Barry Eisler

• Born: 1964
• Place of Birth: New Jersey

A former lawyer and Central Intelligence Agency covert operative, Barry Eisler is the author of the John Rain techno-thriller series.

TYPE OF PLOT: Thriller

PRINCIPAL SERIES: John Rain, 2000-

Contribution

Seldom has the thriller genre featured such a flawed (morally compromised) and yet attractive figure as Barry Eisler’s John Rain. On one hand, he seems amoral. On the other, his sensitivity, especially toward women, is remarkable. Rain also revels in describing the meals he eats and his lovemaking.

Eisler may be ’s only serious rival in the creation of techno-thrillers. Like Clancy, Eisler loves to dwell on his hero’s use of the latest technology, but unlike Clancy’s protagonists, Rain is a more believable human being—conflicted about killing but also aware that governments employ agents just like him, especially when the bureaucracy cannot act quickly. Rain becomes indispensable because the governments who give him assignments cannot go through regular channels.

Unlike the traditional thriller, where the hero often does not age (James Bond, for example) or manages to continue his work without serious internal disturbance, Rain grows increasingly tense about the toll his assassinations have taken on his psyche. Thus, the Rain series has a tragic trajectory, and its hero is fast approaching the point where he must leave “the life” and begin a new existence as a law-abiding citizen. Eisler’s contribution to the thriller genre is located in the nexus he explores between the individual’s state of mind and the geopolitical concerns of global terrorism and government-sponsored violence.

Biography

Barry Eisler, who is deliberately reticent about supplying details about his life, was born in New Jersey in 1964. His father, Edgar, was an entrepreneur, salesman, and president of an office products company. His mother, Barbara, was a painter, poet, sculptor, nonfiction writer, and volunteer for environmental causes. Eisler attributes his interest in solving mysteries to his reading about Harry Houdini. The great magician and escape artist had secret knowledge, and Eisler was thrilled with the idea of a career involving this kind of adventure. He began collecting books on lock picking, breaking and entering, and other clandestine and undetectable forms of crime (killing without using weapons) that are a significant part of John Rain’s assassination toolkit. Houdini’s physical prowess also influenced Eisler, who trained in the martial arts and made these skills another crucial part of Rain’s repertoire.

Eisler received a bachelor of arts degree in 1986 and a juris doctor degree in 1989 from Cornell University. He wrote a column on foreign policy for the school newspaper and, early on, evinced an interest in fiction. He began writing short stories as a teenager. He spent three years (1989-1922) in the Directorate of Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a covert operative. He learned spy craft, including surveillance and countersurveillance, antiterrorism tactics, improvising explosive devices, recruiting agents, and interrogation techniques—activities and skills crucial to John Rain’s work. Learning Japanese and working in Japan was also part of Eisler’s CIA work.

After leaving the CIA in 1993, Eisler remained in Japan. He studied at Kodokan International Judo Center in Tokyo while immersing himself in the country’s language and culture. His year-long explorations of Tokyo’s streets and back alleys, visiting jazz clubs and whiskey bars, provided him with a feel for the seamier side of the city and of crime that is featured so authentically in his novels. It was through observing this nightlife that Eisler began to think of characters engaged in secret crimes and connected to the underworld and government operatives and corporations. At the same time, his work for the law firm of Hamada and Matsumoto in Tokyo provided him with access to the upper echelons of society and the business world, where, in theory, an assassin like John Rain might be hired to do high-level assassinations. In 1995, Eisler became in-house counsel for Matsushita Electric and Industrial in Osaka. After two years, he returned to the United States.

Eisler’s transition to full-time writing was not easy. He received over fifty rejections from publishers before publishing his first John Rain novel. He rewrote that first novel several times, relying on advice from an agent before it appeared in print. Like other writers in his field—such as Patricia Cornwell—Eisler did extensive research for his books, making the settings, the characters, and the crimes as real as possible, based on his frequent travels to Japan and other parts of Asia. His work has been translated into twenty languages, demonstrating the international appeal of his thrillers.

Analysis

Barry Eisler’s John Rain, a Japanese American trained in martial arts, is at home in Japan and other parts of Asia. He provides an international perspective as he involves himself with intelligence agencies such as Mossad, the Israeli covert organization that uses assassination as a political weapon. Rain realizes that his work will someday result in a reckoning for him, even as he searches for ways to retreat from his bloody profession. He has a moral center that he cannot escape; in other words, he is a redeemable character. The problem is how to survive in the dangerous world he has made for himself. In this respect, aside from the gruesome details of his trade, his problems are universal. He is involved in the human predicament, attempting to construct a viable and authentic identity and a place for himself in a world that includes love and family. Although his efforts to do right fail, he brutally confronts the nature of his crimes and earns considerable respect.

Rain Fall

Rain Fall (2002), the first John Rain novel, conveys Eisler’s deep immersion in Japanese culture. As one reviewer put it, the fiction is “rich and atmospheric.” Rain is a Vietnam War Special Forces veteran. He is an alienated hero, however, not entirely comfortable with his Japanese father or American mother, and tortured by memories of atrocities he committed in Vietnam.

Rain specializes in making assassinations look like natural events. On a subway, he plants a microchip on the back of a bureaucrat, thus interfering with the frequency of the man’s pacemaker and inducing a fatal heart attack. Rain’s trouble begins when he realizes that he has murdered a man about to expose Japanese political corruption. At the same time, Rain is also at cross-purposes with a CIA agent who was trouble for him in Vietnam. Even worse, he falls in love with his victim’s daughter, Midori, who is an accomplished jazz pianist. The consequences of this assassination and of this love affair, which ends badly, continue to plague Rain in subsequent novels.

Eisler’s evocation of the intricate love-hate relationship between Japan and America, the complexities of the Japanese criminal classes, including a right-wing guru and his spies, and the complications ensuing when a Japanese police officer investigates Rain’s activities, all combine to present a riveting exploration of international intrigue. Some reviewers lauded Eisler’s plotting but felt some of the characters were not very well developed. However, Eisler’s command of procedure—of how crimes are planned and committed—and his portrayal of exotic places made this first novel an impressive achievement.

Hard Rain

This second novel in the John Rain series, Hard Rain (2003), draws on Eisler’s experience in the CIA. Always a loner, Rain seems even more isolated when he is implicated in the agency’s efforts to exploit the corruption of the Japanese political and business system. Rain’s professionalism and intelligence make him a fascinating figure. At the same time, the wear and tear of his work is beginning to show, and his qualms contribute considerably to mitigating the cold-blooded aspects of his activities. As several reviewers note, the plot is constructed with great literary skill.

Rain relies on Tatsu, a Japanese intelligence officer who aims to rid the Japanese government of corruption. Tatsu’s integrity is one of Rain’s mainstays. In the shady world of Tokyo, which has been compared to Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles, Rain has few allies on whom he can count. Tatsu is also a kind of mentor. Rain constantly measures his actions against Tatsu’s example.

Rain Storm

In Rain Storm (2004), the strain of Rain’s work causes him to escape to Brazil. There he believes he can retire from the assassination business. However, the CIA seeks him out, and Rain finds himself plunged once again into international intrigue—this time involving arms deals and South Asian criminal gangs. Rain, expecting a big payday ($200,000), vows that this will be his last job.

Rain soon finds that there is an assassin on his trail. He turns for help to Dox, an easygoing former Marine sniper and a new character who becomes increasingly important in Eisler’s next two novels. Dox draws out the loner Rain. With Dox’s prodding, Rain begins to confront his own demons. It is very difficult for Rain to trust anyone, but the shrewd Dox is a good complement to the intense, wary Rain.

Killing Rain

Set in the Philippines, Killing Rain (2005) finds Rain involved with the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad. His task is to quietly kill an arms dealer whose work threatens Israeli security. Rain’s moral concerns are now beginning to interfere with his work, although he is assisted again by Dox, who becomes essential to Rain’s plans when the so-called surgical kill turns into a bloodbath, with Rain himself becoming a target when Israeli security decides that Rain is a liability.

This novel begins to explore the complexity of Rain’s character and those of the people he loves, including Midori and the Israeli agent, Delilah. Torn between these two women, Rain is attempting to achieve the impossible: affect a reconciliation with Midori while remaining faithful to Delilah. To even approach Midori may put her in harm’s way of the assassin who is after him. To expect Delilah to wait until he settles matters with Midori is asking too much, especially because without Delilah’s help, Rain will not be able to extricate himself from the chain of events that has made him a target.

Eisler’s developing emphasis on character does not diminish his deft handling of plot and point of view. In this novel, Eisler experiments with using first-and third-person narrators who provide both a sense of immediacy and perspective on the action and the characters.

Requiem for an Assassin

In the sixth novel in the John Rain series, Requiem for an Assassin (2007), (also published as The Killer Ascendant) Rain has to rely on the work of several intelligence agencies to free his friend, Dox, who has been kidnapped by Rain’s arch enemy Jim Hilger. Hilger’s idea of revenge is to make Rain commit three assassinations to obtain Dox’s release. Rain quickly figures out that the third hit will be a setup in which he will be the target. Rain battles not only with Hilger, trying to figure out where Dox is being held, but also with Delilah, a Mossad agent who has fallen in love with him. Is there room for love in his life? Rain wonders. He calls his other self “the Iceman,” the killer who cannot allow himself to be distracted by normal feelings such as love and compassion.

Like all Eisler’s novels, this one includes intricately choreographed scenes of violence and sex, descriptions of the latest spy technology and weapons. This exciting novel, in which the true nature of Hilger’s plot is not revealed until the final pages, speaks directly to contemporary concern with terrorism, the role of the United States in the Middle East, and the extent to which official channels and intelligence agencies are still equipped to cope with threats to Western civilization.

The John Rain series continued with The Detachment (2011), The Killer Collective (2019), and The Chaos Kind (2021), among others.

Principal Series Characters:

• John Rain is a Japanese and White American hired killer, who specializes in assassinations and learned his trade serving in the Vietnam War. That morally ambiguous experience partly explains why he cannot adjust to a conventional life. Deft plotting and a vivid evocation of the evil world Rain confronts combine to create extraordinary empathy for a hero who would ostensibly seem not to merit such understanding.
• Dox, Rain’s affable sidekick, is a superb sharpshooter and the assassin’s antithesis. A former Marine, Dox believes in camaraderie. He talks too much and risks their security, which constantly annoys Rain. At the same time, the extroverted Dox brings Rain partly out of his shell, making it possible for him to become more of a complete human being. Dox is the one operative whom Rain can implicitly trust.

Bibliography

Baker, Tom. “’Rain’ Maker Barry Eisler Willing to Suffer for His Art.” The Daily Yomiuri, 19 Aug. 2006, p. 1.

Eisler, Barry. "Bio." Barry Eisler, www.barryeisler.com/bio. Accessed 20 July 2024.

Eisler, Barry. “PW Talks with Barry Eisler: Paying a Horrible Price.” Interview by Robert C. Hahn. Publishers Weekly, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/609-paying-a-horrible-price.html. Accessed 20 July 2024.

Hitz, Frederick P. The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.

Pitt, David. Review of The Last Assassin, by Barry Eisler. Booklist, vol. 102, no. 17, 1 May 2006, pp. 27-28.

Pitt, David. Review of Requiem for an Assassin, by Barry Eisler. Booklist, vol. 103, no. 17, 1 May 2007, p. 23.