Enthusiastic publishers around the world have become enthralled by John Rain, a strikingly fresh new thriller hero destined to be one of the most talked-about of the season. Born of an American mother and a Japanese father, Rain is a businessman based in Tokyo, living a life of meticulously planned anonymity. There are few who know who he is or what he does. Trained by the U.S. Special Forces and a veteran of Vietnam, he is a cool, self-contained loner-and he has built a steady business over the past twenty-five years specializing in death by natural causes.
After the assassination of a government official in a crowded subway car, Rain's carefully ordered world comes under siege. Agents within and without the international intelligence communities have been circling him for some time and, having connected him to the subway incident, may now have the scent they have been seeking. At the same time, Rain is drawn outside his private world by an alluring jazz pianist, the dead man's daughter, who is the key to the very secrets her father was trying to reveal when he died.

Author Biography: Barry Eisler is an American lawyer who has lived and worked extensively in Japan. He is at work on a second novel featuring John Rain.

Set in a memorable noir version of Tokyo (jazz clubs, whiskey bars, love hotels), Eisler's rich and atmospheric debut thriller winds its way around the city's extensive rail system and its upscale Western boutiques -- Mulberry, Paul Stuart, Nicole Farhi London, Le Ciel Bleu, J.M. Weston. The author -- an American lawyer who has lived and worked in Japan -- brings to life a complex and most interesting hero: John Rain, a hard and resourceful man in his 40s with an American mother, a Japanese father, a childhood spent in both countries and a stretch with Special Operations in Vietnam that literally made him what he is today -- a highly paid freelance assassin. The book begins with Rain arranging the death (on the subway) of a prominent government figure by short-circuiting his pacemaker and making it look like the man died of a heart attack. But Rain's relatively simple life suddenly becomes very complicated when he finds himself involved both romantically and professionally with the dead man's lovely daughter, Midori, a talented jazz pianist. Formidable adversaries -- a nasty CIA agent from Rain's Vietnam days; a right-wing guru who uses Shinto priests as spies and yakuza gangsters as enforcers; a tireless, old cop -- seem intent on exposing Rain and eliminating Midori. There are several excellent action scenes, an amusing and touching young computer nerd who is Rain's only reliable ally, and, most of all, an intriguing and intimate evocation of Japan's intense love-hate relationship with America.

Forecast: Widespread international interest in Eisler's debut (rights already sold in Brazil, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the U.K.) indicates the cosmopolitan appeal of the book; a blurb from James Ellroy suggests its popular potential. This could be the first installment in a hit series -- Eisler is already working on a sequel.

Categories:

• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
  
  
  • Thrillers & Suspense
    
    
    • Spies & Politics
      • Espionage