Rain Fall

With Rain Fall, Eisler proves himself a worthy heir to the killer-for-hire sub-genre created by Andrew Vachss, Trevanian, David Morrell, and Eric Van Lustbader.

The book is set in a modern Japan filled with smokey whiskey bars, corrupt politicians, insane gangsters, beautiful jazz singers, plot twists and martial arts. I read it in one sitting. Then I immediately read the sequel, Hard Rain, which is even better.

Rain Fall was named Best Novel of 2002 by Publisher's Weekly, and it's easy to see why. If you like your thrillers tough, honest, and fast-paced, check this series out.


A treat for all readers everywhere   May 3, 2003
David M. Gordon (Las Vegas, NV)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

Barry Eisler mines his personal history (sufficient time spent in Japan to be steeped in its culture and traditions, training in the martial arts, etc) to create RAINFALL, a novel that is a treat for all readers everywhere.

And that knowledge litters this novel. Barry Eisler shares so much understanding of Japan and Japanese culture that this novel is a sheer joy to read. We learn in Chapter 10 of "...sado, the Japanese tea ceremony, [whose] practitioners strive through the practice of refined, ritualized movements in the preparation and serving of tea to achieve wabi and sabi: a sort of effortless elegance in thought and movement, a paring down to the essentials to more elegantly represent a larger, more important concept that would otherwise be obscured." We also learn, in the same chapter, more of John Rain's true nature, as he dispatches with ease, deftness, and an alarming amorality a threat, before continuing his pursuit of other characters, other information... Chapter 10 is itself an excellent fractal representation of the novel, a perfect rendering in writing of sado. Kudos to Eisler, for he achieves throughout this novel 'a sort of effortless elegance in thought and movement...'

A good writer faces difficult choices. To invest so much time and effort to create a fictional landscape and then drop into it real characters - i.e., laced with problems similar to our own so that their decisions and actions are organic, true to character - then only to move on to the next novel and start anew... or mine that fictional world for all that it is worth. Conan Doyle had this problem with Sherlock Holmes, to the point of frustration, of finally killing off Holmes, only to have to resuscitate Holmes after his readers' protestations. Barry Eisler faces a similar problem: how to keep the gold that is this book from a reverse transmutation to lead in subsequent entries, from being too similar to other typical plot-driven suspense and espionage novels. A second novel limning the further trials and tribulations of John Rain arrives in July 2003. I wonder which will triumph: John Rain, the conflicted, real protagonist who inhabits a universe of secrets, betrayals, and bad decisions AND that inspires us to learn more of that culture... or yet another plot-driven thriller, interchageable with most other novels from this genre?

I look forward to HARDRAIN with an equal measure of desire and dread. Nevertheless, I will read it; Barry Eisler's freshman effort is sufficiently superlative that it demands no less. Recommended.


Not your ordinary kung fu-type story   March 25, 2004
H. S. Wedekind (Pennsylvania, USA)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

I am happy to say I enjoyed both RAIN FALL and HARD RAIN by Barry Eisler, though I recommend starting with RAIN FALL. Much of what happened in the first book is alluded to in the second, and this could cause some confusion. If there is such a person as a likeable assassin, then John Rain is the man. He is caught between two cultures (John's father was Japanese and his mother American) and not really a part of either. More of his background is given in HARD RAIN, so this man-caught-in-the-middle character makes a lot of sense when you put together the fragments of his life. Still, Rain is definitely a man of action and the action comes fast and furious in both of these page turners. Even when you know there will be the inevitable showdown between Rain and the bad guy (or one of the good guys who may or not really be one of the bad guys), the plotting is so tense you wonder if he'll survive to make it into another novel by Eisler. It's nice of the author to translate the Japanese his characters speak for the reader and to explain all of the deadly Judo moves they make when fighting. I'm anxiously awaiting the third book in the series.


Been a Spy, Done Japan, This is a Great Tax Write Off   October 11, 2005
Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States)
14 out of 31 found this review helpful


I've been a spy, out from under cover for a long time, and I would not normally have touched this, but my spouse suggested it on a rainy afternoon, and I have to give it four stars because it held my attention and I finished it.

On balance, I would put this between a 3 and a 4, but I gave it a four for coherence. Still, this author is not John Le Carre at his best (George Smiley series).

What I found most interesting, as I read through the book and found connections with both my past and with Japan, was the manner in which the author appears to have found a formula for connecting what he has done in his own past, what he has read about, and what he is presumably writing off on his taxes--comprehensive travel.

I put the book down, not disappointed--I certainly recommend this book to anyone who has not been a spy--but thinking to myself, WOW, this is what I can do when I retire--travel all over the world, write a spy novel with details about each place I visit, and presto, it is all a grand tax write-off.

Professionally speaking the book is way too facile. Planting an audio device is very very tough. The need for line of sight from the transmitter to the receiver kills most applications. Generally speaking, you have to listen for four hours to get five minutes worth of useful stuff. Killer technologies certainly abound, but as CIA found when it tried to kill Castro with exploding cigars, infected dive suits, beard killers, and the bomb-dropping pigeons, generally technology is not the answer.

3 for former spies, 5 for the general public, 4 on balance. Absolutely recommended for a rainy afternoon.


Expect Great Things To Come from Barry Eisler   August 13, 2002
Jon Cavalier (Philadelphia, PA United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

As good as Rain Fall is, the best part came not during the story itself, but on the About the Author section on the back flap of the dust jacket. It states that Mr. Eisler is at work on the second John Rain novel. That's the type of novel this is - you'll immediately be wishing for more as soon as you're done. Rain Fall is one of those rare novels that beg to be read as quickly as possible but will have you wishing you had savored it while you had the opportunity.

The title character, John Rain, half American, half Japanese, is one of the more interesting leads that readers will find. A former Studies and Observations Group (SOG) operative, Rain is highly skilled in covert movement and close range killing. After leaving the military, he set up shop in Japan as a hit man whose specialty is making his victims look as if they have died from natural causes. He has also mastered Judo, adding to his already impressive arsenal. He is both vicious (he kills without compunction), selective (no women), and caring (the book centers around his attempts to protect the daughter of a man he killed.)

Aside from the fantastic John Rain, the plot of the novel is above average as well, as Eisler takes the reader through the underbelly of Japanese urban life, from whiskey bars to love hotels. Rain is contracted to kill a man, which he does in an extremely cool scene with a PDA with pacemaker control software. His next contract is the daughter of the same man, though he finds himself protecting her against several different enemies.

This book has everything a novel should. The violence is well written and choreographed. The romantic involvement between the two main characters is subtle and adds, rather than detracts as is usually the case, from the story. The humor is timely and effective. The plot moves quickly and holds the readers interest and the ending works as well.

I'll be buying and reading everything that Barry Eisler writes for as long as he writes it. This book is that good.