I purchased this book, "A Clean Kill in Tokyo (John Rain, #1)" by Barry Eisler to read on my Kindle based on the recommendation of a Goodreads member. Not knowing really what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised. The novel has a little bit of everything to please all tastes; mystery, thriller, romance, and espionage.

John Rain, the protagonist, is an assassin, an ex-marine from the Vietnam era and a hit man who specializes in assassinations that look natural. John had combat experience and a mercenary history. War is all he really knew. He got into a variety of martial arts and spent three years in the CIA, before moving to Tokyo. He was an outsider in both worlds, US and Japan...just going through the motions. John had lived in Japan until he was ten, then mostly in the States after that. He came back to Japan in the 80's. He was a half-breed, his mother was American and his father was Japanese. John lived in the shadows.

Rain falls in love with the daughter of his target, Midori, and must face old enemies that are trying to control him. Rain is now a hit man and is tasked to kill a corrupt politician. He kills the man and makes it seem like a heart attack. Later that day he meets Midori, the daughter of the politician. Due to Rain's secretive nature, he's unwilling to disclose anything personal but finds himself having feelings for her.

Rain and his best friend Jimmy (A.K.A Crazy Jake), joined the American army where they fought in Vietnam. Rain finally feels accepted and sticks with Jimmy for years.

Midori is being hunted because her father had a disk that contained discriminating information on corruption in the Construction Ministry, in Japanese society. Her father was trying to blow the whistle on corruption. The people that want the disk think that Midori has it, and are willing to kill her to retrieve it.

Rain Fall is an amazing thriller full of intense action, a gripping story, and memorable characters.

Like the novel states, " There was no home for them after what they had done."

Rain Fall is definitely not a book I'm used to. It was a bit... political, if that's the right word, for me. That being said, I fairly enjoyed this novel. I started Requiem of an Assassin and realized that it was book 6 in a series. I needed to stop and find book 1.

Basically, John Rain is an assassin for hire. His specialty is making it look natural. When the daughter of his last kill becomes his new target he's unsure of what to do. He has a policy of no women. John goes against his employers and decides to help Midori rather than assassinate her.

There was definitely lots of action. Martial Arts, hand to hand combat. John would get himself into situations and I would think... welp that's it for him. No getting out of this one. John has himself a serious set of skills.

The ending definitely sets us up for what might be in store for the sequel. Usually, not my style but I absolutely want to continue with the story. I'd like to know what's next for John. It almost reminds me of the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. I've only read a few of those as well but I enjoyed them just the same.

Solid start to the Rain series mostly kept me engaged a little bit too much romance at one stage.

7/10

An interesting opening novel to a series I'll be happy to continue with due to a number of interesting factors. This is the first time I've read a novel about an assassin outside of the western world which opens up a whole new playing field and there was enough background information for the lead to make him an interesting but not unique character worth reading about.

I loved the Japanese setting for this, I don't know that world having never been there but I felt the book was described well enough for me to easily be drawn in and taken along for the ride with all the locations and traditions described well enough for me to easily digest them. I also liked the nuances of the lead, John Rain (also known by another Japanese name which I now forget), with him enjoying jazz music and whiskey bars and having a troubled background in Japan due to his mixed race of Japanese and American. These alone would have been entertaining to read about, without the action thrown in around it, and would have kept my attention long enough which I may have enjoyed even more.

The action is ok, some scenes are a little like paint by numbers and I felt like it was an episode of "Burn Notice" at times where they explain ad nauseam on the ways to outfox your opponent. These scenes floated by me but I really enjoyed the parts where he described himself as a soldier in Vietnam, some of which stood out as the best in the book.

I listened to this book and the author was the narrator doing a good job without ever being totally compelling. It felt that he spoke the Japanese parts more as a showing off device of "look at me and my bilingual skills" rather than adding anything but that is a small gripe. I would equally pick the next book up in either text or audiobook.

Overall a good start to the series with plenty of promise and I'll look forward to getting the next book to see if things can develop further. Worth a read.

If you like this try: "Transfer of Power" by Vince Flynn

It is a successful piece of "men's formula fiction". There is a bit too much exposition of the nefarious plot. The anguished protagonist with a troubled past, but a good heart....hmmm yeah. The surprising twists are not so surprising. [SPOILER ALERT} Did I mention the whole, I killed your father and now take you as my lover thing? How about the way that the damsel in distress drops from public view when she has a semi-public career as a jazz pianist? Doesn't it seem like someone would be looking for her...like her band members or agent?

All that aside, some elements rise above the Jerry Buckheimer airplane novel read. The sense of place in the writing is strong. The cultural elements stand out. And more than once, I was truly caught up in the action.

As a completist, I'm compelled to go onto the next chapter in the saga. However, I need the character arc to have more than standard "mff" before it gets another star.

P.S. I'm a little cantankerous right now because my FB Goodreads connection is no longer connected to my real Goodreads account and I can't get them to send me a password.

I liked this one. Made a hit-man look human. This is a good one for the UN challenge as Tokoyo is intimately detailed. The social nuances of Japanese culture is also good. I did have a bit trouble keeping up with the Japanese names.

I surprised myself by actually liking this book. I am not usually an assassin/spy/CIA kind of person, but this was pretty darn good. John Rain is in the business of killing for hire. He is tops in his profession and sought after for his skills. After the completion of, what he thinks, is a routine "job", he gets caught up in the aftermath, which has never happened before. The author gives us snippets of Johns life growing up as a mixed race child. We get a look at his life of military service also, the whole time the story of his latest hit is unfolding. He soon finds out that there is no honor among those he deals with and soon doesn't know who he can trust. Lots of double agents and scenes of his extraordinary fighting skills keep you on edge throughout the book. Ok i admit that he is one heck of a lucky guy with Bruce Lee super moves at times, but that was ok for me. I am definitely interested in reading the next installment of this series by Mr. Eisler. Thank you for introducing me to this genre and keeping it interesting enough to hook me for another in the series.

John Rain is a mercurial figure. A man of Japanese-American descent, who has lived in both American & Japan, but does not feel he fits in either place. In fact, the only place he seems to fit in is in the shadows. Having experienced harrowing firefights in the jungles of Vietnam during America's most unpopular war, Rain honed his skills as a fighter. After the war he moves to Japan where he continues training in martial arts, and putting his skills as a professional soldier into that of an assassin.

He receives his orders from unknown employers, and his specialty is terminating persons with extreme prejudice, but making their deaths appear natural. His latest victim is killed in such a manner, which is to say, no one is left wiser of how he really died. But when Rain learns the man had a daughter who now becomes target herself, his curiosity gets better of him and he dives into her life, only to find he has taken on more than he can handle.

When a 'Forbes' magazine reporter tries acquiring information from the body of the man Rain killed, Rain goes out of his way to learn what he was after. Turns out the tidbit of information could topple the Japanese government and leave a lot of powerful people vulnerable....But only if Rain gets his hands on the information first and then see's it published.

Rain turns to a group of people he has relied on for assistance in surveillance and weaponry needed for his line of work. Turns out they are good people he can rely on, people he will need when the going gets tough....And the going gets tough when an adversary from his Vietnam days turns up. As Rain gets closer with the daughter of the man he killed, feelings are stirred, feelings best left undisturbed. However, emotions get the better of him.

As Rain gets closer to acquiring what everyone is after, his life is turned upside down and he finds himself running after and away from people who could end him in a heartbeat. In any other situation, Rain would be dead. But then again, Rain is like no other. He's a man who does not quit, and a man who does not die easily.

This was my first book read by this author. I've heard a lot about him and this book left me in no doubt why his books have been so successful. I learned Barry Eisler lived in Japan, studied martial arts, and knows how to write! The characters are all plausible, and I enjoyed his descriptions of how tough things were for soldiers during the Vietnam War. I served 9 years after the war and experienced a lot of the aftereffects my senior officers and noncoms went through upon returning to an ungrateful nation. Glad to see our troops don't go through similar treatment today.

The book does not take place during Vietnam War. It's a modern-day book with modern technology which helps push things along. Rain is an interesting man. His features are Japanese, although he is not accepted in Japan because of his American-half. He's tough, smart, cool under stress, and a level-headed man. I could not help wonder if such a man really exists. I'm glad to see this is the first in a series with this character. I look forward to reading more about John Rain, and so will you.

This low rating is because of my lack of interest in the spy/ assassin genre. I have never liked any of the books in this genre- Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp, Bourne, James Bond ..... (Frederick Forsyth's books are the only exception). I have been trying to find some author in this genre who would interest me, unfortunately this too failed.
I was finding excuses not to get back to the book. I read the abridged version in the RD select edition. As it was just 150 pages, I didn't want to DNF. I returned to read the last 50 pages after a 5 day break, by then i had forgotten who's who and I didn't even care to go back and figure the characters and the plot. I simply read through the last few pages without understanding most of it.

The other reason for the low rating is the narration in first person. When someone tells "I tackled 2 goons alone, I saved a Damsel in distress, I am great, blah, blah" ( not these words, but effectively the same meaning) , I just want the protagonist to shut up. I didn't even fell sorry for him when he was telling his story about PTSD after the horrors in Vietnam.

What a waste of time !

This is an ambitious first novel that suffers as such endeavours often do from wanting to say too much. This is, after all, a thriller (maybe a bit too violent nevertheless) and it is a thriller with a devilishly clever plot and a setting that is fresh and intriguing, strongly conveyed. It earns its four stars.

John Rain, the central character, is a Japanese-Ameriican plying a shadowy, not to say shady, trade in Tokyo. He becomes romantically involved with the daughter of a murder victim (to say more would be unfair). Several high-powered ad equally ruthless bodies are pursuing the same objective, with Rain as the man in the middle. As the genre dictates, he is virtually indestructible, surviving numerous near-lethal assaults.

So far, so conventional. But the book stands apart for the things it wants to say about Japanese politics, about loyalty, about rootlessness, about jazz, about malt whisky, and about the dehumanising experience of war (where would American crime fiction be without Vietnam?).

As the first of a series, it encourages further exploration

Book #1 in the John Rain series. The action is tight, the writing is refreshingly refined, the characters possess depth, and the Tokyo backdrop provides just the right balance between grit and shine. Barry Eisler is a good writer, and a standout narrator. His character John Rain is an assassin specializing in making death appear to be attributed to natural causes. As antiheros go, Rain is one of the best I've encountered. Beyond this, it is as a character that John Rain stands apart from many of the stereotyped brooding assassin-like two-dimensional bit players we often stumble over in these sorts of thrillers. Rain is complex, and while grief, exile, and regret may not be wholly original motivators in literature, Eisler writes them, and Rain, genuine.

I reveled in the Tokyo that Eisler draws. It reminds me of Haruki Murakami and his gift for breathing life into a setting, of priming the pump of place.

Eisler is rereleasing these books, and reading the audiobooks. I was quite pleased with Eisler's understated style and honest delivery. He speaks the voice of his main character, Rain, and this isn't common when writers strive to read their work. Some authors do a fine job at reading their material; others do not. Eisler has a deep pleasant voice, and as far as I can determine, is fluent in Japanese. I encourage you to listen to the Eisler narrated audiobooks. He pulls you into an enjoyable and morally thought-provoking world,

If you're looking for a contemporary assassin book with a strong antihero, I highly recommend Barry Eisler's A Clean Kill in Tokyo.

A solid example of the genre. The Rain character is a good one and you want to like him even though he's done some bad things.