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From Amazon
John Rain, a Japanese American konketsu, or half-breed, learned his lethal trade as a member of the U.S. Special Forces. Although tortured by memories of atrocities he committed in Vietnam, he has become a paid assassin, a solitary man who lives in the shadows and trusts no one, even those who pay extraordinary sums for his ability to make murder look like natural death. But the aftermath of an otherwise routine hit on a government bureaucrat brings Rain to the attention of two men he knows from the old days in Vietnam: a friend who's now a Tokyo cop and an enemy who betrayed Rain long ago and is now the CIA's station chief in Japan. Like the gangster who hired Rain to kill Yasuhiro Kawamura, they want something the dead man had--a computer disk containing proof of high-level corruption, information that could destroy Japan's ruling political coalition. The search for the disk leads them to a woman Rain has come to love, a talented young jazz musician who also happens to be Kawamura's daughter. In this taut, brilliantly paced debut thriller, set in a vividly rendered Tokyo, the author manages an unlikely feat; he earns the reader's sympathy and concern for his protagonist, an amoral assassin who is one of most compelling characters in recent crime fiction. --Jane Adams
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Set in a memorable noir version of Tokyo (jazz clubs, whiskey bars, "love hotels"), Eisler's rich and atmospheric debut thriller winds its way around the city's extensive rail system and its upscale Western boutiques Mulberry, Paul Stuart, Nicole Farhi London, Le Ciel Bleu, J.M. Weston. The author an American lawyer who has lived and worked in Japan brings to life a complex and most interesting hero: John Rain, a hard and resourceful man in his 40s with an American mother, a Japanese father, a childhood spent in both countries and a stretch with Special Operations in Vietnam that literally made him what he is today a highly paid freelance assassin. The book begins with Rain arranging the death (on the subway) of a prominent government figure by short-circuiting his pacemaker and making it look like the man died of a heart attack. But Rain's relatively simple life suddenly becomes very complicated when he finds himself involved both romantically and professionally with the dead man's lovely daughter, Midori, a talented jazz pianist. Formidable adversaries a nasty CIA agent from John's Vietnam days; a right-wing guru who uses Shinto priests as spies and yakuza gangsters as enforcers; a tireless old cop seem intent on exposing Rain and eliminating Midori. There are several excellent action scenes, an amusing and touching young computer nerd who is Rain's only reliable ally and, most of all, an intriguing and intimate evocation of Japan's intense love-hate relationship with America.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
HARRY CUT THROUGH the morning rush-hour crowd like a shark fin through water. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
HARRY CUT THROUGH the morning rush-hour crowd like a shark fin through water. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A seamier side to Tokyo,
By
This review is from: Rain Fall (Mass Market Paperback)
The hero of our story, John Rain, is a former special ops soldier who fought in Vietnam as part of an illegal force in Cambodia now uses the skills he learned in the war as a paid assassin. As a Japanese/American he can move seamlessly between the two cultures and has connections in both. He is hired by Japanese gangsters to kill a government minister who plans to reveal connections between the ruling party and construction industry that regular pays for government contracts. Yasuhiro Kawamura, a long time government minister, is dying and would like to clear his conscience of his wrong-doings not only for his own benefit but also a proclamation of peace with his daughter, an up-and-coming jazz musician. Rain falls in love with the daughter and so must come to terms with his profession and the impact his actions have on its victims. 'Rain Fall' is fast-paced novel with excellent descriptions of Tokyo city plus insights into a level of government corruption that is well-documented and been going on for some time.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book but slow at first,
By Daniel Ruppert (Fort Bragg, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rain Fall (Mass Market Paperback)
This book once it got going kept me until the end. Barry Eisler at times did a little too much detail at times, but since this is the first book in the series I can understand it and know why. Great character development and a great plot. Be prepared to not put it down toward the end chapters as it picks up quickly.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not your ordinary kung fu-type story,
By
This review is from: Rain Fall (Mass Market Paperback)
I am happy to say I enjoyed both RAIN FALL and HARD RAIN by Barry Eisler, though I recommend starting with RAIN FALL. Much of what happened in the first book is alluded to in the second, and this could cause some confusion. If there is such a person as a likeable assassin, then John Rain is the man. He is caught between two cultures (John's father was Japanese and his mother American) and not really a part of either. More of his background is given in HARD RAIN, so this man-caught-in-the-middle character makes a lot of sense when you put together the fragments of his life. Still, Rain is definitely a man of action and the action comes fast and furious in both of these page turners. Even when you know there will be the inevitable showdown between Rain and the bad guy (or one of the good guys who may or not really be one of the bad guys), the plotting is so tense you wonder if he'll survive to make it into another novel by Eisler. It's nice of the author to translate the Japanese his characters speak for the reader and to explain all of the deadly Judo moves they make when fighting. I'm anxiously awaiting the third book in the series.
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