Book Review: ZERO SUM by Barry Eisler

ZERO SUM by Barry Eisler ( Thomas & Mercer, June 2017) Hardcover, 277 pages. ISBN # 9781477824481

 Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .

    Returning to Tokyo in 1982 after a decade of mercenary work in the Philippines, a young John Rain learns that the killing business is now controlled by Victor, a half-Russian, half-Japanese sociopath who has ruthlessly eliminated all potential challengers. 

Victor gives Rain a choice: kill a government minister or die a grisly death. But the best route to the minister is through his gorgeous Italian wife, Maria, a route that puts Rain on a collision course not only with Victor but with the shadowy forces behind the Russian’s rise to dominance—and the longings of Rain’s own conflicted heart.

It’s a battle between kingpin and newcomer, master and apprentice, a zero-sum contest that can only end with one man dead and the other the world’s foremost assassin.

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     This was hard to put down. Eisler thoroughly immerses the reader in the world of the professional assassin guiding us through John Rain's observations and learning lessons as he experiences them. I really appreciate the way that Eisler choreographs his close combat fight scenes. His descriptions of the background and 1980's Tokyo are well done. 

     This was only the second book in the John Rain series that I have read, and a long time between them. I read the first one, HARD RAIN, shortly after the initial release. It was not difficult at all to catch up, since this is a prequel of sorts detailing how Rain learned from his experience and became even better at his brutal and violent profession. Still, he has a heart and a keen sense of how behind-the-scenes politics works and this makes him more than a cardboard cut-out of a character. 

     I was reminded of that first novel, as Rain seems to fall hard for women only to reluctantly have to end relationships because of the dangerous connections. It happens again here. 

     I'll probably be on the lookout now for more John Rain novels. This was a good one.