Requiem for an Assassin (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: big sniper, blond dude, nav system, New York, Page Mill, Hong Kong (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Eisler's predictable sixth thriller to star half Japanese, half American assassin John Rain (after 2006's The Last Assassin), Rain's longtime rival, rogue CIA agent Jim Hilger, kidnaps Rain's sniper friend Dox and threatens to kill Dox unless Rain murders three people Hilger wants dead. Despite his ambivalence about his chosen trade, Rain carries out the hits with little remorse. Rain's adventures take him to the usual glamorous locales—Paris, London, Amsterdam—while throughout he remains nostalgic for his Japanese heritage. In a subplot, Rain's Mossad agent lover, Delilah, enlists some Israeli colleagues in an attempt to foil a major terrorist plot. The revelation of why the three murder victims were selected comes as the book's one real surprise. 150,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Pity John Rain. All the Japanese American contract killer wants to do is retire and live happily with his girlfriend, a beautiful Mossad agent. But little things keep getting in the way. For instance, his close friend and sometime partner, Dox, has been kidnapped. The abductor is Jim Hilger, a CIA agent whose schemes have been foiled by Rain a few times in the past, and who is now looking to use Dox's life as leverage to force Rain to commit a series of assassinations. But Rain is nobody's fool: he knows he can't trust Hilger to live up to his end of the deal, and there's only one way to make sure Dox stays healthy. Readers may wonder how many stories there are to tell about a hit man who wants to get out of the life, but so far Eisler hasn't run out of believable scenarios. This one is as good as its five forerunners, and here's hoping the author has a few more stories to tell. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (May 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399154264
• ISBN-13: 978-0399154263
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #413,839 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The wussification of John Rain is complete., July 2, 2007

By	Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

The first four novels featuring the cold-blooded, nihilistic, contemplative Japanese/American assassin John Rain were true page turners. Rain was a killing machine, his specialty arranging murders that looked like "natural causes". He free-lanced, working for any client who met his flexible standards. He had only one rule: no women or children. But even that had a little leeway. Rain was a superb character: remorseless, nihilistic, but thoughtful and contemplative. He was a loner with only one or two people that might be called "friends" and even then Rain was always suspicious.

In the fifth novel, Rain discovered paternal love for the child he had conceived with Midori, a Japanese singer whose father Rain had assassinated. Rain started developing a conscience, a desire for another life, one where murder wasn't the order of the day. Rain, frankly, started losing his allure. The action that made the first four books pulse-pounders ebbed away.

In "Requiem For An Assassin", author Barry Eisler has effectively killed John Rain and it doesn't look like natural causes. In fact it looks like hubris. Barry Eisler apparently has bought into his own publicity.

Eisler hasn't lost his skill with words. He is still readable and a newcomer to Eisler and John Rain might very well find this book a passable read. Anyone familiar with John Rain may find this novel very disappointing. It took me more than six sessions to make my through this, often wondering why I was bothering. I hoped that Eisler would redeem himself in a successive chapter, but he didn't.

The plot is simple and can be described without spoiling it for anyone else. Former Marine sniper Dox, Rain's buddy on a couple of missions, is kidnapped from his island paradise by Hilger, the ex-CIA rogue Rain was chasing, but missed, in the last novel. Hilger contacts the always elusive Rain and tells him he must carry out three assassinations or Dox will die. Rain is in Paris, living with his current paramour Delilah, a Mossad agent. To save his friend, Rain reluctantly sets off on a series of assinations, but he is troubled: the old ice cold killer just doesn't come as easily any more.

There's a global chase that this time is boring. There are a few redeeming - to few - where Rain is in action, but otherwise the book is a bore. Way too much time is spent on Rain's thoughts about Delilah, including a gratuitous several page sex scene which does nothing to advance the story, but does lead one to question who Eisler thinks his audience is. Rain spends a lot of time reliving his youth in the army in Vietnam, including a visit to Saigon. Rain contemplates his relationship with Delilah, with Midori and the son he has held only once. Rain thinks way too much.

Eisler, unfortunately, injects his political thoughts way too often into the manuscript. Bad mistake since Eisler's political thinking is neither original nor necessary to the story. It's more a conceit: he's the author - he can put anything he wants in his book. But readers don't have to stand for having their own views attacked in a thriller. In short, if Eisler wanted to write a political polemic, that's what he should have written.

Eisler's ultimate sin in my eyes is one that most readers won't catch. Eisler thanks 54 people (and a deli) in his acknowledgements. He's got experts in bar room brawls, medical experts, experts in martial arts - but no experts in computer technology, which plays a big part in the story.

Put bluntly Eisler is ignorant of computer technology. Pathetically ignorant. Instead of consulting experts, he makes things up. Asking readers who may be conversant with the technology, as I am, to swallow his nonsense is an insult to readers that could have been avoided. And, in my opinion, should have been.

But Eisler simply makes his technology up out of whole cloth.

I won't detail all of Eisler's misstatements. If you don't know the technology, you probably won't recognize the nonsense.

One of the more irritating things Eisler does is have Rain purchase an Apple iPhone. Pity that the iPhone - which was neither available nor fully described at the time of Eisler's writing - won't do many of things that Rain does with it. Oh well, just more arrogance on the part of Eisler.

The ending of the book is unacceptable on several levels. For fear of spoiling, I won't get into a lot of detail, but the end result is to push Rain more and more in the direction of becoming an accredited metrosexual, wuss, wimp or whatever the current term is. Rain makes mistakes totally out of character for him - and, frankly, I was waiting for a chorus of "Kumbaya" to break out.

As a character, Barry Eisler has essentially killed off John Rain. Too bad - I enjoyed John Rain's single-minded ruthlessness and his skills as an assassin. As a wimp, Rain won't be getting any further attention from me. The first-time reader may find this a moderately acceptable time filler. If they don't read any or all of the first four novels, they will never know how rich the John Rain character was.

Jerry

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From another Martial Arts author, May 23, 2007

By	Arthur Bradley "Author of Process of Elimination" (Virginia) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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For those of you who might have stumbled on this book without knowing the full scope of things, you will want to start the John Rain series from the beginning. The books in order are: Rain Fall, Hard Rain, Rain Storm, Killing Rain, the Last Assassin, and now Requiem for an Assassin. All are outstanding reads. If you pick up in the middle or here at the tail end, you will really be doing yourself a disservice. Get to know the characters in the same order as Barry Eisler did.

I'm a big John Rain fan. The books have done an excellent job of addressing a previously unfilled niche - not since Lustbader's early works anyway. John Rain, the protagonist, is the cool international ex-CIA operative, half Japanese, half American - patriot, father, and remorseless killer. Trained in classical Japanese Judo, and master of assassination via accidental causes. The killing style is unique and different - comparable to what Trevanian brought to Shibumi with his killing with common items (e.g. ballpoint pen, cards, etc.).

The latest installment is in my mind an improvement. I've really enjoyed all the books, but I felt the Last Assassin had a bit too much drama and fell slightly short of high-octane action seen in early books. In one review, it was compared to Desperate Housewives... unfair but funny. Fortunately, Requiem remedies that complaint in high fashion. I definitely can't agree with any "wussification" claim, because Rain is as ruthless and brutal in this Requiem as any of the pevious ones. That said, there is clearly a struggle between his "iceman" killer self and a softer emotionally-reachable person. But I in no way found that to detract from the character.

Like most good stories, John Rain is the reluctant actor. He wants to escape his role as a killing pawn (something he fears defines him), and take on what might be even more difficult challenges - regular life with women who both love and hate him, and a child who doesn't know he's his father. Of course that wouldn't make much of a story, so in steps Jim Hilger (the ex-CIA bad guy). He snatches the fun-loving sniper, Dox, who at times can't tell men from women, and uses him as leverage to get Rain to do three final kills. Fortunately, John Rain is experienced enough to ask the tough questions, like why does Hilger want them dead, what are their connections, and what assurances are there that he can be trusted to release Dox. With help from Kanezaki, Boaz, Delilah, and others, they go about setting things right.

Like all of the books, this book merges both international intrigue (in this case it involves oil) with Rain's personal challenges. That's one reason I recommend you start from the beginning. If you're looking for a stand alone thriller, you might be disappointed or at least not fully appreciate the character development. But if you're looking for a great addition to an outstanding collection, this one is a pure gem. Five stars!

Written by Arthur Bradley, author of "Process of Elimination" - an erotic martial arts thriller that pits a Kenpo Karate/Judo expert against a world-class sniper out to shape the presidential election.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Mr. Softy" John Rain has got to go!, October 5, 2007

By	G. Lake (Sacramento) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love John Rain the Bad guy..and have looked forward to Barry Eisler's new book being release; so, am disappointed with his efforts to show John Rain's emotional side..if he is going to make John Rain soft, then he might as well kill him off. Better yet, kill off his new girlfriend..the blond, what's her name..don't like her at all! Dox is great in this book and without him it would not have been worth reading. As always, the descriptions of all the exoctic places John visits are wonderful and the action scenes are great too..new gadgets, intrigue..still works..I just don't need to worry that Rain is going all soft and mushy on us.