Доста добър трилър, развиващ се на японска земя и отлично начало на една интересна поредица.

Насладих се на приключенията на Рейн-сан и продължавам с втората книга.

"Моно но ауаре" - жестокостта на живота или болката да си човек...

John Rain is the kind of assasin that internet conspoiracy theories are made of. He's not the kind of guy to stab and shoot his targets (though he's more than capable of that) but to poison a target over time so that his/her death seems to from natural causes (to use just one example). Plotwise the beats that make up the story (job goes wrong, protagonist finds out it was a set up, protagonist sets out to find out who set him up, uses too-cool-for-words martial arts skills to work his way up {or down} the conspiracy ladder) is likely something you have seen before but the presentation might wow you just the same (as few people can make you "feel" like you're living an action scene the way Barry Eisler does). This is definitely an engaging read that doesn't skimp on the action.

This has a very interesting storyline, but politics and military fiction aren't my favorite to begin with. Add to that a few info dumps and I just can't quite say I loved it. It was still very good story. I found it enjoyable enough and I like the character of John Rain, so I may continue with the series.

John Rain reminds me of a slightly watered down Evan Smoak, so this felt a little like Orphan X light.

3.5★

Grande ritmo e grande capacità di raccontare la citta di Tokyo ed un mondo che Eisler conosce davvero bene: i suoi trascorsi nella CIA traspaiono in ogni pagina della storia.
Non lo conoscevo ma credo proprio che rileggerò anche altro di suo: spy story così credibili e così cariche di ritmo non si trovano tanto facilmente.
Davvero un bel libro.

This is the first book in the John Rain series. I really enjoyed the Japanese setting of the story, and the "stuck-between-two-cultures" battle of Rain. I am looking forward to reading other books in the series.

It's been a long time since I read a modern thriller - I guess that's the genre for this book. With all the bad-ass assassin books out there it's really hard to make one stand out. So Mr. Eisler really made the right choice by renaming this one A Clean Kill in Tokyo, cause that title is what caught my interest. (It made me think of a John Woo movie.)
At times I thought John Rain was gonna be one of those Jason Bourne type protagonist, with skill and knowledge that rival a Super-hero like Batman. And is like that to a point. This usually only works for me an movie but not always in a book so much. Also Rain was with the SOG in the Vietnam War, which was almost always the case for this types of action heroes, back in the 80's and 90's when I read a lot more of these type books.
Regardless, Eisler still managed to suck me in. Not sure what it is about John Rain, but I like this guy and he isn't really a likable guy. The action is a lot of fun and the plot twist really takes the story in another direction.

So... I was trying to think of how to eloquently state everything I was feeling after reading this, then I read my GR friend DG's review, and that pretty much sums it up. Beautiful, sad, exciting, poignant.

I liked how instead of all the usual guns and knives and bloody violence, John was straight forward and simple and if you needed killing he snapped your neck and was done with it. It seemed more realistic that all the flash. All the complicated particulars of his traveling around the city and backtracking and covering his tracks and all the other stealthy-stuff could have felt over the top and boring, but I actually didn't mind it. It was interesting and I liked John's inner voice. Harry was a great addition and I'd like to see more of him.

While the ending with(out) Midori made me sad, it also felt very real and true to the way the story was going. I really hope she turns up again in future books though! I was so so SO glad that Holtzer got what was coming to him. I loved the somewhat anti-climactic way John finally killed him. You know how in movies the hero talks and talks and builds up and you know something will end up going wrong? But John is a professional and he gets the job done because it needs to be done.

The one thing that annoyed me was that after all the crazy over the top SDR and precautions that John took, when he finally decides to hand over the disc to Bulfinch... he just walks away?! You knew they've been following him, why would you think someone wasn't going to try to kill him. I assumed he was gonna follow all the way to at least his apartment!

Having previously read a mid-series book, it was a relief to go back to the start. My first experience of John Rain in Extremis showed me a rather one dimensional man - a hired killer, cold and efficient but not much else. However, this book brings the character alive, drawing out his background and the key events that shaped the man. The first half of the book is my favourite part as Rain shows himself to be a rather complex dude with a lot to offer, over and above his propensity to induce ‘the big sleep’ - to order and in a way likely to be deemed death by natural causes.

The descriptions of Rain’s home turf in Tokyo and his various haunts and pleasures (jazz, whiskey and women) are excellent. Conversations are well drawn and characters development is first class. I really wouldn't have minded if the book had focused wholly on these elements, particularly his burgeoning relationship with young jazz pianist, Midori. I'm sure an excellent book – albeit a different type of book – could have been developed from these early threads. Would Rain be worth reading about without the action man antics? I think so.

Once the action starts this book feels much more like my first experience of the series, although these sequences don't feel quite so clinical, so mechanical and are probably all the better for that. The story also gets much more complex, as additional characters and various twists and turns are introduced. It’s not that the second half of the book is unsatisfying, it’s just that - for me - it doesn't quite match up to what preceded it.

I know that these thoughts won't match everyone's experience of this book. Simply put, I think it's that although I do like action packed thrillers I prefer the human elements of these stories. And the human elements here are very good indeed. Overall, I really enjoyed meeting John Rain again and I’ll definitely be signing up for the next episode.

3 1/2 stars.

Barry Eisler is a very intelligent man and is very well qualified to write a political thriller set in Japan but I was a bit disappointed by this book, which is a thriller by numbers, without heart or soul. You don't capture a place by naming its streets and subway stations. You don't redeem a cold-blooded assassin by giving him a taste for whiskey and jazz or by making him fall in love with the beautiful daughter of one of his victims. The story held my interest and I wanted to like it but in the end it left me cold.

The book Rain Fall by Barry Eisler is 363 pages, published in 2002 by Penguin Books Ltd. The genre is a little bit of mystery, thriller, romance, and realistic fiction. The story is a first person tale of John Rain. He's an ex-marine from the Vietnam era and a hit man who specializes in assassinations that look natural. What starts as a routine kill ends up in complete chaos. Rain falls in love with the daughter of his target and must face old enemies that are trying to control him. The book really focuses on the changes in Rain and how these changes came to be.
tRain's character begins his journey when he's born. With one parent Japanese and one American, Rain never felt like he had a true home. This lead to him becoming an outcast and caused him to develop a quiet, secretive demeanor. He was bullied constantly and learned to take care of himself. Rain's life took a huge twist when he met Jimmy (A.K.A Crazy Jake). Rain and Jimmy became best friends and joined the American army where they fought in Vietnam. Rain finally feels accepted and sticks with Jimmy for years. The friendship takes a turn for the worse when Jimmy abandons the army and creates his own private force. The corrupt and traitorous army officer Holtzer sends Rain on a mission to kill Jimmy. Rain kills Jimmy and leaves Vietnam. He went there excited to fit in and left an outcast once again. This is all back-story that the book provides. The setting throughout most of the book is modern day Japan. 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. These feelings allow him to open up to her like no one else. When Rain's employer sets his sights on Midori's life, Rain jumps into action. Midori and he go into hiding. Rain falls in love with her and she with him. He opens up to her and tells her all about Jimmy and the terrible things he's done. Midori really connects with him and a strong bond is created. Midori is being hunted because her father had a disk that contained discriminating information on the Yazuka leader, Yamaoto. Holtzer is working with Yamaoto and is in charge of killing Rain and retrieving the disk. Rain gets the disk and works to get it to the head of police, Tatsu. He eventually succeeds and Holtzer resigns from his CIA position. Unfortunately, to protect Midori, Tatsu tells her that Rain is dead. Rain is overwhelmed with despair at losing Midori and anger at Holtzer's lack of punishment. He takes justice into his own hands and kills Holtzer. It was a wild moment on his part. It's kind of like Yin and Yang. Midori was his Yin, his soft side. Holtzer was his Yang, violent side. When he lost his Yin, he had no choice but to balance it out and kill the Yang. It was all about emotional balance. Rain's life has never been easy. As a kid he was excluded, as a young adult he had to kill his best friend and countless others, and as an adult he lost his love and killed dozens more. Midori and Jimmy were the only stable things in Rain's life and each loss shook him to the core. The book ends here so it's unsure how he moves on.
tRain Fall is an amazing thriller full of intense action, a gripping story, and relatable characters. Many will come for the action but will stay for the intense tale it weaves. Rain Fall is an extremely good thriller that deserves to be read by anyone craving action or suspense.

A Clean Kill in Tokyo is a magnificent match-up of noir vibe and grounded action-thriller genre. Right off the bat, the focus persists on the protagonist, John Rain; haunted by his demons from the Vietnam War, now operating as a hitman that specializes in making his kills look like those from natural causes.

The story, as gleaned from the title, is set in Tokyo. The author does a beautiful job of describing the environment and locales with a finesse that screams real-life experience of those locales. This made the read even more enthralling for me. The beautiful and vivid details of the city life of Tokyo not only served the story, but also breathed life into Tokyo as a living breathing character in this novel.

The action sequences are well described, focusing on skillful hand-to-hand combat, proficiently demonstrating art of violence. Every punch, every blow, every throw, is written in a way that allows readers to visualize every economical movement of John Rain as he takes on his adversaries in brutal manner. Another winning aspect of the action sequences for me, was that they were in tune with the grounded and gritty nature of the thriller. John Rain doled out the beatings as well as endured them, showing the readers that John Rain was not untouchable, but just more conditioned to being the hunter rather than the prey.

What I enjoyed just as much, was the strong foundation of John Rain. With the sole focus on him, the author demonstrated Rain’s thoughts and inner demons, as a man struggling with being considered an outsider due to him being of both American and Japanese descent. This struggle is further explored by the author as he takes the readers for a dark ride into John Rain’s twisted past. A man of few words, hurting soul, and a mean soccer-style kick, John Rain has become a new personal favorite character for me to dive into further. While the novel itself can be considered dated, it never detracts from the feel of a realistic thriller, and resonates with technical details and technology even today.

I definitely recommend this to readers for an addictive read with a strong emotional center, complimented by fast-paced action.