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A review by tani
Rain Fall by Barry Eisler
4.0
I almost never read books like this, but I've had it on my shelf for an age, so it was time. I think I picked it up at a lawn sale way back in the day, perhaps because it was set in Japan? I honestly don't remember the reasoning.
Anyway, this is a thriller/mystery about a former US Special Operative named John Rain. He's half-Japanese, and has been living in Japan since leaving the service. He puts up a front as a consultant on imports, but is actually a mercenary/assassin specializing in natural-looking deaths. The story starts when he's given an assignment to kill a politician, which he executes. However, something about the case seems off, and he soon finds himself entangled with the daughter of the man he's just killed. The plot thickens from there.
I picked this up expecting to read the first few chapters, find myself disinterested, and dnf it. To my surprise, I found myself enjoying it instead! I liked the details about the setting, and I think that was a big draw at first. I'm really interested in Japan, and have visited several times, but seeing it through this book was really fascinating. I didn't know a lot of the things that I found out from this book, from corruption in the government to the setting itself. It is fiction, so I'll take it with a grain of salt, but it certainly all seemed plausible.
I also really enjoyed the details of Rain's work. It's described in fairly meticulous detail, and since I don't read a lot of books like this one, I found myself fascinated by the processes involved. I definitely can't imagine living in such a state of heightened paranoia myself, but it was really interesting to read about.
Then, as the book progressed, I found myself liking John Rain. He's a hard man to understand at first, but I thought the book did an admirable job with giving him hidden depths, and I found his experiences at war to be very interesting, if not a little depressing. I even liked the romance between him and Midori, which I expected to be thoroughly put off by.
I'm shocked to say this, but I actually think I would like to continue on with the series. The ending of the book did a great job of setting up the rest of the series, and I'm really intrigued to see where things go from here.
Anyway, this is a thriller/mystery about a former US Special Operative named John Rain. He's half-Japanese, and has been living in Japan since leaving the service. He puts up a front as a consultant on imports, but is actually a mercenary/assassin specializing in natural-looking deaths. The story starts when he's given an assignment to kill a politician, which he executes. However, something about the case seems off, and he soon finds himself entangled with the daughter of the man he's just killed. The plot thickens from there.
I picked this up expecting to read the first few chapters, find myself disinterested, and dnf it. To my surprise, I found myself enjoying it instead! I liked the details about the setting, and I think that was a big draw at first. I'm really interested in Japan, and have visited several times, but seeing it through this book was really fascinating. I didn't know a lot of the things that I found out from this book, from corruption in the government to the setting itself. It is fiction, so I'll take it with a grain of salt, but it certainly all seemed plausible.
I also really enjoyed the details of Rain's work. It's described in fairly meticulous detail, and since I don't read a lot of books like this one, I found myself fascinated by the processes involved. I definitely can't imagine living in such a state of heightened paranoia myself, but it was really interesting to read about.
Then, as the book progressed, I found myself liking John Rain. He's a hard man to understand at first, but I thought the book did an admirable job with giving him hidden depths, and I found his experiences at war to be very interesting, if not a little depressing. I even liked the romance between him and Midori, which I expected to be thoroughly put off by.
I'm shocked to say this, but I actually think I would like to continue on with the series. The ending of the book did a great job of setting up the rest of the series, and I'm really intrigued to see where things go from here.