Started off a little slow again like book 1. There’s a lot of embellishments, slow talk, getting the lay of the land. However, by page 100 i was sent on a reading spree. I do think there was a huge climax around page 100 and then it kind of dipped and went up and down… I wish it would have been full bore but in all reality, the dips prove this book is written 100% as if this life of John Rain can/could really happen. Not some full blown Hollywood unrealistic movie. Scary.

All right, so I appear to be hunting for a specific character: from Jack Reacher (Lee Child), to Jonathan Quinn (Brett Battles), onto John Rain (Barry Eisler). From ex military, to cleaner, to assassin.

How do we as readers gain empathy for a killer? Simple enough, join John Rain in his voyage from assassin for hire to conscientious killer (kill bad guys) to wanting to get out of the business...but unwilling to leave his perspective of the world (no worries, this transformation takes place across many books, more than enough to satiate the most avid genre reader)

I devoured these books as I did the others above (more to come as I continue hunting). You'll just have to see for yourself.

P.S. If you've read this review, you've read all my John Rain reviews. There are no discrepancies in Eisler's work. Every novel is top notch, provided you share my predilection for this sort of character.

HR

The publisher backed at least 5 John Rain books for publication, and this one has a high enough Goodreads rating that I feel like I missed something.

At one point, a cop and John Rain are talking. The cop asks Rain if he knows what "pride fighting" is.

Normal conversational answer: "The mixed martial art? Sure."

Book answer: "Sure," I said. The Pride Fighting Championship is a mixed martial arts sport, based in Japan, with televised bouts held every two months or so. The idea behind the so-called mixed martial arts, or MMA, is to pit against each other a combination of traditional martial disciplines: boxing, jujitsu, judo, karate, kempo, kung fu, Muat Thai, sambo, wrestling. Audiences for Pride competitions have been growing steadily since the sport was founded, along with King of the Cage..." And long after I've drifted off, it just. keeps. going.

It felt like a paranoid Joe Friday having a conversation with himself that was frequently interrupted with extended exposition or Japanese to unnecessarily translate. I frequently fell asleep during the first 127 pages before giving up entirely.

Second book that I have read in this series and this novel did not let me down after a great first novel.

John Rain remains the quintessential assassin who manages to protect his anonymity, kill the bad guys, work out who those bad guys are, slowly building a group around him that he trusts - all while finding time for the odd romantic liaison!

Eisler has created a great character in John (and Tatsu - love that relationship) and I personally am glad I have the next 4 novels in the series awaiting me in my library!