Zero Sum by Barry Eisler

Published by Thomas & Mercer on June 27, 2017

John Rain is back in Tokyo during the Reagan years, looking for work. A Russian named Victor has monopolized the assassination business. Rain’s friend Miyamoto introduces him to Victor, with the understanding that Rain will replace Victor if he can take Victor out of the game. Rain also gets an informational assist from his cop buddy Tatsu. All of that adds up to a standard John Rain novel, focusing on Rain’s formative years, but this one is formulaic and the formula is getting stale.

Rain’s only opportunity to get close to Victor is to work for him. That unlikely scenario leads to an assignment: killing an important person, but not without first bedding the important person’s wife. That produces some conflict in Rain’s quirky moral sense, leading him to kill a bunch of other people instead of his target, but not without bedding the important person’s wife again. When he thinks he’s eliminated all the threats, of course there is another, which he’ll deal with as soon as he beds the important person’s wife once more.

The sex scenes, by the way, are more childish than titillating. Particularly the “pretending to say no when she really means yes” scene. I thought authors got over that in the 1970s. Also a bit lame is Rain’s evolving fashion sense, as he learns that Italian designers make nice clothes (who knew?). That leads to many opportunities for Rain to change his clothes, sometimes sporting Kevlar beneath his designer outfit, other times going commando.

The plot involves Victor and his silly insecurities, coupled with the CIA’s Byzantine meddling in Japanese politics, but it’s difficult to see the plot as anything other than a contrivance that allows Rain to show off his killing skills. Look ma, no gun! Earlier Rain novels built Rain’s character and gave greater purpose to his assassinations, but the formula has taken over. I didn’t dislike Zero Sum, but it feels like a book written on autopilot.

To be fair, Zero Sum isn’t a bad book, and I might have liked it more if I hadn’t read the earlier, much better Rain novels. I would recommend to readers who are new to the series that they start with the first one and read them in order. If they don’t ever get around to reading this one, they won’t be missing much.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Livia Lone by Barry Eisler

Published by Thomas & Mercer on October 25, 2016

Livia Lone follows a current trend in “vigilante justice” novels. A woman who suffered horrific abuse as a child becomes a hardened killer as an adult who avenges crime victims by killing their victimizers. My favorite of those is Taylor Stevens’ Vanessa Michael Munroe. Livia Lone struck me as an attempt to blend Munroe with Barry Eisler's professional killer, John Rain. Unfortunately, Lone isn’t as interesting as either Munroe or Rain. In fact, Livia Lone (speaking of either the character or the book) is predictable, too often boring, and way over-the-top.

Livia Lone is a cop, but in her off-duty time she murders rapists. That hobby lets her kill time while she waits for her true prey to be released from prison. Timothy Tyler was once her captor, and she wants him to tell her what happened to her sister after they were both trafficked as children from Thailand. Livia’s backstory is told in chapters that alternate with the present day.

The chapters set in the past explain how Livia came to be the person she is. Barry Eisler describes (in scenes that deliberately avoid being too graphic) sexual abuse by her captors and then by the influential American who adopts her. Contrasted with the evil adults who abused Livia are good adults who are kind to Livia. Livia’s backstory comes across as manipulative rather than honest, and characters from her past seem to exist only to make the reader cheer or boo.

In the present, Livia is a police detective specializing in sex crimes, particularly those involving children. Livia is on a crusade. That’s a bad quality in a real cop because crusades impair objectivity, but it’s also a bad quality in a fictional cop because crusaders do not tend to have multi-faceted personalities. That’s the novel’s biggest problem.

Nothing about Livia is surprising. Her life follows a blueprint. She is the icon of an abused child who overcomes her past by empowering herself. The only thing unique or interesting about Livia is that she conflates killing bad people with sexual bliss.

Other characters suffer from the same one-dimensionality. Livia’s classmate, his father, and a cop who eventually becomes involved in her life are such exemplars of good they should be wearing halos. Villainous characters are exemplars of pure evil. That’s common in thrillers (many readers seem to like a clear dichotomy between good and evil) but the failure to reflect the real world keeps me from recommending the novel to readers who are looking for something that might make them think.

With the exception of a few good people, every male Livia knows is a rapist or a child molester. Other than Livia, nearly every female is a victim, and they all agree that murdering victimizers is the best kind of justice. It’s enough to make me give up on the human race.

To give the story some action, Eisler has Lone confronting an attacker from time to time, but the scenes are so contrived that they do nothing to change the story’s predictable nature. Some of the abuse visited upon victims (but not Livia, because readers wouldn’t like that) is taken so far over-the-top that I just couldn’t believe any of it.

As I mentioned, the only interesting aspect of Livia is her kinky sexuality, even though I didn’t believe a moment of it. Oddly, Livia needs to get rough with a guy before she can enjoy sex with him. Of course, if a guy needs to get rough with her in order to enjoy sex, she kills him (which in itself is a kind of a sexual experience for her). The double standard would be an interesting character trait if it were acknowledged and explored, but like anything else that might give complexity to the story, it’s just ignored. Still, Livia’s kink is the only interesting aspect of her personality. People who feel justified about being a serial killer should be interesting, but Livia isn’t.

I’m disappointed that Livia Lone isn’t a better, deeper book. It is written in prose that flows smoothly and, while it could have been much tighter, the story moves at a reasonable pace. Many of Eisler’s fans will like this new series despite (or perhaps because of) its lack of nuance. I have no problem with that, but I don’t plan to read another one in this series and I can’t recommend this one. It gets a big ho-hum from me.

NOT RECOMMENDED

The God's Eye View by Barry Eisler

Published by Thomas & Mercer on February 2, 2016

In the wake of the Snowden revelations, The God’s Eye View serves up a timely story about an NSA director with a god complex who uses a vast and secret network of surveillance technology to spy on anyone he deems a security threat -- including Americans and particularly reporters and bloggers who pose a threat to his own job security. The NSA surveillance systems are so compartmentalized that, as was his intent, only the director understands the big picture. He looks forward to the day when parents can be manipulated into implanting microchips in their children as an anti-kidnapping device, enabling the NSA to track everyone who receives the chip. And like all government officials who want to spy on Americans, he justifies his actions with the belief that the only people who want privacy are those who are up to no good.

The title refers to an NSA intelligence gathering program that is even more extensive (and illegal) than Snowden’s revelations. When a leak of information concerning that program leads to an extreme response, an NSA analyst becomes concerned that the agency is taking it upon itself to dispose of inconvenient Americans.

Barry Eisler has fun describing how unelected government officials make decisions that are not theirs to make, then sell the public on those decisions by manipulating the media. He understands how easy it is for government officials to seduce the media and how buzz words like “national security” can be used to conceal nefarious intentions.

A couple of strong characters are the key to the novel’s success. Eisler creates a ruthless killer who happens to be deaf, gives him a detailed background, and humanizes him in a way that makes him sympathetic (if you ignore the fact that he’s a ruthless killer). Of course, Eisler honed the craft of humanizing assassins in his John Rain novels, and he puts that talent to good use here. The NSA director and his second assassin are so vile as to be cartoonish, but the female analyst and her deaf son are, if not deep, at least recognizable as real people. The conflicts that the analyst and the deaf killer both feel between loyalty to an employer and loyalty to the truth give the novel its heart.

The story follows an unsurprising course leading to a resolution that is largely predictable. Still, the story would probably have been disappointing if it had not resolved as expected. There are times when Eisler’s prose feels a bit rushed, but most of the time his writing style is fine.

Eisler appends a number of sources for those who want more information about the government's abuses of surveillance as well as its abuses of people who make internal complaints about illegal surveillance. It’s a little late in the day for a book like this to be lauded as a cautionary tale, but it is always good to read novels that stand as a counterpoint to simplistic novels that view privacy as a quaint notion that just gets in the way of slaughtering terrorists.

RECOMMENDED

Graveyard of Memories by Barry Eisler

Published by Thomas & Mercer on February 11, 2014

John Rain thinks back to 1972 when, at the age of twenty, he was a bagman for the CIA in Tokyo (a city Barry Eisler paints in vivid colors). Rain's violent reaction to violent circumstances places his life in danger and the only way to remedy his plight (and to earn the continued backing of his CIA handler) is to carry out a difficult assassination of a prominent Japanese politician. Hence begins Rain's life as a professional killer.

It's interesting to contrast the younger Rain, reckless and arrogant, with the mindful man that he becomes later in life (as chronicled in earlier novels in the John Rain series). The younger Rain, if not quite dismissive of morality, is still working out his own code of honor. He is just starting to learn the value of ancient Japanese rituals. He's also starting to learn the tradecraft that will keep him alive in a dangerous profession. He has not yet "come to grips with that ever-present weight" that becomes more burdensome with age (particularly if you spend a lot of your time killing people).

True to form, Eisler makes John Rain a likable guy, which is why readers buy John Rain books even though his profession is less than admirable. It's a neat trick to turn a killer into a sympathetic character. In Graveyard of Memories, Eisler builds empathy for Rain by making him awkward and shy and improbably sensitive in his interaction with a young woman in a wheelchair to whom he is attracted. This is an odd love story, but it works.

As is typical of a Rain novel, the plot is intricate without becoming convoluted. Rain suspects he is being manipulated and possibly double-crossed, but he isn't sure who is pulling the strings. The story eventually focuses on his effort to answer that question. Toward the end, Eisler deftly ties the plot into real-world corporate and CIA scandals. But it isn't so much the plot that drew me into this novel as the characterization of John Rain. It was a refreshing change from the norm to read about a thriller character who realizes that he needs to become wiser. I've enjoyed other Rain novels but this one is my new favorite, simply because it adds new and credible dimensions to a complex character.

RECOMMENDED

Rain Fall by Barry Eisler

First published in 2002

Some readers like a novel only if they admire its characters. Others like a novel only if the protagonist is morally pure or at least achieves redemption by the novel's end. Those readers should bypass Rain Fall. I'm not one of those readers. I recommend Rain Fall to thriller fans who enjoy a strong plot, interesting characters, and fast moving action.

I disagree with the Amazon reviewer who wrote that John Rain is "a heartless thug that enjoys killing people for no reason." I found no evidence in the novel to support that claim. Rain is a professional killer, remorseless to be sure, but nothing in the text suggests his enjoyment of killing. His nightmarish memories of his service in Vietnam imply otherwise. He doesn't kill for "no reason"; he kills for money or to protect himself. And he certainly isn't heartless, given that the plot revolves around Rain's desire to protect a woman from harm despite his fear that helping her will compromise his anonymity. (Of course, I also disagree with the reviewer who argued that a reader must "have testosterone induced dementia, & an anti-social personality disorder laced with narcissistic traits" to enjoy the novel. With all due respect, it's possible for a well-balanced reader to enjoy escapist fiction even if the reader wouldn't want to have lunch with the protagonist.)

Barry Eisler's writing style is far from Shakespearean, but he's a capable writer. He crafts an intriguing, fast moving story, and creates a strong sense of place as he transports the reader to a vibrant, lively Tokyo. John Rain is a complex, multi-dimensional character. Still, the novel isn't without its problems: a tussle between Rain and the main female character turns into sex (trite); Rain is haunted by his service as a clandestine warrior in Vietnam (trite); Rain's helper conveniently has extraordinary computer hacking skills (way trite); Rain is up against a misbehaving CIA agent (trite but always a welcome addition to a thriller). Part of Rain's backstory seems like it was lifted from Apocalypse Now, although another part gives an interesting twist to a familiar episode from the Vietnam War. My knock on the novel, then, is that too much of it is familiar, unimaginative, reminiscent of stories we've seen or heard before. The theme of corruption in Japan, however, was fresh and fascinating.

On the whole, Rain Fall isn't a bad effort for a first novel. It's easy, fun, rainy afternoon reading.

RECOMMENDED