rain, he is about to kill again. His target is a man on a crowded subway car. He accomplishes his assigned task, making it look like a heart attack, but soon things begin to get complicated for him. He inadvertently meets the beautiful jazz musician daughter of the man he killed and he finds himself drawn to her. Then he finds that his victim may have been trying to expose corruption in the Japanese government, that he may, in fact, have been one of the "good guys." To complicate things further, he discovers that someone is after the daughter, apparently believing that she may be in possession of the material that the now dead maybe good guy was going to use to prove corruption. Rain is drawn into the daughter's world and seeks to protect her from the bad guys - who are probably his employers! And then it looks like people are trying to kill him, too. Oh, it does get complicated.

Did I mention that the action takes place in Tokyo? There is rather mind-boggling detail of the streets and the mass transit systems in that city. As Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said, "For people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will like." I'm sure there are people who thrive on intricate details about the subway system and that it adds a lot to the story for them. Those people will probably love this book.

I didn't love it. I didn't hate it either. It was just okay. It was the first in a series and Eisler has published several more in the series since then, but I doubt that I'll be picking them up.

Barry Eisler published this book under other names, which to me were irrelevant other than to provide some insight into what authors have to go through getting their works in front of saps like me. And I only mention that because it was the current title, "A Clean Kill in Tokyo," that got me reading the first book in Eisler's supremely engaging John Rain series. Not that death and destruction are my thing. Then again, they are. I like reading this strong hero stuff. But John Rain is against type. He's basically a hit man. He gets paid to put people down. He has a code. No women, no children. And he assumes he's offing nefarious types. But he's not sure. Eisler slowly unveils Rain's back story, which is a trip. He said in notes that he updated the book from 95 technology references, and that Rain's kind of an old guy because he's a Vietnam vet. Didn't bother me in the slightest. Eisler's detail and reporting go deep, making this story quite fascinating whether he's taking the reader through a fight scene or explaining the details behind a war massacre in which women and children were murdered because some officer ordered it, even when told it was unlikely a village had harbored the enemy. I ordered another Rain novel. They're a bit tough to read at times. Rain isn't the most uplifting guy. He's a killer. But he has a moral code. And that makes him worth reading about.

Cliché and formulaic.
Horrible dialogue. Awkward and artificial romance. One dimensional characters: a stereotypical "hacker" character out of a 90s movie, a cardboard cutout love interest who becomes unbelievably obedient to the main character, John Rain, a handsome assassin with comically godlike fighting abilities and a troubled past. Also, some evil Yakuza and CIA guys.
I never write reviews on here, but this book has almost completely positive ones and I felt the need to disagree. I don't know why I read this. I don't hate all pulp thrillers, I remember enjoying Ludlum novels.

A really pleasant read, I would definitely recommend it.

The story stars slow, but as it moves on, it picks up momentum and is action packed until the end.

The story is narrated in the first person, in a style that has a little hint to the traditional 'noir', which I quite liked.

The description of the different places and surroundings is really detailed, which helps to visualize them in your mind.

John Rain is a very interesting character, with a rich and troubled past, but as it is explained and explored, it really helps to understand some of his troubles and actions. I think the supporting characters are also well developed, with different and rich personalities, creating a strong combination that makes the story interesting at all stages.

"Um matador de aluguel tem uma repentina crise de consciência e resolve proteger a filha de um burocrata (que ele acabara de matar!), agora envolvida com a ocultação de uma prova que pode revelar corrupção nos mais altos escalões do governo japonês".

Confesso que quando li a sinopse não pareceu tão ruim assim quanto isto...mas a trama do livro infelizmente lembra muito aqueles filmes do Domingo Maior que devem dar traço de ibope. Nada a elogiar. Começo, meio e fim sofríveis...e imaginar que este é o primeiro livro da saga de John Rain!

Tried to get into this story, but the author kept pulling me back out. The story takes place in Japan and in addition to locations, neighborhoods and police/political ranks in Japanese, the author insists on presenting a lot of dialog in Japanese, then providing the translation. If you're trying to learn Japanese and want some practice, I'd recommend this... otherwise there are much better authors out there who showcase literary skills, not linguistics.

The narrator, John Rain, is a Tokyo-based professional assassin who performs jobs mainly for the LDP, Japan's dominant political party. His specialty is making deaths look natural. Rain is an interesting character: he's half American and half Japanese, grew up partly in each country, and was part of a clandestine US military/CIA operation in the Vietnam War that ran recon and sabotage missions into Cambodia and Laos. He's also an expert practitioner of judo.

The job he completes as the story begins seems to go well but sets into motion a chain of events that places Rain and the people around him in grave danger. One of these people is Midori, an attractive and accomplished jazz pianist with whom Rain becomes romantically involved. She is also the daughter of the man Rain has killed. The plot settles into a familiar thriller novel scenario: Rain must figure out who the bad guys are and what they want, and neutralize them before they can kill him and Midori.

Rain is always on the move around Tokyo, mostly on foot or by metro but sometimes by car. He does a lot of what he calls surveillance detection runs (SDRs): taking circuitous routes from point A to point B designed to expose any potential pursuers. The SDRs (so many of them!) are described in detail, so the book is chock full of Tokyo geographic references: streets, buildings, stores, hotels, train stations, etc. I'm sure this lends the book great verisimilitude for readers familiar with Tokyo, but for the rest of us the barrage of Tokyo place names sometimes feels overwhelming.

The story is clever and includes many creative elements and several interesting characters, but the plotting and pacing are sometimes clunky, and momentum was uneven. Eisler is an intelligent writer, and the two later books of his that I've read are excellent. But in this, his first book, he seems to have been still working to master the tools of his craft.

This series is cracking and I listened to them in those pre goodreads years.