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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!!

#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.

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

Solid action and suspense will look to read the 3rd JR.

A contract killer who makes his deaths look like natural accidents was the premise. It was snappily written and I was happily hooked from the opening page. The main protag prepares for his jobs well, isn't saved by flukes, and has a complicated relationship with people on both sides of the law. I liked the japanese terms littering the book; from studying the language, and living in the country they felt like they flowed naturally and it was a nice reminder for me personally :) Although there were a couple of mispellings. E.g. oichii - instead of oishii for delicious/tasty.

A good solid read.

John Rain, der Auftragsmörder mit Gewissen, wird genötigt, wieder ein paar Leute ableben zu lassen, so dass es aussieht, als wären diese eines natürlichen Todes gestorben.

Das japanische FBI ist involviert, die CIA, die Yakuza, und so kommen sich die Interessen etwas in die Quere. Einige sterben, meist die richtigen, aber eben nicht immer. Rain geht auf Rachefeldzug und entledigt sich noch ein paar mehr.

Das tönt jetzt alles ziemlich banal, ist aber in seinen Actionszenen richtig gut geschrieben. Meist Close Quarter Combat statt Kugel und Long Distance, und in einem Setting, das recht nahe an der Realität liegt.

Eisler versucht manchmal zu fest, Glaubwürdigkeit mit vielen Worten und intelligent tönenden Sätzen aufzubauen. Funktioniert teilweise, aber wird auch ermüdend. Ausserdem sind die zwei Sexszenen zum überspringen.

Alles andere ist gelungene Action in Japan. Hat Spass gemacht!

John Rain goes up against organized crime in Tokyo and the CIA also gets involved.

There finally seems to be some self-reflection for the John Rain character in this book, which makes me think there may be a little evolution from the cold blooded killer of the first book. The three significant people in his life, police chief Tatsu, love interest Midori, and faithful sidekick Harry all play a roll in this evolution.

I look forward to John Rain #3.