Killing Rain by Barry Eisler

From the Publisher

Samurai assassin John Rain returns in the national bestseller.

John Rain has a new employer, the Mossad, which wants him to fix a "problem" in Manila. And a new partner, Dox, whose good-ol'-boy persona masks a sniper as deadly as Rain himself. He also has a new hope: that by using his talents in the service of something good, he might atone for all the lives he has already taken. But when Rain's conscience causes him to botch an assignment, he finds himself as the Mossad's next target...

Entertainment Weekly

...what makes Rain worthwhile is the story's mostly first-person perspective: Even robotic vigilantes have a human side. B+

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Eisler's taut and compelling fourth thriller to feature John Rain (after 2004's Rain Storm), the freelance assassin's latest employer, Israeli intelligence, has sent him and his longtime associate, Dox, to Manila to kill weapons dealer Manheim Levi. Just as Rain is about to make his move, however, Levi's young son suddenly appears on the scene; Levi's bodyguards wind up shot while Levi and his son escape. The dead bodyguards turn out to be ex-CIA; and Jim Hilger, the renegade Company man with whom they were also working, is upset enough to ask his own specialists to exact revenge. Trying to find a way to complete his mission, Rain contacts Delilah, a fellow intelligence agent with whom he's been involved. But her Mossad colleagues, who have lost their trust in Rain's reliability, are setting up their own plan to take care of him. The plot has enough twists and turns to satisfy, and Eisler is an adept hand at pacing and suspense. The dialogue generally rings true, though the switching back and forth between first- and third-person narrative can be distracting. Various exotic Asian locales add to the appeal. Agent, Nat Sobel. 20-city author tour. (June 23) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Trying to assuage a guilty conscience by lending his unique talents to a good cause, expert assassin John Rain begins working for the Mossad-and soon finds himself running from his bosses and the CIA. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Freelance assassin Rain, now an established presence on the thriller scene (Rain Storm, 2004, etc.), confronts both menace and morality. "Killing isn't the hard part . . . Christ, an ape could do it. Getting close to the target, though, that takes some talent." Rain has that talent in abundance, especially when the death has to look natural. Here, he's hired by the Israelis to extinguish a national who is selling his designer-bomb-making talents to terrorist networks. The hitch is that the target may be a CIA asset, and the Israelis don't want to incur the agency's wrath, so they need an unaffiliated party to do the job. But Rain's best-laid plans unravel when a child enters the assassination scene-he won't harm women or children-and the Israelis come stalking him, afraid he'll expose their intentions and anger their American benefactors. The action sequences are straightforward, with plenty of nitty-gritty tactical material for those who enjoy special ops work, while Eisler never clutters his story with red herrings or circuitous plotlines. Still, for the first time in any extended fashion, he makes Rain take stock of his vocation. He kills truly heinous figures for a living, but he starts to wonder why his solutions always involve violence. His brand of nihilism is beginning to taste like ashes in his mouth, and the line is blurring between his acts and those of the madmen he's hired to whack. Eisler doesn't burden the story with these musings, but lets them pass like a veil over the action. And plenty of good action there is, involving Rain's old friends Dox, his ex-Marine sniper friend, and Delilah, the honey-pot agent for the Israeli secret service, both returning to give Rain evenmore of a human face. A thriller as straight as an arrow, even when mildly deflected by the winds of conscience. The ending leaves much unanswered, so, thankfully, expect more Rain. Author tour

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