Rain Storm by Barry Eisler

From the Publisher

John Rain flees to Brazil to find peace-but inevitably finds himself with a new assignment: take out an arms dealer in Southeast Asia.

USA Today - David Montgomery

It is testimony to Eisler's skills that he has created a protagonist who might otherwise be repugnant and made him into a fascinating character with real depth, an intriguing, troubling man, made different from the rest of us by his unique and horrible skills.

Publishers Weekly

Eisler adds a fine new entry to his standout series starring freelance assassin John Rain, who tracks quarry across the Asian capitals of the Pacific Rim. In the third installment (following last year's Hard Rain), Rain is lured out of self-imposed exile in Brazil, where he had hoped to find shelter from the killing business, when his old employer, the CIA, dangles $200,000 his way for the elimination of an Arab arms supplier known only as Belghazi. Rain takes the job, promising himself it will be his last, and travels to Macao, a Portuguese peninsula and islands off the coast of China, to begin tracking Belghazi. But Rain, a meticulous hit man equipped with all the latest gadgetry, hardly hits town before he discovers that not only is another assassin stalking Belghazi but somebody is stalking Rain himself. Rain, who specializes in fatal neck-snapping wrestling holds, makes quick work of all the intruders, but Belghazi, aided by a beautiful woman named Delilah (who knows a lot about killing too), eludes him. The action shifts back and forth between Macao, Hong Kong and Tokyo, each setting rendered in intimately warm detail, before catapulting to a chilling finale in which Rain narrowly escapes bleeding to death on a shipping dock. Along the way, the usually detached hero shows a new dimension-the possible seeds of a fascinating friendship with a fellow hit man, a life-of-the-party type named Dox. The two complement each other like black and white. Yet what truly sets Eisler's series apart is its near total absence of formula and stereotype. Rain is a wholly original, clich -free character operating in a world created only for him, serving as both his folly and his foil. Agent, Nat Sobel. Author tour. (July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Having triumphed in Rain Fall and Hard Rain, John Rain is back-and desperate as ever to get out of the assassin business. But the CIA tracks him down in Brazil and convinces him to take on one more job. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Propulsive thriller plot plays second fiddle to an overarching tactical treatise: How does an assassin go about staying alive while getting the job done? In this third in a series (Hard Rain, 2003, etc.), John Rain, our scrupulous freelance murderer who gives his kills a natural look and whacks no women (well, almost no women) and no children, has an assignment from the CIA to cleanse the world of death merchant Belghazi, a French-Algerian seller of weaponry to the highest bidder, no questions asked. In tinder-crisp prose-Rain is not overly fond of exploring his emotions, though motives are always on his mind-we follow as he prepares for his task in what, given another context, would be considered a police procedural. There are lots of good tips here for the would-be assassin, as when Rain muses " . . . an injection of potassium chloride. I would try for the axillary vein under the armpit, or perhaps the ophthalmic vein in the eye, both hard to detect entry points." (He also vividly details how to fake an autoerotic asphyxiation.) Eisler occasionally sounds too enchanted with his own voice: "I realize these marks are signs, artifacts of lives and moments that were but are no longer, like ashes in an empty hearth, or bones cast aside from some long ago supper, or a tattered shape that might have been a scarecrow in a field grown over with weeds." But there's no denying that this author can bring a wicked martial-arts encounter right into the mind's eye (quite a feat, considering the need for speed and complexity of movement) or that he's surprisingly nimble with his love scenes. As for the background storyline, it is plausible, au courant, and creepy; readers will learn more about roguecommunities than they may want to know. Taut and generally skillful: fans will hope for more Rain in the forecast. Author tour. Agent: Nat Sobel

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