Khaleel Datay's Blog - Posts Tagged "barry-eisler"

Winner Take All by Barry Eisler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was the first of Barry Eisler's novels that I read under the old title of Choke Point. With a preference for novels in the first person, I took an immediate liking to the half American and half Japanese John Rain character. A contract killer with a conscience, Rain is former army, former CIA, and a specialist in making his killings look like deaths from natural causes.Rain hankers for the quiet life but is always drawn back into his former life for one last assassination. Tormented by atrocities he was part of in the army, he has to return to South East Asia for an assignment. He meets the beautiful but deadly Israeli agent, Delilah, in the middle of carrying out the job and also teams up with an old friend in army sniper, Dox. I particularly enjoyed the great feel of the Asian culture and locations that Rain revels in.An expert in Judo and other martial arts, Rain is equally adept at taking out the bad guys with his bare hands as he is with employing high tech gadgets to do his surveillance. Although Rain is a cold hearted killer you cant help liking the character and rooting for him. Himself former CIA and an attorney, Eisler brings us a cerebral but brutal killer that's definitely more than the one dimensional cardboard characters dished up by others in this genre.



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