A Clean Kill in Tokyo: John Rain, Book 1

Half American, half Japanese, expert in both worlds but at home in neither, John Rain is the best killer money can buy. You tell him who. You tell him where. He doesn't care about why… Until he gets involved with Midori Kawamura, a beautiful jazz pianist—and the daughter of his latest kill.

Fault Line: Ben Treven, Book 1

In Silicon Valley, the eccentric inventor of a new encryption application is murdered in an apparent drug deal. In Istanbul, a cynical undercover operator receives a frantic call from his estranged brother, a patent lawyer who believes he is the next victim. And on the sun-drenched slopes of Sand Hill Road, Silicon Valley's nerve center of money and technology, old family hurts sting anew as two brothers who share nothing but blood and bitterness wage a desperate battle against a faceless enemy.

Livia Lone

Seattle PD sex-crimes detective Livia Lone knows the monsters she hunts. Sold by her Thai parents along with her little sister, Nason; marooned in America; abused by the men who trafficked them...the only thing that kept Livia alive as a teenager was her determination to find Nason. Livia has never stopped looking. And she copes with her failure to protect her sister by doing everything she can to put predators in prison. Or, when that fails, by putting them in the ground.

The God's Eye View

NSA director Theodore Anders has a simple goal: collect every phone call, email, and keystroke tapped on the Internet. He knows unlimited surveillance is the only way to keep America safe. Evelyn Gallagher doesn't care much about any of that. She just wants to keep her head down and manage the NSA's camera network and facial recognition program so she can afford private school for her deaf son, Dash.

The Keeper of Lost Causes: Department Q, Book 1

Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark's premier crime writer. His books routinely top the bestseller lists in northern Europe, and he's won just about every Nordic crime-writing award, including the prestigious Glass Key Award-also won by Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, and Jo Nesbo. Now, Dutton is thrilled to introduce him to America.

The Gray Man

Court Gentry is known as The Gray Man - a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible, and then fading away. And he always hits his target. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. Now, he is going to prove that for him, there's no gray area between killing for a living-and killing to stay alive.

Tier One

John Dempsey's life - as an elite Tier One Navy SEAL named Jack Kemper - is over. A devastating terrorist action catapults him from a world of moral certainty and decisive orders into the shadowy realm of espionage, where ambiguity is the only rule. His new mission: hunt down those responsible for the greatest tragedy in the history of the US Special Ops and bring them to justice.

Orphan X

Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets - i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear.

The Old Man

To all appearances, Dan Chase is a harmless retiree in Vermont with two big mutts and a grown daughter he keeps in touch with by phone. But most 60-year-old widowers don't have multiple driver's licenses, savings stockpiled in banks across the country, and a bugout kit with two Beretta Nanos stashed in the spare bedroom closet. Most have not spent decades on the run.

Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected

Rory Miller's Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected includes seven elements that must be addressed to bring self-defense training to something approaching complete. These elements are: legal and ethical implications, violence dynamics, avoidance, counter-ambush, breaking the freeze, the fight itself, and the aftermath. Training that dismisses any of these areas leaves you vulnerable.

Assassin's Sons: A Special Operations Group Thriller

CIA operatives Max Wayne and his brother Tom race through Europe and the Middle East to avenge the death of Tom's girlfriend. It's do-or-die to get payback and stop a deadlier attack before it reaches Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Publisher's Summary

John Rain is back. And “the most charismatic assassin since James Bond” (San Francisco Chronicle) is up against his most formidable enemy yet: the nexus of political, military, media, and corporate factions known only as the Oligarchy.

When legendary black ops veteran Colonel Scott “Hort” Horton tracks Rain down in Tokyo, Rain can’t resist the offer: a multi-million dollar payday for the “natural causes” demise of three ultra-high-profile targets who are dangerously close to launching a coup in America. But the opposition on this job is going to be too much for even Rain to pull it off alone. He’ll need a detachment of other deniable irregulars: his partner, the former Marine sniper, Dox. Ben Treven, a covert operator with ambivalent motives and conflicted loyalties. And Larison, a man with a hair trigger and a secret he’ll kill to protect.

From the shadowy backstreets of Tokyo and Vienna, to the deceptive glitz and glamour of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and finally to a Washington, D.C. in a permanent state of war, these four lone wolf killers will have to survive presidential hit teams, secret CIA prisons, and a national security state as obsessed with guarding its own secrets as it is with invading the privacy of the populace. But first, they’ll have to survive each other.

The Detachment is what fans of Eisler, “one of the most talented and literary writers in the thriller genre” (Chicago Sun-Times), have been waiting for: the worlds of the award-winning Rain series, and of the best-selling Fault Line and Inside Out, colliding in one explosive thriller as real as today’s headlines and as frightening as tomorrow’s.

Fast pace book which is read by the author. Loved the book. Love the author.

I did rate the peformance with 4 stars to indicate that he is not really professional reader. He performs many of the characters very well but a few of them it gets confusing which character is speaking. I might also say I graded very hard...

This is a continuation of the John Rain character which started in the book Rain Fall. This book stands on it's own, but I recommend that your start with the first book.

This was my first exposure to Barry Eisler and John Rain, but I'm hooked! I'm still relatively new to audiobooks, and I'm generally feast or famine -- I gorge on them, then forget about my Audible account. But I'm back again to download more Eisler and Rain. As a narrator, he's really great, with each voice distinct and believable. He moves smoothly between them. John Rain is a hugely complex character, and he's written extremely well. Eisler has a great way of giving you a ton of information in a intriguing, but succinct way. A great listen!

BE has supplied another installment of the eminently readable Rain series. Rain is again pulled out of semi-retirement to prevent what is billed as a coup attempt that will result in major restrictions in American liberties. As the assignment progresses, Rain question which side he is working for. At the same time Rain is in the unique position of running a team of operators (including his pal, Dox) that includes some unknowns. The story is well paced with multiple twists and turns.

Barry also does an excellent job of reading the tale with a superb range of voices that adds to his detailed descriptions. For spy/assassins aficionados, this is a devilishly rich dessert.

I enjoy Eisler's John Rain series as much as any in this genre. This book is my favorite of the series. John Rain, the ultimate assassin, assembles a group of killers who are as dangerous to each other as they are to their targets. The action is nonstop. The plot is fairly predictable, but fun. I listen to books while driving or exercising. i had difficulty putting this one aside, however. The story and performance were absorbing.

The narration was excellent. Voices and accents were dead on. I was worried that an author reading his own work would not be as exciting as some of th eprofessional narrators. Eisler, however, rivaled my favorite thriller narrators, Guidall and Brick, and gave a superb performance of this book. I can't imagine that it could have been done better.

I really enjoyed this book, and recommend it to anyone who likes to listen to this genre.

The Detachment is clearly the best of the John Rain series that I have listened to so far. On my list of mystery/thriller authors Esiler is not near the top, but with more books as good as this one he will be.

This was a story with many twists and turns and very well developed characters that I felt like I was able to get to "know". It was masterfully read by Barry Eisler himself and he truly brought Docs and Rain to life. I hope that he will continue to narrate his own books as he does it very well. I hated when I had to stop listening to do something else and I hope he has another great story coming out soon.I also hope that he will rerecord his previous book, Requiem for an Assassin, that was destroyed by Scott Brick's narration. I will buy it again just to listen to it read as it should have been.

What made the experience of listening to The Detachment the most enjoyable?

The author narrates this book and does an outstanding job. I have listened to 5 John Rain books and up until this read, the first, Rain Fall, narrated by Brian Nishii was by far my favorite experience. But Barry Eisler does an amazing job of bringing the five main characters alive.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

The plot flows nicely and there are enough unexpected twists and subplots to keep the story really interesting.

Which character ??? as performed by Barry Eisler ??? was your favorite?

Dox was spot on. However he did a very good job of narrating all of the characters.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed out loud several times. Usually at the witty and ironic observations of Dox.

Any additional comments?

Note to Eisler and Brilliance - one narrator for a series. It is grating to hear a favorite character in a new voice. No one will match Eisler's

The bad: I'll bet Barry Eisler and Vince Flynn hate each other. Bummer that Eisler had the infamous assassin John Rain and Dox help him spew his over the top political opinions. It was just too much, sorry. I can tolerate a lot of this stuff but come on Barry. If you are a toe tag ACLU member and think that the Patriot Act was horrible and that Bush is the Devil, you might like this. Full disclosure I am on the other side of Eisler on most of his opinions.

The Good: Even though there was about 2 hours of extra polital junk, there was still plenty of entertaining action. John Rain is as usual, great. Dox is the best and hilarious and the 2 new characters were good as well. If you are a John Rain fan you still have to listen to it because it will add color for future works that I hope Eisler keeps pure. The narration was amazing. I was skeptical but Eisler was great.

All in all if you are a Vince Flynn lover (as am I) you will cringe through a lot of this, but if you are opposite you might like it.

I picked up the first John Rain book on sale & without great expectations, but Eisler's writing and - happy surprise- his narration, were great. Pulled me right in & the series has built upon the character dimensions in fantastic form. With this type of book, one expects to suspend disbelief a bit. But this is the first book where in more than one area I found myself thinking ," Rain wouldn't be that stupid" or wondering why he didn't record his conversations with the antagonist or take other measures to protect himself, especially with all the foreword, layered thinking he is known for. I got past it, & still enjoyed the book, as well as the character developments, but it was the first of the series where I was taken out of the story to think about errors. If you enjoy the series though, it's a no-brainer. Of course give it a listen.