Requiem for an assassin: a novel by Barry Eisler

Amoral but engrossing**** July 19,2007

When I read my first John Rain novel, Eisler's previous The Last Assassin, at first I didn't quite know what to make of it. Many of the same characters are back in this, the fifth in the Rain series. John Rain is trying to leave his career as an assassin behind but he receives a phone call telling him one of his best friends Dox has been kidnapped. Dox will only be released if Rain performs three assassinations for the kidnapper. Rain undertakes the first two assassinations while working through his Japanese and Israeli contacts to track the whereabouts of the kidnapper and Dox and to puzzle the rationale behind the targetting of the first two men. Dox is rescued in a shootout in Singapore and Dox and Rain head to the Netherlands to thwart a terrorist plot.

John Rain is an interesting character. He seems to have no morals and yet the author takes us inside his head in such a manner that we feel empathy for him. And we are left wondering what awaits him next time. Will he succeed in his attempt to leave his career as a killer behind? Doubtful.