The Khmer Kill: A Dox Short Story (Kindle Single) [Kindle Edition]

Barry Eisler (Author)

Book Description

To celebrate a great partnership, Thomas & Mercer and I are coordinating a limited-time sale of all my titles. For three days only, every one of my stories except The Detachment -- self-published, T&M-published, novels, short works, fiction and non fiction -- is on sale for only 99 cents. Only in the Kindle Store, and only on May 24, 25, and 26. Been thinking about acquiring the entire Rain backlist in digital? This is your chance to do it for less than a buck a book. Get 'em while you can!
For former Marine sniper Dox, a long-range hit in Cambodia was supposed to be just business as usual. But when you find yourself mixed up with rogue intelligence operations, gorgeous bar girls, and the world's worst human-trafficking heart of darkness, business is anything but usual. And making it personal is the most dangerous business of all.

The Khmer Kill is approximately 15,000 words, or about 65 pages in paper. It is a short story, not a novel.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

I get a lot of questions about when these short stories take place among the various novels I've written.  The short answer is, it doesn't really matter -- everything I write is designed to be read as a standalone story.  But for anyone who's still concerned about mapping out a timeline, The Khmer Kill takes place sometime after the events of The Detachment.  Enjoy.

About the Author

Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center along the way. Eisler's bestselling thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. The first book in Eisler's assassin John Rain series, Rain Fall, is now a minor motion picture (kidding, it's reasonably major) starring Gary Oldman. To learn more, please visit www.barryeisler.com. Or Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter.

Product Details

• File Size: 254 KB
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (May 31, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008674IA2
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,844 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #3 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Anthologies
  • #13 in Kindle Store > Kindle Singles > Fiction
  • #21 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Brief romp with Dox and bar girls..fast paced and fun May 31, 2012

By Oregon Elle

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Not able to sleep last night, I was reading my email and came across, via Barry Eislers fan club/ blog that he' just released a kindle version of a new short story about my favorite character in Eisler's "John Rain" series, Dox. Since I became hooked on audio books last year, I've purchased all of the Rain series and have grown to appreciate Eislers narration of his characters, especially Dox. Thus I was able to "hear" Eisler read the short story, especially with Dox's accent and attitude..well it was a real winner to help pass a sleepless night.

I don't write spoilers in reviews so I won't go into details however the plot, brief as it is, is well constructed and flows along nicely, with sufficient action to keep me interested. It takes place in the current era, however there are occasional flashes to Dox's Vietnam war era.

The short story fleshes out the character of Dox, that charming rascal, and nicely introduces several antagonists as well as a couple of women protagonists who are attracted and helpful to Dox during the course of the story...

...for less than $3.00 it's a winner.

I also encourage those fans of Barry Eislers series to check out an audio book in the series. ...my personal favorite narrators are Brian Nishii who read books 1 & 3, Scott Brick who read book 6, and Eisler himself who has nicely taken over reading his own books.
If you haven't been exposed to audio books, do your self a treat and try a few excellent ones out.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dox takes a turn in a lead role May 31, 2012

By William Ockham

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Another a typically tightly wound thriller from Eisler. One of the best things about the digital revolution in publishing is the return of short form fiction (and non-fiction). Eisler is taking full advantage of this new found freedom from the tyranny of form to create a richer, deeper, and more vibrant world for John Rain and his compatriots. In this installment, Dox, Rain's sometime comrade-assassin-in-arms, takes a job in Phnom Penh, but, as is usually the case in the murky underworld that Eisler's characters inhabit, something smells a bit fishy about the whole setup. Dox, the nowhere nearly as dumb as he lets on former Marine, has to figure out what it is before he ends up as the patsy in a classic Eisler "ripped from what would be the headlines if our press weren't government lapdogs" plot.

If you are a fan of Eisler's work, you owe it to yourself to get this story. If you aren't familiar with Eisler, this is an excellent way to start. Just be prepared to buy the rest, because you will be hooked.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Overpriced! June 3, 2012

By Seth Hettena

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Let me start off by saying that I am a big John Rain fan. I've read all the books, even the short story and Dox is a great character in those books. The Khmer Kill doesn't measure up. Not even close, and frankly, I'm surprised by all the glowing reviews.

Paris Is a Bitch, the Rain-Delilah short story, worked well because of the tension between the two main characters. The Khmer Kill is loaded with paragraphs of dialogue where Eisler vents his politics. The characters aren't fleshed out, there's no context to anything, and we have no stake in any of the action. When the climax finally arrives, all we can say is "Is that all there is?"

There's some serious grade inflation going on here due to Eisler's celebrity. If this had been written by a no-name author, it would have received the rating it deserves. I thought I was getting a great deal for the amount ($2.99) I paid. Turned out it was too much.

More About the Author

A Note On The New Titles

Why have I changed the titles of the Rain books? Simply because I've never thought the titles were right for the stories. The right title matters--if only because the wrong one has the same effect as an inappropriate frame around an otherwise beautiful painting. Not only does the painting not look good in the wrong frame; it will sell for less, as well. And if you're the artist behind the painting, having to see it in the wrong frame, and having to live with the suboptimal commercial results, is aggravating.

The sad story of the original Rain titles began with the moniker Rain Fall for the first in the series. It was a silly play on the protagonist's name, and led to an unfortunate and unimaginative sequence of similar such meaningless, interchangeable titles: Hard Rain, Rain Storm, Killing Rain (the British titles were better, but still not right: Blood from Blood for #2; Choke Point for #3; One Last Kill for #4). By the fifth book, I was desperate for something different, and persuaded my publisher to go with The Last Assassin, instead. In general, I think The Last Assassin is a good title, but in fairness it really has nothing to do with the story in the fifth book beyond the fact that there's an assassin in it. But it was better than more of Rain This and Rain That. The good news is, the fifth book did very well indeed; the bad news is, the book's success persuaded my publisher that assassin was a magic word and that what we needed now was to use the word assassin in every title. And so my publisher told me that although they didn't care for my proposed title for the sixth book--The Killer Ascendant--they were pleased to have come up with something far better. The sixth book, they told me proudly, would be known as The Quiet Assassin.

I tried to explain that while not quite as redundant as, say, The Deadly Assassin or The Lethal Assassin, a title suggesting an assassin might be notable for his quietness was at best uninteresting (as opposed to, say, Margret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, which immediately engages the mind because of the connection of two seemingly contradictory qualities). The publisher was adamant. I told them that if they really were hell-bent on using assassin in a title that otherwise had nothing to do with the book, couldn't we at least call the book The Da Vinci Assassin, or The Sudoku Assassin? In the end, we compromised on Requiem for an Assassin, a title I think would be good for some other book but is unrelated to the one I wrote--beyond, again, the bare fact of the presence of an assassin in the story.

Now that I have my rights back and no longer have to make ridiculous compromises about these matters, I've given the books the titles I always wanted them to have--titles that actually have something to do with the stories, that capture some essential aspect of the stories, and that act as both vessel and amplifier for what's most meaningful in the stories. For me, it's like seeing these books for the first time in the frames they always deserved. It's exciting, satisfying, and even liberating. Have a look yourself and I hope you'll enjoy them.

*********************

Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center along the way. Eisler's bestselling thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. To learn more, please visit www.barryeisler.com. Or Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#30 Overall (See top 100 authors)

#3 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure

#3 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure

#7 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#8 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#8 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction

#3 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure

#3 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure

#7 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#8 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#8 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction