In Barry Eisler's a Clean Kill in Tokyo (aka Rain Fall), the first instalment in the John Rain thriller series, this would hook you on the first page and keep you in suspense right to the end. John Rain is a half-Japanese, half-American assasin, who's speciality was giving his victims "natural causes." It all started when he went after his mark on the subway in Japan and gave him a "heart attack" in Tokyo. Then he gets involved with Midori, a beautiful jazz pianist in a band. When while he tried to get one stop ahead of the people before him, he later learns that she's at risk of being targeted. It had something to do with her father's death and the disk he kept in the special pouch. Between them, they discover what lurks in the dark for them in their past and to get to know each other better. John sets out to meet a journalist who had met with Midori's father before he died, and what was special about the disk. Hot on the trail, they were people who were out to get John and Midori and didn't want the disk to be uncovered and exposed. In a heated moment, Rain went up against William Holtzer, an evil man who wantds to see him dead. But not if he could see to it first, when he's apprehended and what's really on the disk, when everything about John's existence had to be erased and to end his love affair with Midori.

I'm a little torn because 3 stars might indicate I like the book when it would be more accurate to say I don't intensely dislike it, thus 2. There are some interesting parts in this read. Unfortunately between these parts there a long sections that are not only fairly uninteresting but often have little or nothing to do with the story.

There are sections like "the surveillance was going nowhere so..." and we get a section where he sits in a coffee shop and "remembers". We need you see to get an insight into the protagonist and how he became an assassin.

In these flashback/ memories we pretty much find that our protagonist John Rain (hereafter referred to as JR) is scarred by his past. He was scarred by the loss of his father which ended his life of security. This is a little odd because we also find he was scarred before this by the bullies he met (in America and in Japan) who beat him up because he was of mixed parentage (Japanese and American if you hadn't put that together). Later while he's in the service he's scarred by the death of his mother. He is of course scarred by the "loss" of his best friend...who before he was his best friend was one of the bullies who beat JR up. Need I go on? He's scarred by betrayal, he's scarred by disillusionment...this is one scarred dude.

So I put up with the stories and the memories. I put up with the endless lists of Tokyo's streets, cafe's, restaurants, shops and businesses that we get during his "tailing and surveillance exploits". I put up with his internal monologs and soliloquies. I put up with dialogs and conversations that had little or nothing to do with what was supposed to be the stories plot...yes and I put up with his stumbling into a love/romance interest.

The story is slow moving, disjointed and (I don't think) all that well told with only moments of interest that mostly gave me the "might have been" feeling I've found in other books.


So...2 stars. I don't suppose I really hated the book, but I never really found it that interesting.


Just a thought. For a book about a freelance assassin this book has very little action. When the book opens we are told what he's been doing, see him finish the job that sets up the story which is supposed to be more one of intrigue than action. But I don't really think it works on either level. The book ends leaving the feeling that the entire thing was simply a set up for what's to come.

I wish I'd liked it more, but I didn't. I probably won't follow it up.

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.

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.

I read this book because Amazon Prime First Reads gave me a choice of 6 books to read for free and I chose #10 in this series without realizing it was part of a series... This book was very hard for me to get into but thankfully it picked up about halfway through. I don't know why the author thought he had to put so much Japanese and translations of the Japanese into the book as it was really quite annoying and unnecessary. If you want to learn about Japan and learn some Japanese words/phrases, you might value that kind of thing but I don't feel it added to the story at all. Personally, if I hadn't already accidentally read half of Book 10, I probably wouldn't continue with this series, but I will just so Book 10 will make better sense as it seems to be a decent story.

I've been wanting to read this series, but so much time has gone by I realized I needed to reread this book. Unfortunately, I don't remember it at all.

Now I know why. Too much angst. While the rest of the series is supposed to be good, I really don't want to read another right now. Otherwise, my review remains the same, although I'm dropping this to 3 stars.

October2012 Review: 4 stars - A pretty good mystery & thriller, although there's a bit too much angst for me. Reminds me of David Morrell's characters a lot in that way. Good, but not inhumanely so. Rain gets his ass handed to him occasionally & there's nothing magical about his situations or solutions. Good logic. There weren't any of the huge plot holes that so often accompany books of this sort. Also, it's the start of a pretty good series. I actually read the 3d book first & didn't have any trouble going back to this one or enjoying that one.

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...

AWESOME!! I really enjoyed this book. I read it via audio, and absolutely

#25 - 2010.

Recommended by Matt. American born, half-Japanese, John Rain is a professional hit man with a strict set of rules for his targets: no women or children, only principles in a dispute. He specializes in "natural causes" deaths and has just pulled one off while giving us a bit of back story. Interestingly as the story goes on through fascinating twists and turns, we are not asked to find John a sympathetic character. We learn more of his story so that his life's work makes more sense but the character does not work to become likable. I like that since he's a hit man ... seems more "real" that way. Although he seems so American in his thinking that i tend to forget he looks Japanese and sometimes have to remind myself and "fix" my mental picture when that is important to the story, as it sometimes is.

I really liked this one, especially the intrigue and hitman stuff. Once the story shifted to become about one particular piece of evidence, it became more about the action. Reading about fights isn't as exciting as watching or participating, so it became a bit mundane. Other than that, it was a good read. I'll be adding the entire series.

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.

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.