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

In "Rainfall", we are introduced to John Rain - a half American, half Japanese assassin. He is a man with morals yet heartless. He is the Samurai of recent times who prefers to be a Ronin . His past is terrible and his future, uncertain. You will enjoy this book for three reasons.

First, John Rain, himself. He is an assassin and not a spy, and there lies the subtle difference. Melancholy is a part of his life and you can actually feel the sadness in his eyes all the time.

Second, an authentic picture of Tokyo. You will explore the places, style and feel of the city which have been brought to life extremely well.

Third, the plot. The corruption, the manipulation, the extraction in high levels of bureaucracy the Rain is thrown into.

Start with this gripping book if you want John Rain as a part of your heart.

The next one to follow up "Rainfall" is "Hard Rain" and I am ordering it immediately after I finish the review.

Eisler’s *Livia Lone* series might be one of my favorite series ever and John Rain showed up in book #3—inspiring me to give these books a shot.

Intriguing first entry, I'm down for more John Rain!

“I wandered the earth a mercenary, daring the gods to kill me but surviving because part of me was already dead."

“The person who returns from living abroad isn't the same person who left originally... Your outlook changes. You don't take things for granted that you used to. For instance, I noticed in New York that when one cab cut off another, the driver who got cut off would always yell at the other driver... and I realized this was because Americans assume that the other person intended to do what he did, so they want to teach the person a lesson. But you know, in Japan, people almost never get upset in those situations. Japanese look at other people's mistakes more as something arbitrary, like the weather, I think, not so much as something to get angry about.”

“People like to say the West is a guilt-based culture, while that of Japan is based on shame, with the chief distinction being that the former is an internalized emotion while the latter depends on the presence of a group.

This is the first I’ve read of this author and I love the John Rain character. He’s an assassin with a good heart; something you can only imagine in a novel.