John Rain Books In Order

Publication Order of John Rain Books

About John Rain:

John Rain was created by Barry Eisler, and he has quickly become an assassin that everybody enjoys reading about. Not just your average assassin, John Rain follows a code all of his own. He is willing to serve any client as long as they follow his rules. The first being no hits on women or children. The second is that no secondary team is allowed to work the assassination while he is hired to do it. Finally, the third is that his hits only apply to the main target. There is no assassinating friends and family of the target to send a message or anything of the like.

John Rain specializes in making his targets look like they have died of natural causes, which is what makes him so valuable to his clients and one of the top assassin’s in the world. He also makes sure that he fulfills every contract to the best of his ability, even if things sometimes do not go as planned the first time around.

He served in the Vietnam War as a member of the special forces, doing things that to this day he still cannot get out of his head. He was later recruited by the CIA for his expert skills in the field. But it was not very long before John Rain became a freelancer for any client who wanted to pay and followed his three simple rules.

John Rain’s years of working in the special forces, CIA and as a freelancer have left him with a deep seeded paranoia towards anyone and everyone he meets. This gives him quite a conundrum at times, as he prevent himself from going close to anyone. For if he does find himself growing close his paranoia sets in, which drives him to eliminate any loose ends. John Rain does it mostly for himself but somewhere he thinks he is doing it for them as well. So many of his enemies will not be able to use anyone he grows close to against him. He also does not mind killing anyone that will leave him open to any type of revenge or vulnerability.

He was born in 1952 to a Japanese father and an American mother. John Rain tries to hide his Caucasian heritage, undergoing plastic surgery and dying his hair to avoid it being detected. He and his mother were forced to move to New York in 1960, after the death of his father. There his mother taught at Cornell and John Rain grew up within the city.

John Rain loves to listen to jazz music and has a strong passion for single malt whiskeys. He has studied at least three types of martial arts and has mastered them all. This makes him a lethal hand to hand combat expert. But when needed he can wield a weapon with the same amount of deadly force.

He lives for his job and those single malt whiskeys. Sometimes he is forced by his paranoia to do things that he would rather not do, yet he does them anyway because he knows to be one of the top assassin’s in the world you can have no strings attached with anyone or anything.

John Rain – Body Count Rises

So far having seven appearances in novels by, Barry Eisler, John Rain is a worldwide hit. His books have topped bestsellers lists and created a fan base that continually cannot wait for the next John Rain adventure.

In the novel, A Lonely Resurrection, although John Rain’s skills are still there he is looking to get out of the killing business. But he quickly finds out no one around him wants him to do so, whether they are would be friend or enemy. His unique talent for assassinating people and making it look like natural causes, is far too valuable to his clients. Pretty soon John Rain is back in the thick of things going after a killer that may be even more fearsome than him. He pursues his victim who goes by the name, Murakami, through the underbelly of Japan. He even gets into the middle of a shadow war between the CIA and the yakuza. A war John Rain wants no part of whatsoever. Once again he finds he can only trust himself and so he does, stalking his next victim through every obstacle that comes into his path.

Another attempt to put the killing to rest in, Extremis, once again fails for John Rain. This time he attempts to track down a former lover, who just might be the mother of his child. He comes to the realization that they could have a reconciliation. But then he finds his enemies around every corner and he learns that just by being close he puts them in danger. So John Rain decides to do what he does best and assassinate them all, once and for all. He employs some allies from his past and together they try to rid the world of his enemies.

John Rain – Assassinating Screens Near You

John Rain can be seen in the movie, Rain Fall, a very loose interpretation of the character. In the movie a hitman has to protect the daughter of one of his assassinations from the CIA. Kippei Shiiina played the part of John Rain in the movie and he starred opposite Gary Oldman, of the Harry Potter and The Dark Knight film series. Throughout the movie the John Rain character must avoid the CIA, the yakuza and many others on his trail, as he protects an officials daughter and searches for a flash drive with vital information on it.

The movie was met with mixed reviews, at best. It being a loose interpretation of the John Rain character, left many fans with a bad taste in their mouth. But it proves that there could be an audience there for more movies based on the John Rain character if the right people were involved with it.

John Rain – Hidden In Plain View

John Rain sticks to his rules and remains on alert at all times. His adventures are filled with much action, mystery and intrigue. Each one more so than the next. You just never know where John Rain will show up next and what will occur. A fine set of novels and ones you will want to read again and again thanks to the multilayered character of John Rain.