Requiem for an Assassin (edition 2007)

really hooked on John Rain. ( )

An excellent thriller where protagonit John Rain must deal with a nasty hostage situation. ( )

Hilger showdown.

Which shows that even smart guys can do dumb things. Hilger and what is left of his crew kidnap Dox as a lever to get Rain to perform some assassinations for them. All part of a greater do something about the oil plot involving suborning a port official.

So yeah, Rain wants to kill him. And that usually works, especially if the CIA and Mossad want him dead too.

http://freesf.strandedinoz.com/wordpress/2012/01/requiem-for-an-assassin-barry-e... ( )

Another very good entry in this series. As others noted, read these books in series!

John Rain's evolution continues, though it felt a little choppy in places here. I would have expected to hear that inner voice directly before, though perhaps it can pointed to that visiting Vietnam is what triggered it at all.

The plotting and action are as breathless as usual. Eisler's research continues to be top-shelf. I happen to know Palo Alto, CA from years ago and when Rain was there it felt like I visited again, right down to Kepler's book store!

The plot gets nicely chaotic. Who would have thought to see our CIA and Mossad operatives from prior novels working side-by-side?

Some of you might say, "oh, this must be the last book." But I see he left the door open in a couple of ways. His love life isn't exactly settled and he owes Kanezaki something. And we all know what he does to pay thiose debts, lol.

My one negative taste is what someone else praised, judgement of some recent American politics. It might even be parody, coming from the mouth of a man who is willing to unleash radioactive disasters on the world in pursuit of domestic imperatives and reflected upon by a man who kills anyone who isn't a woman, child, or non-principal for a living.

Congrats to Eisler on maintaining a high thriller standard over so many books about one character. Yep, I'm in his fan club now. ( )

This is the last in the series (to date anyway). It's a very good wrap up; the characters are not left hanging, and they are all fully realized.

I wouldn't recommend reading this if you haven't read the rest of the series because you won't appreciate Rain and his relationships (or lack thereof), although the story itself is started and wrapped up in this one book so you're not left hanging, or lost over what's going on.

It's a bit brutal/gory. There is some sex, but not much, and it sort of suits the story. There is some political grumbling - where the author appears to express his personal views on the US military, terrorism, political patronage and etc. But this also kind of suits the story.

My least favorite component of this story were the scenes where Rain got whiny, or started talking to his "other self" as if it were real (along the lines of what Dexter does)... I like Rain because he's an assassin and yet still has human moments; I don't want him to be whining about his life-choices.

All in all, I'd give this book - and this series - 4.5 stars out of five. ( )