Rain Fall by Barry Eisler

Bueno

If you follow the self-publishing movement, invariably you know who Barry Eisler is. If you don't follow the movement, he's the guy that turned down the 2-book deal (putatively worth $500 large) with St. Martin's Press to publish his latest assassin thriller directly. (Since the announcement, I believe it was actually released by Amazon's thriller imprint, Thomas & Mercer.) Voluntarily or not, he has been in the forefront of the self-publishing movement.

Being in the forefront basically means that I have to hear about this guy all the time. And I don't mean to connote that hearing about him is a negative. He has been public about his experiences and that has been a tremendous resource to folks wanting to eschew traditional publishing. He also seems to be sharp. (He was a spook for x years after getting out of law school, or something. The Company tends to not sign up dummies. Paranoid, maybe, but not dumb.)

So, after hearing the sycophants gurgling Barry Eisler, Barry Eisler, Barry Eisler, I decided to test his chops. I picked up his first book, Rain Fall, which originally came out around 2002. I knew it was about an assassin, but I didn't read the blurb, I just jumped in.

About on page 1 or so (right near the top), I discovered that the book was set in Japan. Not one being easily deterred, I was not deterred. He did a nice job helping me keep all of the Japanese place names and vernacular straight without being a pedant. And he's a great writer. With a good plot. And the story was more character driven than ridiculous-thriller-plot-driven.

Cut to the chase: I'd pick up another one of his books. How much better of a rec can I give? Fo' stars, Barry.