Tokyo by night

“Tokyo Killer” é um thriller protagonizado por um ex-agente secreto dos EUA no Cambodja e Vietname – Jack Rain – um assassino profissional, meio americano, meio japonês; frio, sádico, cruel e desprovido de emoções, mas que tem um singular código de ética: "nada de mulheres ou crianças, nenhuma actividade contra terceiros e nenhum outro fornecedor contratado para resolver o problema em mãos..."
Uma emocionante “história” que tem como cenário a cidade de Tóquio, cosmopolita e exótica, povoada por personagens complexas, maioritariamente violentas, que ostentam códigos de conduta e comportamentos dúbios, fomentando um suspense eficiente, com recurso a inúmeros flashbacks para complementar uma narrativa emocionante e repleta de acção.
Num enredo que assenta, essencialmente, numa vertente política, ligada aos partidos políticos, envoltos numa teia de corrupção generalizada, relacionada com as obras públicas e com a máfia (yakuza) da construção civil; vão surgindo inúmeras personagens, directamente relacionadas com as agências de espionagem, numa tentativa desesperada de influência “emocional” em acções de conspiração e chantagem, para manipulação dos decisores políticos ou da opinião pública.
A escrita de Barry Eisler (n. 1964) é eficiente e simples, com recurso a descrições minuciosas do ambiente “noir” de Tóquio, com chuva persistente e atmosfera obscura, complementada por clubes de Jazz e por motéis de 2º categoria, num relato consistente e revelador de uma sociedade japonesa corrupta e dominada pela tecnologia “high tech”.
Um livro emocionante, sem exageros ou redundâncias…

DNF@ 39% Just not feeling the assassin in Japan thing. This was for the Popsugar challenge.

3.5* A great book.

Добра първа книга!

John Rain is a half-American/half-Japanese assassin who specializes in making his target's deaths look like natural causes. A Clean Kill in Tokyo is #1 in the John Rain series. I had read a later book and wanted to go back and start from the beginning. I believe that A Clean Kill in Tokyo was Barry Eisler's first novel - well done. A thrilling story that keeps the reader fully engaged. About to start #2...

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.

My eldest turned me onto this first of a series thriller over the Christmas holidays and I'm glad she did. Eisler is a soulful writer who takes his readers on an emotional roller coaster in this introduction to the primary antagonist John Rain.

As with most thrillers, this is not Pulitzer Prize or National Book Award material. Nevertheless, "Rain Fall" is a good little read and kept my interest throughout. The setting is unique as I don't recall ever reading anything from this genre that uses the Japanese-American cultural connection as the base premise. It actually works well and helped to solidify this as a series I want to continue reading just to learn more about something I know precious little about.

I can't really say much about the plot without providing spoilers which I always find irritating in a review. I will tell you that if you enjoy any or multiples of the following, you show pick this one up as an airplane, beach, cruise, fireplace read; Japanese culture, Japanese-American culture, Japanese politics, scotch, jazz, Vietnam, the CIA, or the martial arts.

Enjoy!

Read this book on the plane back from Japan yesterday, on a recommendation from a friend.
It's a quite enjoyable thriller about a Japanese-American ex-Vietnam special forces assassin. Very easy to read and hard to put down. Full of references to a lot of things I like - jazz music, whisky, medicine/anatomy, and most especially - Japan. Reading this book after spending a few days in Tokyo really made it come alive for me as the places where the action took place were fresh in my memory. Would definitely recommend it and look forward to checking out the next volume in the John Rain series.

Just couldn't finish

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

Aborted about 20% in. My second time trying to stay with the book. I love the author's narration but this wasn't the action-thriller I was expecting, but a book on living in Japan. The author clearly loves Japan and Japanese culture from what little I listened to but that's not the reason why I bought this. It may turn into a real assassin thriller book but I can't wait that long since I'm already familiar with the people and the culture having many Japanese friends and clients.

First in the series on John Rain, half American, half Japanese, Vietnam war vet, hitman extraordinaire, living and working in Japan.

John starts off with a successful hit, ordered upon a Japanese political figure, and soon finds himself mired in plots from various factions racing to find an encrypted disk of information that said politician was going to hand off.

A jazz and Scotch enthusiast, John finds himself enamored of an up and coming female jazz pianist. Who just happens to be the politician's daughter, much to his surprise. Does she have the disk? Does she know where the disk is? Does she know what's on the disk?

Murder, mayhem, blood, martial arts ensue.

While the author mentions some single malt Scotches in detail, his first references caused some pause as I believe the correct spelling is Caol Ila, not Cao Lila....