John Rain #2

A Lonely Resurrection

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All John Rain wants is to get out of the killing business. But with his discretion, his reliability, and his unique talent for death by "natural causes," no one is willing to let him just retire. So when an old nemesis from the Japanese national police force comes to him with a new job--eliminate Murakami, a killer even more fearsome than Rain himself--Rain knows he can't refuse.

Aided by an achingly desirable half Brazilian, half Japanese exotic dancer he knows he shouldn't trust, Rain pursues his quarry through underground no-holds-barred fight clubs, mobbed-up hostess bars, and finally into the heart of a shadow war between the CIA and the yakuza. It's a war Rain can't win, but also one he can't afford to lose--a war where the distinctions between friend and foe and truth and deceit are as murky as the rain-slicked streets of Tokyo.

"... a superlative job... entertaining and suspenseful enough to keep you turning the pages as fast as your eyes can follow." --Chicago Sun Times

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 14,2003

Series
Literary awards
Places
tokyojapan

About the author

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Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center along the way. Eisler's bestselling thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. Eisler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and, when he's not writing novels, blogs about torture, civil liberties, and the rule of law.
--from the author's website

Series:
* John Rain

Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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100 reviews All reviews
March 26,2025
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Crossroads Choices

John Rain is at a crossroads. He thinks he can get out of the "assassination game" alive and unfettered. But individuals who represent different agendas want him to stay in the Game, but concentrate on their own personal agendas. Each tries a type of coercion that puts the few people he truly cares about in danger. This is why his resurrection is so very lonely. Its setting the scene for team interactions, but whose team will he choose?? Because I learned about Rain through the Livia Lone series I already know he's going to think "outside" the parameters others are setting..but this book doesn't share what choice he's going to make yet. Great setup for next book in series. I'm thoroughly enjoying it...highly recommend it.
March 26,2025
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I'm always looking for new authors to like when I'm at the library.
Last year when I first picked up one of the books from the John Rain series, I thought, "Oh, this is a BOY book! It's going to be full of violence and testosterone and boy gadgets and I probably won't like it."
But the blurb on the back sounded good, so I gave it a try. Well, it IS full of violence and spycraft and so on, but I liked it a lot. Then I had to ration myself so I wouldn't rush through all the Rain books and have nothing to look forward to. There's still one in the middle of the series that I haven't read. I'm saving it for a treat.
March 26,2025
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At first I gave this book a one star because the rating screen came up several pages before the end of the book. I was astonished that I had lost the end of the book, so I gave it one star to record my disappointment. It turns out that I was able to read the last few pages. So I changed my rating. Meanwhile, WTF?
I have read many of the books by this author, and I love them, but removing the end of the book is pretty low, in my opinion. Knock it off!
March 26,2025
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An excellent sequel to A Clean Kill in Tokyo, the first in the John Rain series. Well written with strong narration by the author. The complexity of the story increased a bit over book 1, and more love interests have developed. Many returning characters and the same strong knowledge base of Tokyo and surrounding cities along with Japan's politics and role in international finance. This is not brilliant writing, it's not lyrical writing like Daniel Silva, but it is a consistently solid first person narrative in the life of a paid assassin with some scruples.
March 26,2025
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Love John Rain!

I love the Rain series! I've read them before but it it was great to come back and read this one again. Having lived in Japan for three years it's nice to hear all the places that he goes to. It brings back so many memories. I think that is one of the things I enjoy the most, the attention to the details and the descriptive writing. Also I like that John Rain is such a complex character. He is at times very American and yet he's so Japanese. He can be so heartless and cold, but then he cares too deeply. Great writing! You feel for the main characters.
March 26,2025
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A Lonely Resurrection. Barry Eisler

John Rain is doing a friend a favor. A police official. Other unscrupulous characters come into play. A corrupt CIA chief of station dealing with bureaucrat of questionable integrity to accomplish CIA goals. At the price of having one of his own men terminated. He tries to hire Rain to do it. Then a close friend of Rains is murdered in an attempt to obtain information about him. Revenge is a powerful motivator. Non stop action, intrigue. Another excellent read in this series!!
March 26,2025
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#2 of the Rain series- I am definitely on the fence on this one. First, the good things…Eisler is a master at describing fight scenes so that it’s almost like watching it on a TV screen. He walks thru moves like a color commentator. I enjoy reading about Japan, it’s culture, the language. You would think the author is a native. He is American. What bothers me is what happens with a lot of authors who write series. They don’t give recaps about the history of the series. This is frustrating for those of us who read the previous books long ago and can’t remember what they are about and for those of us who are jumping into the middle. There should be a rule. If you are going to write a series, give us a recap of what has happened before. Eisler’s plot in this book was a bit complicated to follow. I enjoyed the story and I like the main character, I just thought there were parts of the plot that were a bit far fetched. I don’t think I’m going to give up on the series just yet. I like this character and this is the only set of books I have read about Japan.
March 26,2025
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The second John Rain book and the action keeps on rolling. I love the John Rain character, a half American half Japanese killer for hire disillusioned by his time in both cultures. He is a realist and a killer, yet has not lost his humanity or a deepset sense of justice. I really enjoyed how this book piggybacked the end of the first in the series and continued to follow the loose ends left in the first book. The thing that stands out the most for me in Eisler's writing is the descriptive nature of it. His action and plots are as fun and twisting as any action writer, but his descriptions are much more elaborate without being over done. Because it is written in first person, the descriptions are attributed to Rain's character and help to define this enigma of a contract killer
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