Created by Barry Eisler
Poor JOHN RAIN. He seems to be the ultimate divided man. Child of an American mother and a Japanese father, he’s a konketsu (a “half-breed”), a man of honour who kills for a living, a soldier/assassin, samurai/ronin. He’s hard and disciplined, but also haunted and paranoid as hell. He learned his trade as a member of the U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam, and is still bothered by memories of those years, and the crimes he committed. Yet he makes his living killing people.
Go figure.
Rain lives his life of “meticulously planned anonymity” in a noirish version of Tokyo that’s more than a littler familiar to moviegoers who’ve seen Bladerunner or Black Rain. Tormented by his past, ambivalent and conflicted by his present, he trusts no one. But that — and worrisome attention to detail — allows him to thrive in his particular field of expertise, that of the paid hit that doesn’t look like a hit; making murder look like death by “natural causes.”
Along the way, Rain’s accumulated a string of acquaintances, both friend and foes, many of whom have appeared inter own books. Meanwhile, most of the books have been re-issued, often with new titles.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author Barry Eisler is an American lawyer who spent three years in a covert position with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. After leaving the CIA, he lived and worked in Japan, where he earned his black belt from the Kodokan International Judo Center. The Rain novels have been translated into nearly twenty languages. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
THE LATEST?
In August 2025, Barry Eisler announced that the ever-expanding John Rain series was being adapted for Apple TV+. There have been a few attempts to bring Rain to the screen before — notably a feature film by Barrie Osborne, Oscar-winning producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and a television series with Keanu Reeves as Rain, but neither came to pass. Eisler, however, seems genuinely excited about this one, and given AppleTV+’s success with similarly darker-themed and crime-related material (cf: Slow Horses, Black Bird, Dope Thief, etc.), I am as well. This could be killer.
UNDER OATH
- “(Rain Fall has) got it all: dazzling plot, deft characterization, beaucoup originality. You should dig it.”
— James Ellroy - “If Quentin Tarantino ever got to take a crack at the James Bond franchise, chances are (the result) would resemble Eisler’s novels.”
— Entertainment Weekly
NOVELS
- Rain Fall (2002; aka “A Clean Kill in Tokyo”) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- Hard Rain (2003; aka “A Lonely Resurrection,” “Blood from Blood”) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- Rain Storm (2004; aka “Winner Take All,” “Choke Point”) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- Killing Rain (2005; aka “Redemption Games,” “One Last Kill”) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- The Last Assassin (2006; aka “Extremis”) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Requiem for an Assassin (2007; aka “The Killer Ascendant”) | Buy this book. Kindle it!
- The Detachment (2011) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Graveyard of Memories (2014) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- Zero Sum (2017) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- The Killer Collective (2019) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
SHORT STORIES
- “Paris is a Bitch” (2011) | Kindle it!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
