Hard Rain – Barry Eisler – Book 9 for 2015

It’s been a while since I visited Japan and the world of assassin John Rain. In fact it’s been so long that I have forgotten most of what happened in Rain Fall, Book 1 of the Barry Eisler series, when I started Hard Rain Book 2 in the series. What I didn’t forget was that the half-American, half Japanese Rain was a killer and a good one. What he is particularly good at is making his hits look like the victim died of  “natural causes” I also remembered that he has rules, no children, no one else is involved except rain and his client, and the victim has to be a principal, someone of importance!

When Hard Rain opens John Rain has left his Tokyo home for Osaka and is considering getting out of the business. But a former nemesis from the Japanese FBI, Tatsu doesn’t want him to retire, in fact, Tatsu has a job for him. The hit is on an assassin at large, who unlike Rain has no rules and kills indiscriminately.  Before Rain will take the job though, he goes to Tokyo to determine how difficult the hit will be. When Rain arrives in Tokyo he meets with his friend, a hacker, named Harry. Harry has a new girlfriend that seems way out of Harry’s league and that doesn’t sit well with Rain. Rain’s first assumption is that someone is setting Harry up, as he investigates he discovers Harry is also being followed,,,,,, soon Rain is sucked back into the world of violent criminals, and US government officials. The hit may be the most difficult  that Rain had ever faced and the deadliest!!!

John Rain is one of those characters that I would never like in real life, but hey, when he is going up against the Japanese underworld, and shifty CIA agents I’m going to root for the guy! He’s loyal to his few friends and he knows his job, as does Barry Eisler. Eisler does a great job of making Tokyo come alive and the descriptions of Japanese culture, the fights and surveillance tactics were great. The one thing that did bother me  was that Rain dispatched more people than I thought necessary, Not that they didn’t need it!

Bottom Line: Hard Rain is a solid four stars (really liked it). I like John Rain and will continue to read the series, which is now up to book 8. I book 6 Requiem for an Assassin is on my TBR shelves but I do think I will try to read the books in order! I  also hope I can shorten the time between visits with Mr. Rain!

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