With his infant son and the boy's mother in danger, John Rain must travel back to Tokyo for a final showdown with his enemy Yamaoto. He recruits Dox and Delilah to help, as well as old friend Tatsu, who is on his deathbed from cancer.

Rain's relationships with all the characters from previous books grow and become more complicated. As a result, his character has become a little more human and introspective, although still a killer when he has to be.

Great read

I am not sure how Mr. Eisler does it but after the equivalent of binge watching (was the nine reading) his first six books in the series I cannot wait to start the seventh. One of the best reads yet. Highly entertaining.

Nu mi-au plăcut niciodată joburile din locuri noi, necunoscute. Nu ştii cum să intri şi cum să ieşi de acolo fără să fii detectat, nu ştii de ce instrumente vei avea nevoie pentru ţintă, nu ştii unde vei fi expus şi unde vei fi în stare să te contopeşti cu fundalul ori să dispari în mulţime.
tPentru a compensa, încep să studiez zona din exterior, pătrund în ea doar când am aflat cât mai multe detalii şi vin întotdeauna suficient de devreme pentru a mă familiariza cu terenul înainte de a sosi momentul să intru în acţiune. Tactici precum acestea m-au ţinut în viaţă, ba chiar şi rezonabil de prosper, în cei peste douăzeci şi cinci de ani de când mă ocup cu acţiunile în care am fost dintotdeauna cel mai bun.
tDar de data asta pregătirile au fost un act reflex, nu o necesitate. La urma urmelor, nu era un job. Terminasem cu viaţa aceea. Sau aproape că terminasem. Mai exista un ultim amănunt, unul important, însă pe acela nu voiam să-l confrunt deocamdată. Barcelona ar fi trebuit să fie un interludiu – plăcere, nu afaceri, şi era tulburător că o părticică a minţii mele părea să nu înţeleagă deosebirea.
tCu toate acestea, în circumstanţe care ne sunt străine, manifestăm tendinţa de a recurge la rutine, aşa că m-am pomenit utilizându-mi abordarea obişnuită. Ar fi trebuit să fi ştiut mai bine. Barcelona era nefamiliară, dar teritoriul real pe care încercam să navighez nu era marcat pe nici o hartă.

Favorite Rain book so far!!

I just discovered this series and am binging on all thing Rain and Livia Lone....this is so far my favorite of the Rain series. The author does a great job at narrating and the characters are just so real!! Going to the website and seeing the Information and such used for the story is amazing. The tone and description Eisler uses to describe things reminds me a lot of Anthony Bourdain. Love it!

I think this is the 5th book in Eisler's John Rain series. John Rain is a Japanese-American paid assassin. Don't worry, he only kills bad guys... for the most part. This book is as much about his love life as it is about killing, although there's plenty of that, too. In the first book in the series, he becomes involved with a beautiful Japanese pianist named Midori. He was contracted to kill her father before he knew her. When he tells her, she is conflicted. He tries to make it up to her, but in the end, they become estranged. That all happened in the first book. In subsequent books, he becomes involved with Delilah, a beautiful Israeli assassin.

In this book, he learns that Midori has a baby, and that it is likely his. He wants to see her, but a Yakuza boss with a score to settle with Rain, is having her watched. He figures that Rain might try to get in touch with her, and that would give him the opportunity to have Rain killed. But Rain evades the surveillance and manages to talk with Midori, and their old chemistry reasserts itself. But Rain knows that the only way to keep Midori and her son safe is to kill the Yakuza boss. He is joined by Delilah and and old American friend Dox in this endeavor.

There is lots of killing, graphically described. There is sex, too, but not as graphically described. And as I alluded above, there is a lot time spent describing his relationships with the two women, which become very complicated as the story progresses.

This is only the second book I've read in this series, but I like them both. Give it a try.

Barry

Without ruining it for everyone else, I love you and hate you Barry. Seriously, good book and great series so far.

Characters keep progressing

The "Iceman" is definitely back along with Dox and Delilah. Good action. He isn't going to retire.

I listened to the audio book, my first one, and Barry Eisler made a good job reading this book. He plays with the intonation and pitch of his voice to play the different roles in the story. Dox is getting better and I would like to read THE KHMER KIL (a short story about him).

Tatsu gets Rain mixed up with his Yakuza nemesis.
I miss the little natural assassination vignettes.
Rain is still overly sad and paranoid, unwilling to let anyone into his life. Dox is still the funny extrovert. Delilah is getting possessive.

REVIEW OF AUDIOBOOK; APRIL 2, 2017
Narrator: Barry Eisler

I could do without Midori re-entering the scene but this installment still kept my interest despite my dislike of love triangles. I refuse to read them in Romances so there'd be no way I'd tolerate them in my non-romance genre. Two of the 3 always do something dumb and the 3rd (the guy, of course) is always clueless.

What saved this from being a wallbanger (the only reason I miss paperbacks! My Samsung is too precious to take my irritations out on) is that Delilah is totally kickass and together with Dox, they saved the book. Rain is growing on me, finally, but I still have no desire to go back and relisten to the first three books. I peeked at my Kindle books to see how long Delilah lasts and Rain's broken up with by Book 7 - the Detachment.

I'm looking forward to listening toThe Detachment (#7) because Ben Treven and Larison join in. Woohoo!  I love it when it's team action rather than just one lone guy. He's always carrying a ton of baggage and it gets a tad too heavy for me without some team members to help.

Another great addition I'm the John Rain series. I really liked where the character went and to see him continue the shift away from a lone man to someone who is willing to trust others. While it is still a bumpy road for him, it is nice to see the change.