John Rain is a new character for me… and I like him

Listicle… cbr10bingo

So I cheated a little with this one.  I read it first, and then I found a list it was on :)  However, the list toooootally applies to me!  It’s called “What the over 35’s are reading”, and here it is: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/83374.2015_What_the_Over_35_s_Are_Reading

I’m very much an over 35 (by 2 whole years!), so this list appeals to me.  I’m going to go back to it and see if there are other books on it I’d like!

Enough about my old age, back to the book!  Apparently this book was written and released years ago, and then Barry (Mr. Eisler) got the rights back to his books (I don’t know how publishing works), and he renamed all the books in his series.  They used to have punny “Rain” names, because the main character is John Rain.  I guess he thought they were too hokey, so he chose newer cooler names.

John Rain is a half-Japanese / half-white assassin.  He used to be in the military, and he did some reallly bad stuff.  He’s quite haunted by it all, and it’s one of the reasons he became an assassin.  He does have a few rules though – no women, no children, no back-up teams hired for the same job, and something else that I can’t remember.

John’s a cool character.  He’s also a little tortured about being half-Japanese.  His parents were torn over it too.  He loves judo, and is a badass.  He very easily (and also not easily) kills a bunch of people in this book.  He kinda falls in love with the daughter of someone he killed, and then he nearly gets killed like a jillion times.  I like John, and I’m going to keep reading the Rain series.