Rain Fall

Rain Fall
by Barry Eisler

List Price: ~~$7.99~~
Our Price: $4.08
You Save: $3.91 (49%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Author: Barry Eisler
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-07-01
ISBN: 045120915X
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Signet

Book Reviews of Rain Fall

Book Review: A Promising Example of Realistic Espionage Fiction
Summary: 3 Stars

Barry Eisler's first novel, "Rain Fall", introduces the audience to John Rain, a protagonist conflicted to the core by his own duality.

Half-Japanese and half-American, Rain finds no genuine comfort or acceptance in either homeland. A former Special Ops superstar in Vietnam turned principled mercenary, he continually wrestles with the hard facts about how he makes his living. From the difficulties growing up in a mixed-race family to the deceptions foisted on him by amoral superiors during his tours of duty, Rain has some pretty heavy baggage and understandable trust issues. When he's on the clock, he is remorseless and efficient - very reminiscent of the low-key intensity of Ian Fleming's early Bond books. Rain's history and its impact on his current decisions are revisited throughout the book and makes for some of the most interesting aspects of the story.

The setting is modern-day Tokyo and you can immediately tell that the author has spent a significant amount of time there. His appreciation of the city and of modern Japanese culture is apparent in the writing and is another strength of the book. The reader follows Rain to judo training schools, underground jazz clubs and backalley whiskey bars as he solves the book's central mystery. There are times where the directions and street names get somewhat heavy; hopefully future Rain books leave out some of this unnecessary roadmap detail.

The story itself is one of true espionage, which will appeal to many while likely turning off readers accustomed to over-the-top action, sexy liaisons and plot twists piled high. The primary tools of Rain's operation are stealth, anonymity, surveillance, and counter-surveillance. As a result, don't hold your breath for a lot of action ready-made for a Summer blockbuster. Suspense is built more subtly as Rain solves the case while fighting to maintain the anonymity that keeps him alive. He winds up caught in the middle of a high-stakes political turf war where alliances are very fluid. When some old names from his past resurface, Rain has no option but to forge a solution to the conflict, but can he find a way to do so on his own terms?

The key action sequences involve a lot of hand-to-hand martial arts, Rain's preferred method. This works well through most of the book, although the ultimate climax is a little flat after all of the built-up tension between Rain and his antagonists.

Eisler's a good wordsmith, especially when describing setting and following Rain's patterns of thought. Sections where Rain examines his own duality in terms of race and morality are particularly well done. Some of the dialogue is a bit stiff, especially between Rain and his female love interest. This may be intentional given the level of solitude that Rain's profession and background enforce upon him. The introduction of Rain's hacker sidekick resulted in some unfortunate meanderings into gadgets and technobabble that hurt the otherwise solid credibility of the story.

Overall, this was a very good first novel for Eisler and his John Rain character. Rain's backstory provides the depth necessary for many more interesting conflicts. Eisler has already gained a solid foothold into the slippery slope of crafting spy fiction that's believable as well as interesting. By the end, this book has set the table for Rain and his core team of occasional confederates. Hopefully, future Rain books continue to build on this promising start.

Write your own review

More Rain Fall reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Summary of Rain Fall

Meet John Rain. Assassin. He follows his own code - he needs no one, trusts no one - until betrayal transforms him from hunter into hunted and loner into loyal friend. Haunted by the past Rain kills to order and leaves no trace, but the death at his hand of an old man has unforeseen complications - and soon Rain is trying to protect not just his carefully preserved anonymity but his own life and those of the people he cares for. A stunning, page-turning reinvention of the hitman thriller, "Rain Fall" marks the introduction of a compelling new series character and major new thriller writing career.

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

Literature & Fiction Books

Book Subjects