Eisler has written yet another winner: beautifully crafted, yet gruesome, down and dirty. Written in 2004, RAIN STORM is his 3rd novel and 3rd John Rain adventure. Rain is a half-Japanese, half-American spy, working in secret for the CIA and also for himself. In his world, you can never trust anyone...even a close friend or closer female acquaintance of which he has many.

Eisler has a unique 'way with words' and an intriguing way of spinning his yarns full of intrigue, making RAIN STORM a graphic masterpiece. From the beach in Rio, to Macao, to Hong Kong to Kowloon, John Rain brings fatal justice to those his bosses want dead, whether friend or foe.

Barry Eisler has written a perfect story of the dangerous underworld of spies.

I like John Rain. I like the action. His enemies are interesting. His allies are too. I like the women in his life and how those relationships offer a different view of him and his work.

What I don't like is how complicated his plots can be - or at least how complicated Eisler wants us to think they are. Solving the double-cross, triple-cross, quadruple-cross, etc., is more exasperating than fun. It feels more like an Eisler conceit than a required plot element.

I'm going to read installment No. 4. And I am going to hope for more of Rain, of action, enemies and girlfriends and for fewer mindbenders. That might be where a decision on No. 5 (is there a No. 5?) turns.

HH

The third installment of the John Rain series kept up the momentum from the first two. It was full of action, fast-paced, and fun to read. Getting to know Dox as a character was a blast, too. I hope to see him again. I also hope to see more of Delilah. There are so many very interesting characters being thrown into the mix.

I also appreciated that this book was the first to truly acknowledge John's age. The book was published in 2004, and John fought in Vietnam. That doesn't necessarily mean that he's elderly, but he's certainly not necessarily a spring chicken either.

In any event, I haven't breezed through a series of books like this in a long time, so this is a really fun change of pace for me. I can't wait to start book four.

Four out of five stars.

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However interesting, this one felt more dull and with worse pacing than the previous two. Some standard recipes keep coming back into the books so far and repeating. Hoping the series take a fresh turn

Another great John Rain book

I have been reading the John Rain books for the first time and have really enjoyed all of them . Good suspense, great characters, and some excellent humor now and then sprinkled in make thus series a real pleasure!

This book is called Rain Storm; I find many books retitled to include the name Rain and wish both titles were included in the list. That being said I enjoyed it so much - especially since it had been awhile since I had read Barry Eisler. I've decided to read them in order and recommend it. Once again John is tasked with taking out a bad guy, but this time he is reunited with a buddy from their war days and I see this becoming a good future pairing. Stayed up late when the action got heavy and the ending didn't disappoint. I usually don't like a lot of love relationships mixed up in my thrillers but this time they were interesting. The first two books in this series are titled Rain Fall and Hard Rain, this one the third and the next is Killing Rain. At that point the name changes seem to stop.

This series has been a guilty pleasure, but this one didn't hold my interest very well and took me far too long to finish.

If you've been following the series to this point, you know exactly what's going to happen once things kick off. These books are a mix of the protagonist verbosely describing mundane aspects of spycraft or city travelogue, someone getting brutally murdered for "crossing a line", pining after a girl that got away but not really - and the bad guys getting summarily dispatched while the protagonist narrowly escapes death. Repeat.

It was a fun ride while the novelty lasted, but I think I'm done with this series.

Another excellent installment of the John Rain series. This time John is tracked down and given a job. He soon finds he has competition and gets the feeling that his own people may be in on this job, and not to help him. Trust issues abound and John must pick and choose who and when to trust. Will his latest job get the best of him? Will he finally be able to walk away? I must say that this protagonist has the best ways to do someone in and he makes killing people an art form. I truly enjoyed this installment of the Rain series and look forward to the next.

Having just finished the previous novel, I couldn't wait to start this one!

It follows on nicely and I liked the plot of this one, as well as the introduction of the character, Dox. Eisler is slowly building a group of "supporters" around John which allows the John character to further develop - though I am also personally hoping that he can find a way to "go off the radar" again! Like all good assassins!!!

Bring on the next one!

Gostei do livro.
As descrições dos cenários levam o leitor a acreditar ter estado mesmo lá; o personagem principal, por mais cruel, insensível e solitário que seja, obriga-nos a adorá-lo; o enredo é interessante, se bem que se pudesse ter revelado mais surpreendente. Esperava uma reviravolta mais emocionante no final; esperava uma personagem mais forte e traiçoeira no que toca à Delilah – a espiã israelita com que John se depara no decorrer da sua missão. Foi bom, só não achei suficiente – podia ter sido bastante melhor. A organização do texto podia, também, ter sido feita de outra maneira: capítulos mais curtos teriam tornado a leitura menos cansativa.

Winner Take All is a thriller written by Barry Eisler, about fictional character John Rain, a paid CIA assassin.

This is the third book in a series that I have read. In this book Rain has been hired to kill (retire) Belghazi an arms dealer. The reason he has been selected for this assignment is that he specializes in making a murder look like the person died of natural causes. Rain has tracked Belghazi to Macau, which is part of China and is sought of setup like Hong Kong. It is often called the Las Vegas of China. Belghazi is thought to be there to gamble. Rain also has the advantage of fitting in with the locals being the son of an America white women and a Japanese father and inherited he mostly Japanese features. Further, he has enhanced those features to look more Japanese by virtue of plastic surgery.

Belghazi normally has at least two bodyguards and is traveling with an attractive woman, Delilah. Rain focuses on how to gain access to subject. Rain was hired by Kanezaki, a CIA officer. Kanezaki is a Japanese-American, third generation. He knows Rain and is fully cognizant of his ruthlessness.

Rain had been living in Brazil after an assignment in Japan. It took him a while to blend in with the locals even though he had chosen an area that had a large Japanese population. This was difficult because he did not really have background that was similar to others and he had to learn Portuguese, the official language of Brazil. Another CIA operative, Dox, had tracked him down for the Agency.

Rain came face to face with Delilah in a failed attempt to take out Belghazi in his hotel room. She did not let Belghazi or his bodyguards know of his presence which made him think that she was not who or what she was thought to be.

There are a lot of twists and turns in the action fiction. The characters are well developed and I was kept guessing at what would happen next. I really enjoyed this book and plan to continue reading the series.

It is pretty bizarre to like an assassin, but John Rain is so smart and observant you can't help but like him. Fortunately, like those who Arnold Schwarzenegger's character killed in "True Lies," Rain's victims were "all bad."