Requiem for an Assassin

For master assassin John Rain, getting out of 'the life' was never going to be easy. But with a new identity in Paris, and the help of his lover, Mossad agent Delilah, he was hoping to leave the killing business behind. Then he receives a message from rogue CIA operative Jim Hilger: We have your friend Dox. Do as we tell you, or the sniper dies. The choice ought to be easy: do the job - a series of three hits - and save his friend and partner.But how does Rain know Hilger won't just kill Dox once the assignment is complete? How does he know that each of the hits isn't also a setup for Rain himself? Most of all, how can he control the killing rage that Hilger's lethal game of extortion reignites inside him? From the deceptively tranquil beaches of Bali, to the boulevards of Paris, the urban chaos of New York, and finally to the old killing fields of Vietnam. Rain must grapple not only with his brutal enemies, but also with the latent killer inside himself! a battle that not even Rain can hope to survive intact.

From Publishers WeeklyIn Eisler's predictable sixth thriller to star half Japanese, half American assassin John Rain (after 2006's The Last Assassin), Rain's longtime rival, rogue CIA agent Jim Hilger, kidnaps Rain's sniper friend Dox and threatens to kill Dox unless Rain murders three people Hilger wants dead. Despite his ambivalence about his chosen trade, Rain carries out the hits with little remorse. Rain's adventures take him to the usual glamorous locales—Paris, London, Amsterdam—while throughout he remains nostalgic for his Japanese heritage. In a subplot, Rain's Mossad agent lover, Delilah, enlists some Israeli colleagues in an attempt to foil a major terrorist plot. The revelation of why the three murder victims were selected comes as the book's one real surprise. 150,000 first printing; author tour. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From BooklistPity John Rain. All the Japanese American contract killer wants to do is retire and live happily with his girlfriend, a beautiful Mossad agent. But little things keep getting in the way. For instance, his close friend and sometime partner, Dox, has been kidnapped. The abductor is Jim Hilger, a CIA agent whose schemes have been foiled by Rain a few times in the past, and who is now looking to use Dox's life as leverage to force Rain to commit a series of assassinations. But Rain is nobody's fool: he knows he can't trust Hilger to live up to his end of the deal, and there's only one way to make sure Dox stays healthy. Readers may wonder how many stories there are to tell about a hit man who wants to get out of the life, but so far Eisler hasn't run out of believable scenarios. This one is as good as its five forerunners, and here's hoping the author has a few more stories to tell. David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved